{"id":64616,"date":"2022-09-03T12:15:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T16:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=64616"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:18","slug":"comella-captures-second-consecutive-dodge-hemi-challenge-victory-at-68th-annual-dodge-power-brokers-nhra-u-s-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2022\/09\/comella-captures-second-consecutive-dodge-hemi-challenge-victory-at-68th-annual-dodge-power-brokers-nhra-u-s-nationals.html","title":{"rendered":"Comella Captures Second Consecutive Dodge HEMI®<\/sup> Challenge Victory at 68th Annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Steve Comella and his vintage 1968 Plymouth Barracuda dominated the Dodge HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Challenge by once again powering from the No. 1 qualifier position through eliminations to repeat as winner at the fan-favorite specialty race that showcases classic Super Stock 1968 Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> \u201cpackage\u201d cars in head-to-head battles at the 68th<\/sup> annual Dodge Power Brokers National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comella\u2019s drive to the winner\u2019s circle at Lucas Oil Indianapolis\nRaceway Park began by edging out Wednesday\u2019s provisional pole sitter Jim\nPancake\u2019s \u201868 Dodge Dart with his final qualifying run of 8.421-second at\n158.80 mph on the quarter mile track, beating his rival\u2019s (8.491 sec.\/157.89\nmph) quickest lap, to earn his second consecutive No. 1 qualifier position in\nthe 21st year of the longest-running, continuous, specialty race in NHRA\nhistory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After round wins over Tony DePillo, Richard Locker, Jim Daniels\nJr., Comella was paired with No. 8 seed Eldon Baum Jr. in the final\neliminations. Baum advanced to his first appearance in a Dodge HEMI Challenge\nfinal by turning on winlights against Doug Fazzolore, Benjamin Kimberly, and\nGary Wolkwitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final showdown, Comella took his \u201968 \u2018Cuda for the quickest\nrun of the event with a 8.407-second lap while his opponent launched his \u201868\nDodge Dart too quickly and triggered a red-light start that thwarted the\nattempt to dethrone the defending winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A two-time finalist in traditional NHRA Super Stock competition,\nComella was the 2020 Dodge HEMI Challenge runner-up to Stephen Yantus in an\nall-Cuda final round. In 2021 he followed up that performance with a pole\nposition and his first Dodge HEMI Challenge win, an exciting head-to-head\nbattle against four-time winner Jim Daniels Jr. (2016-2019), but felt that this\nyear\u2019s showing was a bit more satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI didn’t feel like last year was a very representative year, even\nthough [the car] was really fast and we won,” said Comella. “I just\nwanted to come in this year and kind of run the table and keep it smooth and\nrelaxed. It was important for us to do this this year, to repeat. With these\ncars there’s always an element of throwing a dice against the wall. I was very\ncomfortable all week with the car. I felt like we had a handle on it. I felt\nlike that before and then it won\u2019t go down the track. So I was cautiously\noptimistic all week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt’s right up there,\u201d said Comella when asked how he ranked his\nsecond Dodge HEMI Challenge victory in three consecutive final round\nappearances in terms of career highlights. \u201cI tried to play it cool like it was\njust okay to compete, but [winning] was something I really wanted to do really\nbad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Comella relished defending his HEMI-powered win, he was\nespecially pleased with the competition he encountered through nine consecutive\nrounds to earn it, particularly his head-to-head battles with Daniels. Friday\u2019s\nsemifinal pairing with Daniels was a rematch of last year\u2019s exciting final and\nsaw Comella lay down a solid 8.443-second lap to better Daniels\u2019 8.527-second\neffort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thoroughly enjoy racing him and his old man [2010 event winner\nJim Daniels Sr.],\u201d said Comella. \u201cThey are our friends and there is nothing\nbetter than racing him. I absolutely love it and I can\u2019t say enough nice things\nabout him. I think he’s a fantastic racer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to bragging rights as a two-time winner, Comella takes\nhome a $15,000 cash prize and a new-look, unique custom-made Dodge HEMI\nChallenge trophy created by Cold Hard Art\u2019s Tom Patsis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights of the Dodge HEMI Challenge parade and elimination\nrounds will be featured in FS1\u2019s Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals qualifying\nshow on Sunday, Sept. 4, from 1-3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Comella and his vintage 1968 Plymouth Barracuda dominated the Dodge HEMI\u00ae Challenge by once again powering from the No. 1 qualifier position through eliminations to repeat as winner at the fan-favorite specialty race that showcases classic Super Stock 1968 Mopar\u00ae \u201cpackage\u201d cars in head-to-head battles at the 68th annual Dodge Power Brokers National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals. Comella\u2019s drive to the winner\u2019s circle at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park began by edging out Wednesday\u2019s provisional pole sitter Jim Pancake\u2019s \u201868 Dodge Dart with his final qualifying run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":64615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,615],"class_list":["post-64616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/HEMIChallenge_Feature.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64616"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64622,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64616\/revisions\/64622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}