Matt Hagan Scores First Charger Hellcat Widebody Victory for Dodge//SRT at AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals

October 20, 2019 , Ennis, Texas -  Two-time NHRA Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan enhanced his love for Texas Sunday by scoring the first NHRA win by a 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Hellcat Funny Car. Hagan’s triumph in the 34th annual AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals was the 32nd of his career and third at the Texas Motorplex located outside of Dallas. It rekindled his chances for the 2019 Funny Car points championship.

Hagan knocked out three Countdown to the Championship playoff contenders behind the wheel of the Western Technical College Mopar CAP Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car of Don Schumacher Racing (DSR). The win marked the ninth time in 22 races this season where a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car came out victorious. With his first win in the Countdown, Hagan jumps from seventh to fourth in the championship standings with two races remaining.

“We were carrying the Western Tech and Mopar CAP colors on this Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car this weekend,” said Hagan. “We had a message for a lot of students Friday morning. Any time we can reach young kids it is a great thing. I have a few guys on my car that went through Western Tech, so to see the program come full circle is really awesome. I did my job today and my guys did their jobs today and that’s what happens when you put a good group of people together.”

Hagan was one of seven HEMI®-powered Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers that qualified for the 16-car Funny Car field. Jack Beckman reached the second round and remains second in the standings, while Ron Capps, who lost to Beckman in the opening round, holds the sixth position.

The route to Hagan’s fifth final of 2019 was loaded with stout competition. He started his day from the sixth position on the ladder and earned an opening round triumph over Blake Alexander with a pass of 3.903 seconds, Hagan matched that time exactly in the second round when he put reigning world champion J.R. Todd on the trailer for the weekend. Crew Chief Dickie Venables continued his masterpiece, helping Hagan run his best pass of the day, 3.900 seconds at 329.83 mph, in the semifinal to take down Robert Hight, who went red at the starting line.

In a rematch of the 2012 Texas final, Bob Tasca III proved to be no match for Hagan in their 25th career race and third time in a final. Hagan grabbed the starting-line advantage and pulled away during the run to secure the victory.

Beckman returned to the Texas Motorplex looking to close the gap on Countdown leader Robert Hight. After coming up short last Monday in the NTK NHRA Carolina Nationals final versus Hight, Beckman qualified an uncharacteristic 12th in the field. The result was a first-round battle with fellow Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car pilot and DSR teammate Capps. The tandem entered the weekend both inside the top four in the championship standings and were fully aware of the importance of going rounds Sunday. Beckman grabbed the starting line advantage in the DSR Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car and pulled away to score his third win over Capps in 2019 with his run of 3.896 seconds, the second quickest of the round.

Up next, Beckman faced Tasca, who posted the best run of the first round. In their first four 2019 matchups, Tasca won the first two while Beckman turned on the win light in the most recent two at Seattle and Indy. Tasca took the early advantage and maintained it throughout to defeat Beckman with a run of 3.742 seconds compared to Beckman’s pass of 3.964. He remains second in the Countdown standings.

Tommy Johnson, Jr. entered the second half of the Countdown looking to regain his regular season form that included two wins, four final-round appearances and 29 round wins in the first 18 races. With just one round win in the first three Countdown races, Johnson was looking for a breakout performance behind the wheel of the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car of DSR at the Texas Motorplex. He picked up his second round win of the Countdown to start the day by defeating fellow Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car racer Paul Lee, posting a run of 3.932 seconds.

The win advanced Johnson to round two where he faced John Force. Despite running his best pass of the weekend, 3.919 seconds, he lost to Force on a holeshot.

Capps used a strong Friday night qualifying pass to earn the Dodge//SRT Mopar driver his seventh consecutive top-half qualifying position. With the fifth position he had an opportunity to take out a Countdown contender in the first round. Capps made a good run of 3.955 seconds but it wasn’t enough to defeat his fellow Dodge driver and DSR teammate Beckman. With the early loss, Capps fell from fourth to sixth in the standings heading into the Dodge NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil in Las Vegas.

In Top Fuel, Leah Pritchett qualified No. 2 for the third time in four Countdown events. She rolled the Pennzoil Dodge Top Fuel Dragster of DSR through the left lane water box midway through the first round and raced No. 15 qualifier Kebin Kinsley. Kinsley held the early advantage but Pritchett drove around him to score her fourth consecutive first-round victory with a lap of 3.724 seconds at 324.12 mph. In the quarterfinals, Pritchett grabbed the early advantage over Austin Prock but late in the run the DSR machine was losing cylinders, allowing Prock to pull away for the win. Pritchett ranks fifth in the championship standings.

Factory Stock Showdown
In Factory Stock Showdown, Pritchett raced her way to her first FSS final of 2019. The defending FSS champion qualified her DSR Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak No. 2 and defeated David Barton in the first round in the pair’s first-ever meeting in eliminations. She followed that with a triumph over David Janac in the second round and knocked off No. 8 qualifier Randy Taylor to reach her second consecutive Dallas FSS final. In the final Pritchett came up short versus Chris Holbrook, but her three round wins in Texas were the most she has had in a single event all season. 

Fellow DSR FSS racer Mark Pawuk qualified the DSR Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak No. 9 and despite losing the starting line advantage in his first round race with Doug Doll, Jr. he grabbed the lead by the 100-foot mark and drove away to advance to round two. Pawuk came up short of making it an all-DSR final when he fell to Holbrook to close his 2019 campaign.
 
Mopar Dodge//SRT NHRA Sportsman Spotlight
Austin Williams and Jacob Pitt were winners of the Dodge Top Finisher honors in Stock Eliminator and Super Stock, respectively.

Williams, the former NHRA champion Sportsman racer, reached the fourth round in Stock Eliminator at the Texas Motorplex in his F/SA 1972 Plymouth Duster 340. The Waxahachie, Texas, native won three times to reach the semifinals before ending his day with a redlight.

Fort Worth, Texas, racer Pitt piloted his FGT/H 2003 Dodge Stratus to a semifinal finish in Super Stock. Pitt’s 360-cubic-inch Mopar V-8 powered him through four rounds and into a fifth before Pitt was eliminated.

The Dodge Top Finisher award, now in its third year, awards $500 to Stock Eliminator and Super Stock drivers who advance the furthest behind the wheel of a Mopar-powered Dodge, Chrysler or Plymouth race car at all 24 NHRA national events.

Dodge Garage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News
Fans can follow NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship 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.

AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals : Elimination Rounds Summary/Notes & Quotes

Matt Hagan, Western Technical College Mopar CAP Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car  
(No. 6 Qualifier – 3.890)
Rd. 1: (.078-second reaction time, 3.903 seconds at 329.58 mph) beat No. 11 Blake Alexander (.084/4.007/280.19)
Rd. 2: (.096/3.903/329.18) beat No. 3 J.R. Todd (.067/3.937/325.85)
Rd. 3: (.011/3.900/329.83) beat No. 2 Robert Hight (-.199/9.492/80.86)
Rd. 4: (.063/3.909/327.59) beat No. 4 Bob Tasca III (.092/3.928/323.12)

“I tell Don Schumacher all of the time, thank you so much for letting me drive this race car. It’s a privilege to be able to go 330-miles per hour for a living and to be sitting in one of the baddest hot rods on the planet. (Crew chief) Dickie (Venables) and all the Mopar guys were great today and we even got some help from our DSR teammates. My hat goes off to them because it’s tough when your car goes out early and you then have to help someone else win. To see those guys work just as hard on our car as they do on their own car shows the teamwork at DSR and all of the love and passion that we all have for each other. It was an awesome day for DSR. Texas has been good to me and I’m really happy to get another win here.”

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 12 Qualifier – 3.937)
Rd. 1: (.062-second reaction time, 3.896 seconds at 326.79 mph) beat No. 5 Ron Capps (.073/3.955/326.79)
Rd. 2: (.050/3.964/250.55) lost to No. 4 Bob Tasca III (.056/3.742/330.39)

“It’s not do or die for us but it’s getting awful close. You always want to be in control of your own destiny and you want to win the championship in your car, not in your pits hoping the other cars lose. Robert Hight and John Force went on and we are done earning points this weekend. We have two races remaining, with Pomona being points and a half, so we just have to rely on Robert and John stumbling. All in all, I think we have a great Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. To have to beat another championship contender and teammate in the first round is tough. We did that and ran into arguably the best car of the event in the second round. Bob Tasca III was strong all weekend long and we couldn’t overcome that.”

Leah Pritchett, Pennzoil Dodge Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.714)
Rd. 1: (.075-second reaction time, 3.724 seconds at 324.12 mph) beat No. 15 Kebin Kinsley (.062/3.822/1263.51)
Rd. 2: (.050/3.964/250.55) lost to No. 7 Austin Prock (.056/3.742/330.39)

“Having a race car that makes it down the track on race day is very crucial for us, and we did not take Kebin Kinsley lightly. It was a great drag race. We’ve made progress in the sense of simplifying chasing our issues. This was the best weekend we’ve had in the Countdown in regards to moving our program forward. We had several problems in our race with Austin (Prock). Us not having lane choice wasn’t the issue. We dropped a hole, and then dropped another two, and then kicked a belt at about half-track. We know exactly what happened, and why we weren’t able to move on beyond round two.

“The way the points are shaping up, it’s still extremely tight. We have a chance at this championship, we have a race car that’s coming around at a fast rate of speed, and a team that’s dedicated to finishing strong. We look forward to continuing our Top Fuel campaign. We really thought today was our day. It was a good day, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a great day.”
 
Tommy Johnson Jr., Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 9 Qualifier – 3.920)
Rd. 1: (.080-second reaction time, 3.932 seconds at 324.05 mph) beat No. 9 Paul Lee (.073/3.957/323.97)”
Rd. 2: (.087/3.919/320.20) lost to No. 1 John Force (.062/3.937/327.98)

“I should have rolled it in further, that’s what Force does. It makes you look bad on paper but in actuality we ran about the same. It makes me happy that our car is coming back around. We struggled for a few races but the car is back. I’m excited that we can go to Vegas and be very competitive.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 5 Qualifier – 3.881)
Rd. 1: (.073-second reaction time, 3.955 seconds at 326.79 mph) lost to No. 12 Jack Beckman (.062/3.896/328.86)

“We had a huge matchup with our teammate (Jack) Beckman with huge Countdown implications. With just two races left now you don’t want to have to run the cars sitting ahead of you in points in the first round. Unfortunately, we spent much of Saturday’s qualifying rounds trying to figure out why our clutch wasn’t wearing the way it had been. I’m a little bummed that we couldn’t go up with the car we had on Friday but we couldn’t continue on with the way the clutch was wearing and we had to make a change. Hats off to (crew chief Rahn) Tobler and the crew for making a great run with that 3.95 in round one. It made it through the shake zone and made a good clean run but it’s tough to beat a 3.89. We’re not going to give up; we’ll go on to Vegas and try to make up as much ground as we can.”

Up Next: Dodge NHRA Nationals powered by Pennzoil
The Countdown to the Championship will resume in two weeks with the 19th annual Dodge NHRA Nationals powered by Pennzoil in Las Vegas. Capps is a four-time winner of the fall event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and will look to make it five on November 1-3.  

2019 NHRA Championship Point Standings: Through 22 of 24 Rounds
(Season Wins in Parentheses)

NHRA Funny Car
1. Robert Hight (6) –2,437
2. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (1) – 2,367
3. John Force (2) – 2,363
4. Matt Hagan, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody (3) – 2,325
5. Bob Tasca III (2) – 2,315
6. Ron Capps, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (3) – 2,302
7. J.R. Todd (1) – 2,274
8. Tommy Johnson, Jr. Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (2) – 2,243
9. Shawn Langdon (2) – 2,239
10. Tim Wilkerson – 2,188

NHRA Top Fuel
1. Steve Torrence (9) – 2,394
2. Doug Kalitta (2) – 2,361
3. Brittany Force (1) – 2,348
4. Billy Torrence (1) –2,323
5. Leah Pritchett, Mopar HEMI (1) – 2,290
6. Austin Prock (1) – 2,278
7. Mike Salinas (2) – 2,266
8. Antron Brown – 2,247
9. Richie Crampton (2) – 2,228
10. Clay Millican – 2,210
 
DodgeGarage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News
Fans can follow all the NHRA’s action this season at DodgeGarage, 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. For more information, visit www.dodgegarage.com. 

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram
The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Mello Yello 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.

Official Driving School of Dodge//SRT
Dodge is the official sponsor of the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Chandler, Arizona, where guests get behind the wheels of the fastest street-legal cars in the world with professional instruction and time on the track. Customers who buy a new SRT model receive one full-day session as part of the Dodge//SRT Package and have the opportunity to learn how to get the optimum performance from their new vehicles in a controlled environment.  For more information, visit dodgegarage.com/track-experience. 
 
Mopar
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) is the service, parts and customer-care brand for FCA vehicles around the globe. Born in 1937 as the name of a line of antifreeze products, the Mopar brand has evolved over more than 80 years to represent both complete care and authentic performance for owners and enthusiasts worldwide.
 
Mopar made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era, with Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use, and expanded to include technical service and customer support. Today, the Mopar brand’s global reach distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in more than 150 markets. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 25 customer-contact centers globally, Mopar integrates service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance customer and dealer support worldwide.
 
Complete information on the Mopar brand is available at www.mopar.com. Mopar is part of the portfolio of brands offered by global automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. For more information regarding FCA (NYSE: FCAU/ MTA: FCA), please visit www.fcagroup.com.
 
Dodge//SRT
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with muscle cars and SUVs that deliver unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.
 
2021 marks the year that Dodge is distilled into a pure performance brand, offering Hellcat-powered, 700+ horsepower SRT versions of every model across the lineup. For the 2021 model year, Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock, the new 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world, and the new 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever. Combined, these three muscle cars make Dodge the industry’s most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.    
 
In June 2020, Dodge was named the "#1 Brand in Initial Quality," making it the first domestic brand ever to rank No. 1 in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS). Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by global automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. For more information regarding FCA (NYSE: FCAU/ MTA: FCA), please visit www.fcagroup.com.
 
Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA news and video on:  
Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com
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