{"id":72806,"date":"2023-09-05T06:51:45","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T10:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=72806"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:26","slug":"hagan-pruett-advance-to-second-round-monday-at-indianapolis-dodge-srt-direct-connection-drivers-set-in-countdown-2nd-4th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/09\/hagan-pruett-advance-to-second-round-monday-at-indianapolis-dodge-srt-direct-connection-drivers-set-in-countdown-2nd-4th.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan, Pruett Advance to Second Round Monday at Indianapolis; Dodge\/\/SRT®<\/sup> Direct Connection Drivers Set in \u201cCountdown\u201d 2nd & 4th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The tricky\ntrack conditions at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals made it\ndifficult for the Top Fuel and Funny Car drivers and crews Monday in the 69th<\/sup>\nedition of the \u201cBig Go\u201d at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battling\nthe higher temperatures and humid air, the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) drivers,\nLeah Pruett and Matt Hagan, had impressive first round victories Monday in the\nTop Fuel and Funny Car eliminations, but both Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Direct Connection\nracers lost traction in the second-round action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hagan, the\ncurrent track record holder in the TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat,\ndefeated Alex Laughlin in Monday\u2019s opening round with a strong 3.914 to\nLaughlin\u2019s 6.157 as the track surface became more difficult with additional\nheat in the afternoon. Hagan, the four-time 2023 NHRA national event winner,\nand his second-round opponent, Ron Capps, saw their cars lose traction early in\ntheir runs. But Capps clicked the win light first with a 4.582 to Hagan\u2019s\n5.146. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the\nsecond-round defeat, Hagan trails Capps by just 24 points entering the \u201cNHRA\nCountdown to the Championship\u201d which begins with the next event at Reading,\nPa., on Sept. 15-17. The top-ten in professional points were locked into the\n\u201cCountdown\u201d in the final six NHRA Camping World Series races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cLeaving the Big Go, we enter the\n\u2018Countdown to the Championship\u2019 in the second spot,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cYou can win\nthe championship from anywhere. You have to be in it to win it. We have six\nraces left, so I really want to park this Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat\nFunny Car back in the winner\u2019s circle. We have to win two or three of these\nraces to be a real title contender. It was a productive weekend as far as\nmaking good runs in the heat. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t have lane choice in the\nsecond round and the left lane was a bit tricky. We\u2019ll go into the next race\nwith guns blazing. Reading is always a fast racetrack, so we will be ready that\none.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pruett, the\nSummit Nationals Top Fuel winner this year, recorded a close first round win in\nher Dodge\/\/SRT Direct Connection dragster over Austin Prock with a 3.747 to\nProck\u2019s 3.777. And she faced current NHRA Top Fuel point leader Justin Ashley,\nwho Pruett defeated in her last two matchups at Norwalk, Ohio, and Brainerd,\nMinn., in the second round Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nPruett\u2019s mount lost traction early in the run and Ashley advanced to the\nsemi-finals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett\u2019s\nfirst round victory moved her to the No. 4 position in the Top Fuel points\nstandings, as Leah will start 58 points behind leader Ashley when the\n\u201cCountdown\u201d begins at Reading, Pa., in two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe definitely did not leave any efforts on the table to win\nthe world\u2019s longest and most prestigious drag race event, the Dodge Power\nBrokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, \u201csaid Pruett. \u201cMonday morning began with faith\nthat any issues were solved, and tune-up was on point with one of the most\nmeaningful rounds of the year. Seeing Brittany (Force) go out first round meant\nour countdown placement was directly in our hands. Those are the unique type of\nnerves that Indy serves. We\u2019re not letting our (second-round) loss stop our\nmomentum. Racing Indy is the hardest feat of our crew. We\u2019re taking it as\nconditioning for the most important chapter of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the\n\u201cCountdown\u201d now in place, both Hagan and Pruett are anxious for the three-race\nNHRA national event swing late in September with events at Reading, Pa.,\nCharlotte, N.C., and St. Louis, Mo. Hagan, a 47-time NHRA national event\nwinner, has NHRA race victories at all three races. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the Dodge HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Challenge at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, Steve Comella of Rochester, N.Y., captured his third consecutive title Friday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park by driving his 1968 Barracuda to the final round win over Jimmy Daniels with a final round time of 8.331 to Daniels\u2019 8.395.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe last eight years, Daniels and Comella have practically owned the Dodge HEMI\nChallenge as they have combined to win seven of the last eight specialty events\nheld each year at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indy. Daniels\nwon four straight titles from 2016-19, while Comella earned back-to-back titles\nin 2021-22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\nwork all year to win this prize for one day,\u201d said Comella, who won $15,000. \u201cIt’s\nbeen 364 days since the last win at this race but now let’s see how many times\nwe can do it.  We’re going to enjoy it tonight and tomorrow we’ll start\nprepping for next year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tricky track conditions at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals made it difficult for the Top Fuel and Funny Car drivers and crews Monday in the 69th edition of the \u201cBig Go\u201d at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Battling the higher temperatures and humid air, the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) drivers, Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan, had impressive first round victories Monday in the Top Fuel and Funny Car eliminations, but both Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Direct Connection racers lost traction in the second-round action. Hagan, the current track record holder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":72808,"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-72806","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\/2023\/09\/NHRAUSNationals_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NHRAUSNationals_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\/72806"}],"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=72806"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72817,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72806\/revisions\/72817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}