{"id":73441,"date":"2023-10-02T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T11:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=73441"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:24","slug":"tsr-dodge-srt-driver-hagan-banks-big-win-at-nhra-midwest-nationals-teammate-pruett-races-to-runner-up-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/10\/tsr-dodge-srt-driver-hagan-banks-big-win-at-nhra-midwest-nationals-teammate-pruett-races-to-runner-up-finish.html","title":{"rendered":"TSR Dodge\/\/SRT®<\/sup> Driver Hagan Banks Big Win at NHRA Midwest Nationals, Teammate Pruett Races to Runner-up Finish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the race shop this week in Brownsburg, Ind., the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Nitro teams made a decision to become more aggressive in the final four races in the NHRA Camping World drag racing series. That theory proved successful this weekend at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, with Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> racers Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett<\/a> racing to an event win and runner-up finish, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After\nlosing races by inches at the Reading and Charlotte events the past two weeks,\nTSR Dodge\/\/SRT drivers Hagan and Pruett made their presence known for the\ncoveted points championships with sensational performances in the hot\ntemperatures and a tricky track surface at the World Wide Technology Raceway\ndrag strip near St. Louis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Hagan\nand his Dickie Venables-led crew, the NHRA Midwest Nationals was an important\nround in the six-race \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d with the driver of the\nTSR American Rebel Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car knowing a victory Sunday would\nput him back in the chase for his fourth NHRA World title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After\nqualifying fifth in the 16-car field, Hagan drove his 11,000-horspower\nDodge\/\/SRT Hellcat past Alexis DeJoria, John Force and Bob Tasca III in early\nrounds before facing reigning World Champion Ron Capps in the final. Hagan\nposted the best reaction time of the day (0.029) to leave the starting line\nahead of Capps and was never headed with a winning 3.991 run to Capps\u2019 4.025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan\u2019s\nvictory was his 48th career NHRA Funny Car win and vaulted him to just 13\npoints behind the points leader as the series travels to the Texas Motorplex on\nOct. 13-15 for the Texas NHRA Fallnationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted\nto be aggressive going into these last four events,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cDickie and I\nhad a long talk about our plans to run for the championship and he said, \u2018I\nneed you to be great on the starting line,\u2019 and I said to him, \u2018I need you to\nbe more aggressive with the race car.\u2019 We are working hand and hand, and it\nworked well today. I wanted Leah to get a win today too, for a TSR double. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMan, we\nare back in this thing for the championship, just 13 points back with third\nraces to go. I know we are capable as a team to win another title. Beating Ron\nCapps in the final was big for us. I have a lot for respect for Ron, Guido\n(Dean Antonelli, crew chief) and that team. And beating them is a big win for\nus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venables\nknew the Midwest Nationals race was a critical stop for the TSR team and a win\nwas almost mandatory to get back in the World Championship fight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew\ncoming here that we needed a win,\u201d said Venables. \u201cIt was a very tricky track\nhere this weekend and we did a great job managing it. Hagan did a super job all\nweekend driving, and I can\u2019t say enough about the guys who work on this car.\nThey work their hearts out and give us a flawless setup every round. We are\nexcited with this win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pruett, the\nTop Fuel winner in the NHRA Summit Nationals in June, made her fourth final\nround appearance of the year and secured victories Sunday over Shawn Langdon,\npoint leader Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence in the early rounds before facing\nClay Millican in the final. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving the\nTSR Code 3 Associates Dodge\/\/SRT Top Fuel dragster, Pruett posted a 3.775 to\nMillican\u2019s 3.758 for the runner-up position. With a strong showing Sunday,\nPruett jumped to second in the NHRA Camping World Top Fuel points standings\nbehind Kalitta with three races remaining in the 21-event national tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat an incredible and solid weekend for our team, not only\nmaking points progress overall, but we\u2019ve had the most reactive car to our\ntune-up changes we\u2019ve had all season,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cIt was a wild day starting\noff with round one and the win over (Shawn) Langdon. That was a big second\nround win with Doug Kalitta, the points leader. Going into the semifinals, we\ndid not have lane choice and Steve (Torrence) put us over there in the left\nlane. I\u2019m extremely proud of this team. The crew\u2019s work ethic has been\nmaintained throughout this whole season and that shows the attention to detail\nof the car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texas\nNHRA Fallnationals schedule includes two nitro qualifying sessions on Friday,\nOct. 13, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. CDT and two nitro qualifying rounds on Saturday,\nOct. 14, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. CDT. The final eliminations will get underway on\nSunday, Oct. 15, at 12 p.m. CDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox Sports 1 telecasts for the Texas NHRA Fallnationals will take place Sunday, Oct. 15, with the qualifying show at 1 p.m. EDT. The final eliminations will be televised on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m. EDT.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram<\/strong>
The\u00a0@DodgeMoparMotorsports<\/a>\u00a0Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge\/\/SRT Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers, competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the race shop this week in Brownsburg, Ind., the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Nitro teams made a decision to become more aggressive in the final four races in the NHRA Camping World drag racing series. That theory proved successful this weekend at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, with Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae racers Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett racing to an event win and runner-up finish, respectively. After losing races by inches at the Reading and Charlotte events the past two weeks, TSR Dodge\/\/SRT drivers Hagan and Pruett made their presence known for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":73446,"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-73441","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\/10\/NHRAStLouis_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/NHRAStLouis_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\/73441"}],"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=73441"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73459,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73441\/revisions\/73459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}