Hagan Drives Mopar to No.1 in Qualifying with Two 3-Second Passes at Norwalk NHRA Nationals

July 4, 2015 , Norwalk, Ohio -  The famous Fourth of July fireworks display put on by the Bader family at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park wasn’t the only good show for fans at the Ninth annual Summit Racing Equipment Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals, as Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Matt Hagan drove his 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to his third No.1 qualifier position of the year, the 20^th of his career, on the strength of two impressive sub-four second runs.
 
Celebrations for the Independence Day weekend got underway a little early when in Friday’s second night session, Hagan lit up the track with its very first 3-second run to take the provisional top qualifying spot with a track-record elapsed time run of 3.986 seconds and also set the track record for speed at 322.96 miles per hour (mph).
 
Hagan followed that run up on Saturday by posting the second quickest pass in the third session with a 4.014/315.42, and then topped things off in the final session by resetting his own time track-record with a 3.973/321.96 aboard his Rocky Boots/ Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T.
 
While the current Funny Car points leader was the first driver to reach the milestone at this facility, it was the tenth and 11^th time in his career after he was the first driver to break the 3-second barrier in 2011. A Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car has posted a total of 27 sub four-second runs, the most by any manufacturer.
 
“As great as that run was you throw it out the window and got to get into race mode,” said Hagan referring to the much different conditions expected for race day after four qualifying sessions in cooler evening. “You have to get prepared for the sunshine and the heat, and for the track to heat up, but we’ve got a great car.
 
Hagan also credits his crew chief Dickie Venables for making the difference in a very competitive Funny Car class where just a few hundredths of a second can make all the difference between a win and a loss on Sunday.
 
“He feels I can give him two or three hundredths on the tree and he can give me two or three hundredths on the race track and when you do, that a really hard combo to beat. This Rocky Boots Mopar Express Lane car has been running strong and I can’t say enough about my group who are really doing a great job and putting a great race car underneath me. I think it just shows on the race track what the car is capable of and what this team is capable of.”
 
Hagan, who will attempt to post his fifth win of the season on Sunday to equal his best career yearly total collected in seven full-time seasons of Funny Car competition, will see John Bojec as his first round opponent.
 
DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. ran a stout 4.010/314.75 with his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T in the final session to move into the fifth spot on the qualifying sheets. He is
 
“I’m really pleased with how we qualified,” said Johnson who is still looking to put his Mopar in the winner’s circle this season and will start his drive for a Wally trophy in the first round against Alexis DeJoria. “To make four really good runs, with our slowest being an .06 when a lot of guys would struggle with conditions of the track, we were really pleased to be able to make four really good ones. We tried to get ourselves in the three’s and up in the field with that last run, but we’ve got a solid racecar for race day.”
 
Sitting second in the standings with two wins so far this year, DSR’s Ron Capps qualified his 2015 Dodge Charger R/T eighth with a 4.021/321.35 to see Courtney Force in the next lane for first round action.
 
Jack Beckman, who sits fifth in points and also has two wins under his seatbelt, qualified his Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T in 11^th place with a 4.082/312.78 effort and will have John Force to contend with as his first match-up in eliminations.
 
Following two significant Pro Stock final round appearances at Englishtown, New Jersey, and Epping, New Hampshire in recent weeks, Allen Johnson’s “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart has continued to improve its performance after a challenging start to the season that saw the team grapple with adjusting to a new mandated fuel for the class.
 
Johnson started off the weekend with the second quickest run of the first session with an elapsed time run of 6.571 seconds at 210.05 mile per hour (mph), and then improved his time slightly to a 6.566/210.60 with his second pass to put himself into the top half of the ladder with a provisional eighth place qualifying spot.
In the final two sessions, Johnson posted 6.589/210.67 and 6.575/211.00 passes and dropping to the tenth spot on the Pro Stock eliminations ladder to face Greg Anderson in the first round.

“We had a great start and then last night we got over against the wall and didn’t make a great run to take advantage of the night conditions,” Johnson said. “Today we actually had clutch problems and ended up having to put in a whole new clutch pack for that last run and just blew the tires off of it on the starting line. The good thing is we probably ran No.1 or No.2 down the back half with good speed, but just missed it big time on the startline. We’ve got something to work with tomorrow with a good engine. We just got behind the eight ball after that first run and couldn’t catch up in time.”

V. Gaines ran his HEMI-powered Dodge Dart down the lane for a best elapsed time pass of 6.601 seconds at 209.39 for the 13^th spot on the qualifying sheets. That puts him up against Larry Morgan for his first round match-up. Erica Enders-Stevens took the Pro Stock No.1 qualifier position with a 6.532/211.23 pass.
 
Television coverage for the Ninth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, the 12th of 24 events in the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, will air live on ESPN this Sunday, July 5, with three hours of eliminations coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET.

2015 NHRA Championship Points Standings
(following the Norwalk NHRA Nationals final qualifying)
 
PRO STOCK (season wins in parentheses)
1.         Erica Enders-Stevens – 1005 (4)
2.         Greg Anderson – 985 (3)
3.         Jason Line – 860 (2)
4.        Chris McGaha – 791
5.        Allen Johnson – Dodge Dart – 622
6.        Shane Gray – 615
7.        Larry Morgan – 609 (1)
8.        Drew Skillman– 606
9.         Vincent Nobile – 597
10.       Rodger Brogdon – 560 (1)
12.       V. Gaines – Dodge Dart – 479
 
FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)
1.         Matt Hagan – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 912 (4)
2.         Ron Capps – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 812 (2)
3.        John Force – 748 (2)
4.        Del Worsham – 741
5.        Jack Beckman – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 702 (2)
6.        Tommy Johnson Jr. – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 680
7.        Cruz Pedregon – 637
8.        Robert Hight – 613
9.         Alexis DeJoria – 606
10.      Tim Wilkerson – 602 (1)

About Mopar Motorsports
Mopar’s commitment to professional motorsports competition was established in the 1950s when a partnership ignited with drag racing pioneer Don Garlits, resulting in the breaking of numerous speed and performance barriers in HEMI®-powered vehicles over the next several decades. In 2015, Mopar looks to add to its streak of five NHRA World Championship titles in the Pro Stock (2012 and 2013) and Funny Car (2011, 2012, and 2014) categories in four years. While Mopar remains involved in a various professional motorsports series, it continues to honor its roots by being a proud supporter of amateur racing within the NHRA with its sponsorship of the HEMI Challenge and Mopar’s Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge.


 
About Mopar Brand
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product, but it truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical service and customer support.

Today, Mopar is FCA’s service, parts and customer-care brand and distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150 markets around the world. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 27 customer contact hubs globally, Mopar integrates service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.

Mopar parts are engineered together with the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles. This offers a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance parts is available at: www.mopar.com.

Mopar-first Features
Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features including:

• Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication with customers
• Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format. First to offer complete vehicle-information kits in Spanish
• Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their vehicle a wireless hot spot
• Wireless charging: first to introduce in-vehicle wireless charging for portable devices
• Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set parameters
• wiADVISOR: first to provide factory-connected tablet technology in the service lane for instant vehicle diagnosis
• wiTECH: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated wireless tool network
• 2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car