{"id":73266,"date":"2023-09-25T06:39:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T10:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=73266"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:25","slug":"hagan-pruett-advance-in-nhra-carolina-nationals-to-semifinals-both-set-in-top-4-in-nhra-countdown-championship-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/09\/hagan-pruett-advance-in-nhra-carolina-nationals-to-semifinals-both-set-in-top-4-in-nhra-countdown-championship-points.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagan, Pruett Advance in NHRA Carolina Nationals to Semifinals, Both Set in Top 4 in NHRA \u201cCountdown\u201d Championship Points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drag racing\nis the fastest motorsport in the world with 335 miles per hour speeds. But it\nis also one of the closest in motorsports with victories by inches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the\nsecond consecutive week in the NHRA Camping World drag racing series, Tony\nStewart Racing (TSR) drivers Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett looked to be on the\npath to victory lane Sunday in the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway.\nBut, for the second consecutive week, both racers were on the wrong end of the\nbattles by inches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan, who\nposted a track record Friday in qualifying with a 3.825, drove his Johnson\nHorsepower Garage Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat to sensational times throughout the weekend\nincluding a 3.828, 3.841 and 3.868 in the opening round victory against John\nSmith. He defeated Tim Wilkerson in the second round before taking on Bob Tasca\nIII in the semifinal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In that\nmatchup, Hagan cut a tremendous 0.054 starting line light and held the\nadvantage in the first 800 feet before losing by inches (0.006 seconds) at the\nfinish line with a 3.953 to Tasca\u2019s 3.935. Despite the loss, Hagan advanced to\nthe No. 3 position in the NHRA Championship \u201cCountdown\u201d Funny Car points\nstandings with the next event set for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in NHRA Midwest Nationals\nin Madison, Ill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Countdown is tough,\nand everyone is bringing all that they have all the time,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cIn the\nlast two races, we haven\u2019t even lost by a hundredth of a second, it\u2019s been a\nthousandth of a second. That\u2019s tight drag racing, but we have to be on the\nother side of it. We are running against a lot of good cars, so there are no\ngimme\u2019s. We\u2019re still there and we\u2019re better than what we\u2019re showing. We have\nfour races left to go out and fight and dig. We\u2019ll be just fine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pruett,\ndriving the TSR Rinnai\/Dodge\/\/SRT Top Fuel dragster, put in a strong\nperformance in eliminations with her second straight semifinals finish, taking\nout Top Fuel points contenders Justin Ashley and Antron Brown with runs of\n3.708 and 3.829 in hot track conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nsemifinals, Pruett had to face eventual race winner Doug Kalitta, who nipped\nLeah last week in the semis at Maple Grove, Pa. This contest was another\nthriller with Kalitta winning with a 3.745 to Pruett\u2019s 3.778. With her\nsemifinals finish, Pruett moved to fourth in the current NHRA \u201cCountdown\u201d Top\nFuel points standings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a\nperformance-enhanced weekend overall for the Rinnai\/Dodge\/\/SRT team with a\nstellar completion rate on Sunday,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cWe went for low (elapsed\ntime) on Saturday in qualifying after the rain and it didn\u2019t stick (in the\ncharts). What did stick was the rate of adjustments Neal (Strausbaugh \u2013 crew\nchief) and Mike (Domagala \u2013 co-crew chief) made given last-minute lane swap\nsituations. Appropriating our power to the racetrack in stages has been key.\nEliminating Justin Ashley first round was pivotal. Everyone is always focused\non points. There is nothing like being, staying, and moving up when it counts.\nMy guys have been stellar throughout, and I am excited to excel at St. Louis.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHRA Midwest Nationals event schedule includes one nitro qualifying session on Friday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. CDT and two nitro qualifying rounds on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. CDT. The final eliminations will get underway on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m. CDT. The Fox Sports 1 telecasts for the NHRA Midwest Nationals will take place Friday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. EDT with qualifying round 1 and qualifying round 2 on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 2 p.m. EDT.  The final eliminations will be televised on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 3 p.m. EDT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more Dodge motorsports action, follow @DodgeMoparMotorsports<\/a> on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drag racing is the fastest motorsport in the world with 335 miles per hour speeds. But it is also one of the closest in motorsports with victories by inches. For the second consecutive week in the NHRA Camping World drag racing series, Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) drivers Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett looked to be on the path to victory lane Sunday in the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway. But, for the second consecutive week, both racers were on the wrong end of the battles by inches. Hagan, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":73261,"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-73266","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\/HaganCharlotte_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/HaganCharlotte_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\/73266"}],"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=73266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73269,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73266\/revisions\/73269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}