{"id":81336,"date":"2024-09-16T09:32:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=81336"},"modified":"2024-09-16T09:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:32:56","slug":"stewart-goes-to-top-fuel-quarterfinals-in-nhra-reading-event-hagan-out-early-in-funny-car-as-nhra-countdown-gets-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2024\/09\/stewart-goes-to-top-fuel-quarterfinals-in-nhra-reading-event-hagan-out-early-in-funny-car-as-nhra-countdown-gets-underway.html","title":{"rendered":"Stewart Goes to Top Fuel Quarterfinals in NHRA Reading Event, Hagan Out Early in Funny Car as NHRA \u201cCountdown\u201d Gets Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After another strong qualifying effort, Top Fuel \u201crookie\u201d Tony Stewart, a champion in NASCAR, IndyCar and USAC competition, drove his Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Rinnai Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae dragster to the quarterfinals Sunday at the NHRA Reading event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After campaigning in the first 14 races to secure a Top Ten points position for the NHRA \u201cCountdown,\u201d both Stewart and his TSR teammate Hagan came through qualifying with stout showings, as the NASCAR Hall of Famer took the TSR Dodge\/\/SRT Top Fuel dragster to fourth while the four-time World Funny Car Champion drove his TSR Operation Healing Forces Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat car to sixth in the 16-car field.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stewart continued his three-race stretch of solid qualifying runs with another top four starting spot at 3.741 entering Sunday\u2019s final eliminations, while Hagan, a former Maple Grove NHRA national race winner, recorded a strong 3.897 pass for sixth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart, who continues to have one of the best reaction times in the Top Fuel division, proved it in round one of eliminations Sunday when he matched up against Billy Torrence. Tony left the starting line first and never looked back with a winning showing to advance to the quarterfinals against former World Champion Shawn Langdon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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With the six NHRA \u201cCountdown\u201d races remaining, gaining valuable points was the mission for Stewart and his TSR Dodge\/\/SRT Top Fuel squad led by Neal Strausbaugh (crew chief), Mike Domagala (co-crew chief) and Ryan McGilvry (car chief), as the Brownsburg, Ind.-based operation fought some difficult track conditions with hotter temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against Langdon in round two, Stewart was quickest off the line over the veteran Top Fuel racer and both drivers had their nitro-burning machines lose traction just off the line. Both racers were on and off the throttle, but Langdon took the win with a 4.076 to Stewart\u2019s 4.351. The quarterfinal finish kept Stewart in seventh in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel standings with the \u201cCountdown\u201d now headed to Charlotte, N.C., for the annual NHRA betway Carolina Nationals on Sept. 20-22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to pedal the car the first round, which I\u2019m not sure I do well,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cI think the team needs to tell you whether you did well. I got a lot of pats on the back when we got to the pit, so that made me feel good from the driver standpoint. I\u2019m really proud of Neal, Mike and the team. That\u2019s three races in a row we\u2019ve qualified inside the top four, so we\u2019re having good qualifying efforts. We\u2019re doing the right things, just need a little bit of luck to put the whole thing together on race day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Hagan, a previous NHRA national event winner at Maple Grove Raceway, won last year\u2019s series title with a robust \u201cCountdown\u201d performance, including two wins in the final four 2023 events. And his Dickie Venables-led TSR Funny Car team was ready for the fight on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Hagan had the toughest first round Funny Car matchup against former World Champion J.R. Todd, the No. 11 qualifier. Hagan had defeated Todd in the semifinals two races ago in Brainerd, Minn., and was seeking a repeat win over Todd Sunday at Maple Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Both drivers recorded stellar times in the race, but Todd was a little quicker off the starting line and scored a \u201choleshot\u201d victory with a 3.943 to Hagan\u2019s 3.934. Despite the early defeat, Hagan remains in the top five in the current NHRA Mission Funny Car points as he heads to Charlotte this weekend (Sept. 20-22). Hagan won the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte last May, one of his two 2024 NHRA victories, and collected his 50th<\/sup> career NHRA Funny Car national event win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a pretty tough weekend starting the \u2018Countdown\u2019 in Reading,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cWe obviously lost in the first round on a \u2018holeshot.\u2019 The driver didn\u2019t get the job done, so I have to get home and get back on the practice tree. We\u2019re working on running a little harder with the car and being more aggressive. So hopefully in the next five races, especially the two coming up, we can have some better luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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In addition, young Ida Zetterstr\u00f6m, the Top Fuel \u201crookie\u201d driver from Sweden, recorded her quickest time in just her third NHRA national event in the JCM Racing\/Dodge Top Fuel dragster with an impressive 3.745 in the opening round but lost to Langdon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of confidence in my team,\u201d said Zetterstr\u00f6m, \u201cWe\u2019re basically treating every pass as a test pass. We\u2019re changing things and we\u2019re working in the right direction. Obviously, we\u2019re not out here chasing a championship, we\u2019re out here to find consistency and be ready to chase a championship next year. We had a really tough competitor in Shawn Langdon. I was just starting to feel like I\u2019m coming back into it right now after just three races. I know what our team is capable of. I feel like by the end of this season, we should have a really good combination. Looking at our numbers from today is indicative of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHRA betway Carolina Nationals, round two of the six-race NHRA Mission \u201cCountdown,\u201d begins this Friday, Sept. 20, with nitro qualifying scheduled for 5 p.m. EDT and 7:30 p.m. EDT followed by Saturday, Sept. 21, qualifying at 1:30 p.m. EDT and 4 p.m. EDT. Final eliminations are set for 12 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 22.  Fox Sports 1 coverage of the NHRA betway Carolina Nationals will be televised on Friday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. EDT with qualifying rounds, and the final eliminations will be aired on FS1 at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After another strong qualifying effort, Top Fuel \u201crookie\u201d Tony Stewart, a champion in NASCAR, IndyCar and USAC competition, drove his Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Rinnai Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae dragster to the quarterfinals Sunday at the NHRA Reading event. After campaigning in the first 14 races to secure a Top Ten points position for the NHRA \u201cCountdown,\u201d both Stewart and his TSR teammate Hagan came through qualifying with stout showings, as the NASCAR Hall of Famer took the TSR Dodge\/\/SRT Top Fuel dragster to fourth while the four-time World Funny Car Champion drove […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":81331,"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-81336","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\/2024\/09\/StewartTopFuelFinals_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/StewartTopFuelFinals_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\/81336"}],"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=81336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81338,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81336\/revisions\/81338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}