Beckman Earns First No. 1 Qualifier of Season at U.S. Nationals, Leads Six Mopar-powered Dodge Charger NHRA Funny Car Drivers Into Elimination Rounds

September 1, 2019 , Indianapolis -  Mopar-powered Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car driver Jack Beckman raced to his first No. 1 qualifier position of season this weekend during the 65th Annual U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, leading a contingent of six Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers into Monday’s elimination rounds for the NHRA’s biggest race of the season.

Beckman and his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Dodge//SRT Mopar teammates Matt Hagan and Ron Capps earned positions inside the top-four and were joined in the field by fellow DSR teammate Tommy Johnson, Jr. and Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers Paul Lee and Cruz Pedregon.

Since qualifying began Friday night, the most consistent machine in the Funny Car class through the five sessions was Beckman’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. After posting a Friday night run of 3.875 seconds, the 2012 Funny Car world champion never relinquished the No.1 position, topping three of the five sessions and collecting 16 qualifying points. His run early Saturday evening of 3.861 earned Beckman the 25th No. 1 qualifier of his career. It was his second No. 1 at the U.S. Nationals, his first coming in 2015 setting up Beckman for his only U.S. Nationals crown.

Two-time world champion and 2016 U.S. Nationals winner Hagan made his best run of the weekend in the third qualifying session powering his Mopar-powered 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody to a lap of 3.874 to secure the second position. It’s the second time this season where he has qualified No. 2. The first came in Phoenix and he recorded the first of seven 2019 wins by Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers.

After earning his third NHRA Wally of the season two weeks ago in Brainerd, Capps followed the lead of Beckman making consistent runs throughout the five sessions and adding qualifying points in four of the five. He grabbed the fourth position on Monday’s elimination ladder with his run of 3.882 aboard the NAPA Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The 2016 Funny Car champion’s best Indy finish was a runner-up in 2017.

Johnson, Jr. is in the midst of a career season and his quest for a first U.S. Nationals win wasn’t as smooth as planned for the driver of the Riley’s Kids Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Through three rounds of qualifying, he was on the outside looking in, but his John Collins’ tuned Hellcat came through Sunday with a pair of runs, 3.909 and 3.912 seconds, to qualify in the 10th position.

Lee and Pedregon will race from the ninth and 12th spots, respectively.

Like Capps, DSR’s Leah Pritchett brings the momentum of winning in Brainerd to “The Big Go.” Pritchett, who’s best U.S. Nationals result was a semifinal run in 2017, began with a solid pass of 3.726 seconds at 325.22 mph Friday evening. Her run of 3.701 in session three was the best of weekend for the DSR HEMI-powered Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster.

Tune-in Info
Five hours of action from the U.S. Nationals will air on Monday, September 2, with coverage scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET for two hours before coverage switches over to FOX from 1 – 4 p.m. ET. For complete information, visit www.nhra.com

Dodge Garage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News
Fans can follow NHRA Dodge HEMI Challenge and NHRA U.S. Nationals coverage at Dodge Garage, the one-stop portal for Dodge//SRT and Mopar drag racing news. The site includes daily updates and access to an online racing HQ, news, events, galleries, available downloads and merchandise.

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram
The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel will share content capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers in action in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series.
 
Mopar Dodge//SRT Notes & Quotes
(best elapsed times below)

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 1, will face No. 16 Justin Schriefer
Friday: (3.875 seconds at 328.46 mph – Q1); Saturday: (3.861/330.07 – Q2), (3.878/331.94 – Q3); Sunday (3.911/326.40 – Q4), (3.875/335.23 – Q5)

“I don’t want to say that we’ve been perfect all weekend, but I think we have our Dodge Hellcat Funny Car as close to perfect as it’s been in a while. Tomorrow’s conditions should be different. I don’t know if we have a huge advantage if the sun is out and the track is hot. I think psychologically everyone on our Infinite Hero team is revved up. I think that is so important to set the tone that you know that you can be the best. Tomorrow is race day and I feel like you have to be flawless, because you never know if you are going to go out there and smoke the tires against the number 16 qualifier. If you do, you have to be ready to catch it. Tomorrow it’s not about ET slips, it’s about win lights. You don’t have to be good, you just have to be better than the car in the other lane.” 

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car
Qualified No. 2, will face No. 15 Bob Bode
Friday: (3.987 seconds at 287.84 mph – Q1); Saturday: (4.173/234.90 – Q2), (3.874/327.66 – Q3); Sunday (4.070/245.23 – Q4), (3.976/275.34 – Q5)

“I’m always just glad to be here racing at the Big Go. We’ve got a good race car, we’re coming off some solid finishes these last couple of races and I think we’ve got some momentum to do what we need to do. Right now, we’re still trying to dial-in the fuel curve on this car. We’ve been putting some pan pressure, cylinders out and things like that, but we’ll get all that addressed and I think we’ll have a really good race car tomorrow. Both lanes seem to be really nice and this MOPAR Hellcat Widebody is running really well.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 4, will face No. 13 Ray Martin
Friday: (3.882 seconds at 327.66 mph – Q1); Saturday: (4.206/221.13 – Q2), (3.896/329.18 – Q3); Sunday (3.891/328.22 – Q4), (3.891/329.10 – Q5)
 
“This is Indy. It’s so good to have a hot rod coming out of Brainerd. (Crew chief) Rahn Tobler and the NAPA AutoCare guys unloaded Friday and we made a great run. It really catapulted us to where we could go after low E.T. each session. It’s great putting two 3.89s up on Sunday going into race day. The conditions (today) kind of gave us a little inkling of what it’s going to be like on race day. I’m really looking forward to Labor Day.”

Tommy Johnson, Jr., Riley Kids Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 10, will face No. 7 Shawn Langdon
Friday: (4.368 seconds at 200.71 mph – Q1); Saturday: (7.01/88.35 – Q2), (4.376/197.83 – Q3); Sunday (3.909/319.82 – Q4), (3.912/324.90 – Q5)

“We’ve got our car back. We had some issues at the beginning of qualifying but now the race car is back and we’re going to be a tough team to beat tomorrow.”

Leah Pritchett, Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified No. 7, will face No. 10 Shawn Reed
Friday: (3.726 seconds at 325.22.84 mph – Q1); Saturday: (8.789/84.02 – Q2), (3.701/322.42 – Q3); Sunday (4.711/155.70 – Q4), (3.713/324.98 – Q5)

"Today was U.S. Nationals Saturday 2.0 with a little bit better results. We were second-low of Q5 and that’s great to have that data setting up for race day. The issues we had in qualifying were slight mechanical hiccups that we found a solution to. Conditions tomorrow will be warmer than what we’ve seen so far. We look forward to putting this frost-bitten blue Mopar Top Fuel dragster in the winner’s circle one round at a time. We have a lot of great momentum coming in from Brainerd. We have a fast hot rod, a driver on her game and a crew that’s hungry to win. We’re going to start Labor Day off putting in all the work.”

About Dodge//SRT
Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out in their own segments. Dodge is America’s performance brand and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.
 
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge, who founded the brand in 1914. Their influence continues today. For 2020, Dodge literally expands its high-performance Charger model lineup, adding a Widebody exterior to America’s only four-door muscle car. Powered by the 707-horsepower supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Hellcat V-8 engine, the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat maintains its reign as the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world.
 
The 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is possessed by the Demon. Its 797-horsepower supercharged HEMI® high-output engine makes it the most powerful, quickest and fastest muscle car, reaching 0-60 miles per hour (mph) in 3.4 seconds, and the fastest GT production car with a ¼-mile elapsed time (ET) of 10.8 seconds at 131 mph. It also reaches a new top speed of 203 mph.

Joining the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, with its more powerful 717-horsepower engine, and the Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody, featuring fender flares from the SRT Hellcat Widebody, which add 3.5 inches of width to the 485-horsepower Scat Pack’s standard body. Also new for 2019 is the Challenger R/T Scat Pak 1320 with exclusive drag strip technology from the iconic Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. The Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 is a drag-oriented, street-legal muscle car and a blank canvas for the serious grassroots drag racer. The 2019 Dodge Durango SRT, America’s fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV with a best-in-class tow rating of 8,700 lbs., completes the brand's performance lineup. These visceral performance models join a 2019 brand lineup that includes the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger — a showroom that offers performance at every price point.
 
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Mopar
Mopar is the global name for Stellantis genuine parts and authentic accessories.

A simple combination of the words MOtor and PARts, Mopar offers exceptional service, parts and customer-care. Born in 1937 as the name of a line of antifreeze products, Mopar has evolved over more than 85 years to represent both complete vehicle care and authentic performance for owners and enthusiasts worldwide.

Mopar made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era with performance parts to enhance speed and handling for both on-road and racing use. Later, Mopar  expanded to include technical service and customer support, and today integrates service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance customer and dealer support worldwide.

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