{"id":4929,"date":"2021-09-28T13:14:53","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=4929"},"modified":"2021-09-28T13:15:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T13:15:03","slug":"dsr-dominating-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=4929","title":{"rendered":"DSR Dominating Trend!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defending National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan powered his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) New Holland Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the No. 1 qualifier position to the winner\u2019s circle at the Midwest Nationals near St. Louis in dominant fashion to take over the lead in the \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan kicked off the third of seven NHRA playoff series events by driving his HEMI-powered machine to the provisional No. 2 spot at World Wide Technology Raceway in Friday evening qualifying to find himself closing in on DSR teammate and points leader Ron Capps on the provisional timing sheets as well as the Funny Car championship standings. From there Hagan never looked back and laid down the quickest laps in both Saturday qualifying sessions with a final pass of 3.868 seconds at 333.25 mph to secure his third No. 1 qualifier position of the year, a 43rd overall, and collect eight of nine possible bonus points to put him just one marker behind Capps heading into Sunday\u2019s elimination rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan had an opening round bye run and a quarterfinal win against J.R. Todd to move on to an all-Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat semifinal against No. 5 seed Cruz Pedregon. Both launched and battled side-by side the entire length of the track with Hagan (0.086\/3.922\/328.30) turning on the win lights over Pedregon (0.083\/3.954\/323.58) to advance to his fifth final round showdown of the season. Facing off against No. 6 seed Bob Tasca, Hagan got out of the gate first and made another solid sub four-second run (3.933) at 333.49 mph to earn his first Wally trophy from the St. Louis venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matt Hagan score his 3rd win of 2021 when he beat Bob Tasca III to the stripe in the final round.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The win was Hagan\u2019s third of the season, the 39th of his career, and a fourth for his crew thanks to the victory earned in the playoff opener in Reading, Pennsylvania with substitute driver Tommy Johnson Jr., who slipped into the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat seat as its regular driver recovered from COVID-19. With two playoff wins in three events, Hagan moved into the top spot in the Funny Car championship battle with a 59-point lead over his fellow DSR stablemate Capps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the 39th time in his career – Matt Hagan and his team visit NHRA victory lane.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Capps\u2019 weekend began by driving his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to the provisional No. 1 spot on Friday and the second best run in final qualifying on Saturday to add five bonus points to his points tally and earn the No. 2 spot on the elimination ladder, the 13th<\/sup> time this season he has qualified in a top-five position. He powered his hard-charging HEMI-powered machine to an impressive 3.854-second elapsed time run at 333-mph in the opening round to defeat No. 15 seed Chris King whose racecar faltered right off the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capps advanced to a quarterfinal match-up against fellow championship contender John Force, who has been regularly staging his racecar deep into the starting line beams to distract his opponents. While aware and prepared for Force\u2019s tactics, the veteran DSR driver had an uncharacteristic start that allowed his opponent to take the early lead. Capps gave chase with a 3.929-second pass but unfortunately wasn\u2019t able to beat Force\u2019s slower 3.970-second lap. Despite the premature exit, Capps remains second in the Funny Car championship battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Ron Capps was credited with both low ET and top speed of the event at St. Louis).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fellow Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon followed up last weekend\u2019s runner-up performance at the NHRA Carolina Nationals with a fifth place start for the Midwest Nationals by recording a 3.896 sec.\/ 328.62 mph pass, the fourth quickest in the final session, to mark the fifth consecutive event he has qualified in the top-five. Pedregon defeated No. 12 seed Jim Campbell and No. 4 qualifier Blake Alexander in the first two round elimination rounds to advance to the semifinals and line up his Snap-on Tools \u201cSocket to Breast Cancer\u201d machine next eventual round and event winner Hagan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After closing out the regular season eighth in the Funny Car standings, the Cruz Pedregon Racing team\u2019s steady improvement through three consecutive playoff events moves the team up into fourth place with five races remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted by Pat Caporali<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Event Essentials: Mid-West Nationals  (Sept. 17-19th 2021) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/td>NAME<\/strong><\/td>ET<\/strong><\/td>MPH<\/strong><\/td>CAREER WIN<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
 <\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>Matt Hagan <\/td> 3.933<\/td>333.49<\/td> 39th<\/td><\/tr>
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>Bob Tasca III  <\/td> 3.967<\/td>329.99<\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>Ron Capps <\/td> 3.854<\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>Ron Capps  <\/td> <\/td>333.82<\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td> N\/A<\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\u00a015 Cars<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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(John Force stayed in the 2021 NHRA championship mix with a “final four” finish)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of Auto Imagery & Gary Nastase\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan powered his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) New Holland Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the No. 1 qualifier position to the winner\u2019s circle at the Midwest Nationals near St. Louis in dominant fashion to take over the lead in the \u201cCountdown to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[45,20,148],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4932,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929\/revisions\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}