{"id":70495,"date":"2023-05-22T06:58:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=70495"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:49","slug":"hard-work-with-hagans-rebuilt-dodge-funny-car-just-misses-in-tricky-conditions-at-gerber-route-66-nationals-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/05\/hard-work-with-hagans-rebuilt-dodge-funny-car-just-misses-in-tricky-conditions-at-gerber-route-66-nationals-sunday.html","title":{"rendered":"Hard Work With Hagan\u2019s Rebuilt Dodge Funny Car Just Misses In Tricky Conditions at Gerber Route 66 Nationals Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It was a tough three weeks for the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) team with the rebuilding of Matt Hagan\u2019s Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Funny Car after the Charlotte incident into the catch netting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having\nthe first eight feet of the Funny Car chassis replaced at a local Brownsburg,\nIndiana repair shop, Hagan, the winner of three 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag\nRacing Series national events, tested well before this weekend\u2019s NHRA Gerber\nRoute 66 Nationals and the Dickie Venables-led crew was prepared for the return\nto the Illinois drag strip south of Chicago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately,\nafter qualifying fourth in the 16-car field, Hagan\u2019s Funny Car lost traction in\nthe first round of eliminations Sunday in tricky track conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite\nthe first-round loss, Hagan maintains the top position in the current NHRA\nFunny Car point standings as the tour moves to the NHRA New England Nationals\nin Epping, New Hampshire, on June 2-4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had two tough races in a row with first-round losses\n(Charlotte and Joliet),\u201d said Hagan. \u201cIt is not a representation of what I feel\nlike this team is or the level we\u2019re at. It didn\u2019t help that I put the car in\nthe sand in Charlotte and we had to put a new front half of the car. At the end\nof the day, I know what we are capable of and isn\u2019t a reflection of what\nhappened today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a good showing on our end this weekend for Dodge\nand Direct Connection. Epping is where we\u2019ve won four races. This weekend was\ntough because my guys have put in a lot of work the last couple weeks with the\nnew front half of the car. We\u2019ll hit the reset button and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hagan\u2019s TSR teammate, Leah Pruett, advanced her Direct Connection\nTop Fuel dragster to the second round at the Route 66 Nationals with a\nfirst-round win over four-time NHRA series champion Steve Torrance. However,\nPruett\u2019s machine lost traction at half-track in round two and lost the race to\nlocal driver T.J. Zizzo in the first NHRA national event at the Route 66\nRaceway since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the second-round loss, Pruett maintained her top-five spot\nin the NHRA Top Fuel standings as the Arizona driver heads to New Hampshire in\ntwo weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf there was one word to describe this Dodge Direct Connection\nteam and our experience at Route 66 Raceway, it\u2019s adaptability,\u201d said Pruett.\n\u201cComing into this race, it\u2019s a lot different having 21 hard-hitting cars on a\nnew racetrack with new conditions. By qualifying ninth, on the other side of\nthe field for the first time this season, it disrupted our qualifying average\n(in top-five). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe committed to a new tune-up program going into Charlotte last\nrace. We have very few runs with it and are continuing to learn in these\nvarious conditions. It\u2019s very science and math-based developed by our crew\nchiefs. Leaving here strong in points has everything to do with being\nconsistent and making it down the racetrack when other cars have not. We\u2019re\nprepared now with Epping around the corner.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cruz\nPedregon qualified second with his Snap-On Tools Dodge\/\/ SRT Hellcat at 3.8889,\ntrailing only Robert Hight\u2019s pole time of 3.831. Pedregon reached the second round\nin Funny Car eliminations Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a tough three weeks for the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) team with the rebuilding of Matt Hagan\u2019s Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Hellcat Funny Car after the Charlotte incident into the catch netting. Having the first eight feet of the Funny Car chassis replaced at a local Brownsburg, Indiana repair shop, Hagan, the winner of three 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series national events, tested well before this weekend\u2019s NHRA Gerber Route 66 Nationals and the Dickie Venables-led crew was prepared for the return to the Illinois drag strip [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":70493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[615,2992],"class_list":["post-70495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HaganRoute66_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HaganRoute66_Social.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\/70495"}],"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=70495"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70500,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70495\/revisions\/70500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}