{"id":5028,"date":"2021-11-20T20:50:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T20:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=5028"},"modified":"2021-11-20T20:58:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T20:58:55","slug":"hellcat-season-triumphant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=5028","title":{"rendered":"Hellcat Season Triumphant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driver Ron Capps and Don Schumacher Racing earned the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car World Championship in an exciting season finale at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is the veteran driver\u2019s second Funny Car title of his 27-year career, following his first championship win in 2016, and the seventh of the 19-year partnership between DSR and the Mopar and Dodge\/\/SRT brands.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cOn behalf of Dodge\/\/SRT, congratulations to Ron Capps for his HEMI\u00ae-powered world championship performance,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge Brand Chief Executive Officer \u2013 Stellantis. \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to have Ron and the Don Schumacher Racing team demonstrate what Dodge\/\/SRT performance looks like by earning their second NHRA Funny Car World Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-Capps1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"407\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-Capps1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5018\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-Capps2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"309\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-Capps2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5019\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Ron Capps&#8217; championship winning Napa Auto Parts Hellcat<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cCongratulations to Ron Capps from all of us at Mopar on this hard-earned second career Funny Car world championship,\u201d said Mark Bosanac, Head of Mopar Service, Parts and Customer Care for FCA \u2013 North America. \u201dWe appreciate the outstanding efforts during this championship season and thank them for proudly showcasing Mopar performance on the track.&#8221;<br>\u00a0<br>\u201cWhat a crazy day and crazy season,\u201d said Capps. \u201cThe fact that the Countdown came down to the Pomona Finals and was a real fight between the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats of Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan and I was really neat. And to see that as a manufacturer Dodge had the competition covered, all three of us were pretty proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-LV-Matt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/NFFC-LV-Matt.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4998\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Matt Hagan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Hagan needed to get his Mopar machine past Alexis DeJoria in the semifinals to have a shot at retaining his crown. The three-time NHRA champ was quicker on the start but by half-track his opponent slipped past for the round win, ending Hagan\u2019s drive and reign as Funny Car champion.<br>&nbsp;<br>\u201cWe&#8217;ve got a great team, a great car and at the end of the day there were three Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats in the running for this championship, with (Ron) Capps, me and Cruz (Pedregon),\u201d said Hagan. \u201cDodge is just doing an amazing job out there and I&#8217;m glad to be a part of it. Today didn&#8217;t go the way we wanted it to but to be in the championship hunt and be able to have a shot at it year after year is a testament to the performance equipment we have and the hard work this team has put in.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br>With a category-best four wins this season, Hagan and his Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT team\u2019s runner-up finish in the championship was their 11th time closing out a season with a Top-10 result.<br>&nbsp;<br>The third contender in the Funny Car title chase heading into the final race day was&nbsp; Pedregon, who arrived at Auto Club Raceway fresh off his victory at the Dodge\/\/SRT Nationals in Las Vegas and put his Snap-On Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat No. 6 on the ladder with consistent qualifying runs. With a 91-point deficit prior to the opening round, any championship hopes for the Cruz Pedregon Racing team were contingent on Capps exiting in the first round.<br>&nbsp;<br>While that didn\u2019t happen, Pedregon lined up for the first round match against No. 11 seed Tim Wilkerson feeling positive about the consistency and progress his team made this season. Pedregon\u2019s HEMI-powered machine had a good launch and was on the move when tire smoke early in the run brought to a close his team\u2019s best season performance since 2013. T<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/image-5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"396\" height=\"141\" src=\"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4444\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>he team finishes fourth in the points standings with two wins, a pair of runner-up finishes and a No. 1 qualifier award. Their Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat turned on win lights 30 times in eliminations this season, only the third time in 20 years that Pedregon has won 30 or more rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Posted by Pat Caporali<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driver Ron Capps and Don Schumacher Racing earned the 2021 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Funny Car World Championship in an exciting season finale at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California. It is the veteran driver\u2019s second Funny Car title of his 27-year career, following his first championship win in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028"}],"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=5028"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5042,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions\/5042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}