{"id":64883,"date":"2022-09-19T07:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=64883"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:18","slug":"hagan-wheels-dodge-power-brokers-funny-car-to-semifinal-performance-in-nhra-countdown-to-the-championship-kick-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2022\/09\/hagan-wheels-dodge-power-brokers-funny-car-to-semifinal-performance-in-nhra-countdown-to-the-championship-kick-off.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan Wheels Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car to Semifinal Performance  in NHRA \u2018Countdown to the Championship\u2019 Kick-off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) \u201cCountdown to the\nChampionship\u201d six-event playoff series opened with the 37th annual Pep Boys\nNHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pennsylvania, and three\nDodge\/\/SRT<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> supported entries ready to vie for the Camping World Drag Racing\nSeries\u2019 top honors in two nitro categories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis,\nTony Stewart Racing\u2019s Funny Car driver Matt Hagan closed out the regular season\nwith three wins, three runner-up finishes, five No. 1 qualifier awards, and\nwith the points reset for the playoffs, the three-time world champ officially\nbegan the Countdown ranked third in the Funny Car standings behind Robert Hight\nand Ron Capps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hagan got things started at Maple Grove Raceway by qualifying his\nDodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat fifth on the eliminations ladder with a\nsolid 3.906-second elapsed time run at 326.32 mph. On race day he drove his way\nthrough to the semifinals by recording round wins over No. 12 seed Jim Campbell\nand No. 4 qualifier Bob Tasca to face No. 1 qualifier Hight. The two semifinal\ncompetitors launched and battled closely until a loss of traction slowed\nHagan\u2019s progress and dashed any hope of advancing further.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hagan\u2019s eliminations performance at Reading put him and his HEMI<sup>\u00ae<\/sup>-powered Hellcat second in the playoff standings, 81 points behind event winner and category leader Hight with five races remaining to battle for the 2022 Funny Car World Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TSR\u2019s Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett, who earned a Wally trophy in\nthe regular season at the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals in Denver,\ngot her playoff run started at Reading aboard her Rayce Rudeen Foundation\nDodge\/\/SRT dragster from seventh place in the Countdown standings. In\nqualifying, Pruett improved her ride with each pass, added a valuable bonus\npoint with the third quickest run of the second qualifying session at 3.736\nseconds at 328.62 mph, and put herself tenth on the eliminations ladder with a\n3.734 second\/328.38 mph lap.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her opponent for the opening elimination round of the Countdown\nwas No. 7 qualifier Doug Kalitta but while the pair both had good starts,\nPruett saw her hopes of challenging for the round win go up in tire smoke. With\nthe results, Pruett finds herself tied with Kalitta for eighth in the Top Fuel\nchampionship standings, 107 markers behind playoff points leader Justin Ashley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fellow Dodge\/\/SRT driver Cruz Pedregon, a two-time Funny Car world\nchampion, is also in the playoff hunt and started off the weekend at Maple\nGrove Raceway seeded eighth in the Countdown. He drove his Snap-on Tools Dodge\nCharger SRT Hellcat to a best qualifying run of 3.931 seconds at 319.45 mph to\nput himself in the No. 8 seeded position for Sunday\u2019s competition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedregon turned on win lights in the opening round against No. 9\nseed Paul Lee with a 3.918 second elapsed time run at 326.40 mph to advance to\na quarterfinal meeting with No. 1 qualifier Hight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pair had identical reaction times of 0.085-seconds, but the\nCruz Pedregon Racing machine began to lose traction early in the run and was\nunable to continue to challenge. With the quarterfinal performance, Pedregon\nremains eighth in the playoff standings, 151 points behind the Funny Car points\nleader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NHRA \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d continues next weekend\nwith the second of six playoff series events, the Betway NHRA Carolina\nNationals, at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., Sept. 23-25. FS1 will air qualifying highlights on Friday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m.\nET and Sunday, Sept 25, at 2 a.m. ET, while race day coverage begins at 3 p.m.\nET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d six-event playoff series opened with the 37th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pennsylvania, and three Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae supported entries ready to vie for the Camping World Drag Racing Series\u2019 top honors in two nitro categories.&nbsp; Following the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Tony Stewart Racing\u2019s Funny Car driver Matt Hagan closed out the regular season with three wins, three runner-up finishes, five No. 1 qualifier awards, and with the points reset for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":64885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,615,2992],"class_list":["post-64883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/HaganReading_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\/64883"}],"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=64883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64887,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64883\/revisions\/64887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}