Capps Leads Mopar and Dodge During NHRA Qualifying at Englishtown
 

June 10, 2017 , Englishtown, N.J. -  All six Mopar HEMI^®-powered Nitro cars from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) will begin from inside the top nine on their respective elimination ladders at the 48th annual NHRA Summernationals, taking place this weekend at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Central New Jersey.

Although a Mopar Funny Car or Top Fuel dragster driver out of the DSR camp didn’t claim the top spot for just the fourth time this season, each turned in a qualifying effort that will put them in prime position to go multiple rounds during Sunday eliminations at the historic Englishtown track.

Ron Capps led the way for the Mopar-backed DSR Funny Car contingent, turning in a best pass of 3.883 seconds at 329.67 mph on Friday evening, good enough for the third qualified spot in his Dodge Charger R/T. The 2016 winner of the Summernationals, Capps made four consecutive runs in the three-second range and also was in the top three during all four rounds of qualifying. His teammate Jack Beckman qualified fourth overall in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T after an eventful two days of qualifying which included an explosion during his third attempt. The other Mopar Funny Car drivers from DSR, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Matt Hagan, put the Make-A-Wish and Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars in the seventh and ninth qualified spots, respectively.

Tony Schumacher made the best pass in the Top Fuel category with a machine featuring HEMI power to claim the sixth position in the U.S. Army car, turning in a lap of 3.763 seconds at 323.19 mph in session two. His Mopar and DSR teammate Leah Pritchett qualified ninth. The two drivers will face off in round one of eliminations on Sunday, an intriguing matchup as each have shown throughout 2017 that they can go deep into the afternoon on Sunday from a variety of qualifying spots. Pritchett is carrying Dodge Challenger SRT Demon colors on her dragster again this weekend after unveiling them last week at New England Dragway.

In contrast to the last two races on the NHRA national event calendar, qualifying at Englishtown was contested under warm conditions, leading to the hottest racing surface teams have seen in over a month. While times were not in the record-setting category, nearly all competitors made a number of clean passes without overpowering the track.

Mopar/Dodge Notes & Quotes
(best elapsed time in bold)

Matt Hagan, Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car
Qualified No. 9, will face No. 8 Jonnie Lindberg
Friday: (3.957 seconds at 324.44 mph – Q1); (4.661/174.71 – Q2)
Saturday: (4.313/220.80 – Q3); (3.952/317.72 – Q4)

“We obviously have the cool weather racetracks figured out and been able set world records and win races. But this is the hottest track we’ve seen since Denver last year, so we have to make some adjustments and changes to do that. It’s hard to back a fast race car down. But I think the last (qualifying) run when we went .95 wire to wire gave us something to work off of for tomorrow. So I’m pretty confident.”

Leah Pritchett, Dodge Challenger SRT Demon Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified No. 9, will face No. 6 Tony Schumacher
Friday: (3.788 seconds at 321.42 mph – Q1); (4.953/139.83 – Q2)
Saturday: (3.875/306.12 – Q3) (6.298/95.35 – Q4)

“There’s only been two times this year where it’s been real hot, that would be Vegas and Houston. That’s been our baseline. We’ve just been trying in all of our sessions to be close to that. Just recently after Q4 we’ve found what we needed to change from that baseline. So it took us four sessions. Confidence is when you know something to be true. We have figured out where we have missed it, why we weren’t getting down the track and feel confident in that we know what the problem was. So tomorrow, it’s a different and kind of a cool feeling, being in that No. 9 spot.

"Tomorrow will show our championship caliber as we have shown all year.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car
Qualified No. 3, will face No. 14 Del Worsham
Friday: (3.895 seconds at 323.04 mph – Q1); (3.883/329.67 – Q2)
Saturday: (3.963/313.51 – Q3); (3.951/320.05– Q4)

“It was hot in Q3 and that’s what we’ll see at races coming this summer. (Crew chief Rahn) Tobler is getting our Dodge ready for that.

"On Q4, he wanted to turn it up a notch and to be the quickest in the session is outstanding. But Sunday is going to be hot and tricky. We won here a year ago in the same conditions and hopefully we’ll have a good time at the end of the day.”

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car
Qualified No. 4, will face No. 13 Jim Campbell
Friday: (3.987 seconds at 312.13 mph – Q1); (3.907/328.30 – Q2)
Saturday: (4.442/174.82 Q3); (4.589/184.37– Q4)

Tommy Johnson Jr., Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car
Qualified No. 7, will face No. 10 Bob Tasca III
Friday: (4.312 seconds at 217.60 mph – Q1); (3.945/326.71 – Q2)
Saturday: (4.034/316.67 – Q3); (3.954/322.96 – Q4)

Tony Schumacher, U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified No. 6, will face No. 9 Leah Pritchett
Friday: (5.770 seconds at 116.44 mph – Q1); (3.763/323.19 – Q2)
Saturday: (3.853/320.81 – Q3); (3.853/305.01 – Q4)
 
Tune-In Info
FOX Sports 1 will broadcast the initial elimination rounds from the 48th annual NHRA Summernationals LIVE at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 11. The final rounds will air at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday evening.

For more information on Mopar and Dodge in NHRA, check out the Mopar brand’s official blog, http://blog.mopar.com.

About Mopar Motorsports
The Mopar brand’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 2016, thanks to Don Schumacher Racing driver Ron Capps, Mopar captured its fourth NHRA Funny Car World Championship in the last six years. As Mopar celebrates 80 years as a brand in 2017, it will focus its NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series efforts on NHRA Funny Car and, with rising star Leah Pritchett, NHRA Top Fuel Dragster. Mopar will also bolster its commitment to NHRA Sportsman racing with new contingency rewards, factory support and at-track technical advice and guidance.

Mopar-First Features
During the brand’s 80 years, Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features including:

Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication with consumers
wiADVISOR: first to incorporate a tablet-based service lane tool
Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with a new interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set parameters
Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their vehicle a wireless hot spot
Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner manuals on a smartphone app 

 
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.

Complete information on Mopar is available at www.mopar.com and the newly redesigned Mopar blog at www.blog.mopar.com. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.

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