DSR Dallas Post-Race Recap

Transcription

1 DSR Dallas Post-Race Recap AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals Event 21 of 24 (Dallas) NHRA Countdown, Event 3 of 6 Texas Motorplex Ennis, Texas October 5-7, 2018 DSR Dallas Elimination Highlights: Leah Pritchett wins the 2018 NHRA SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown Series world championship en route to winning the final FSXX event of the season Pritchett s banner day earned event win No. 332 for Don Schumacher Racing, the winningest team in NHRA history, and championship title No. 17 Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car) raced to semifinal finishes Johnson cracked into the top five in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship standings The DSR dragster trio (Antron Brown, Pritchett, Schumacher) remain in the Top Fuel top five

2 Leah Pritchett Crowned 2018 Factory Stock Showdown Series Champion in Dallas ENNIS, Texas (October 7, 2018) Leah Pritchett clinched the 2018 SAM Tech NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Series championship in her Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals, racing to her third consecutive win of the season and earning her first championship in her first full year competing in the class. The NHRA Factory Stock Showdown crown is the third title for Pritchett, who also captured Jr. Dragster Division 7 championships and the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series Championship in the Nostalgia Funny Car class. She is currently the only professional driver in contention to win two world titles during the 2018 NHRA season. Pritchett entered the action at the Texas Motorplex facility coming off of victories at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in early September and at the NHRA Midwest Nationals two weeks ago, where she became the first NHRA driver in the Factory Stock Showdown class to make a pass in the seven-second range. She qualified No. 10 and posted her quickest pass of the weekend, an second E.T. at mph, to defeat Aaron Stanfield in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. After advancing past Randy Taylor in the quarterfinals, Pritchett moved on to a dramatic semifinal grouping that also featured co-points leaders Stephen Bell and Arthur Kohn, with Pritchett trailing each by a single point. She squared off against Bell with her season on the line, leaving first with a clutch second reaction time and recording a winning second mph mark. Kohn was up next, needing to win his semifinals match against Kevin Skinner to extend the championship battle to the final round. Skinner took the win, crowning Pritchett as the 2018 NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Champion. She would add the cherry on top by taking out No. 1 qualifier Skinner in the final with an arrow-straight second pass down the track to earn her third consecutive event win. This championship ranks at the top of the list," said Pritchett. "I might be holding this Wally right now, but 100% this is Dodge and Mopar and the

3 technology they pour into this class. I just get to drive the car. For Kevin Helms, Terry Snyder, all of Don Schumacher Racing, powered by Pennzoil of course, this is absolutely incredible. We came in with a chance to win the championship, but our mentality was one round, one burnout, one line at a time and that s what it took, so thank you to everyone that made this happen. I know I probably speak for the whole class, but a huge thank you to SAM Tech for sponsoring the Factory Stock Showdown Series. It s really become one of the most exciting, grassroots classes out here. I get to hold it, but this Wally is definitely going home to Mopar. The event win was number 332 for Don Schumacher Racing, the winningest team in NHRA history, and world championship No. 17. Qualified: No. 10 (8.397 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Aaron Stanfield E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated Randy Taylor, Foul (Red Light) E3: E.T. at defeated Stephen Bell E.T. at E4: E.T. at defeated Kevin Skinner E.T. at

4 Factory Stock images courtesy of David Hakim/DodgeGarage.com

5 Driver Information: Top Fuel: ANTRON BROWN Driver of the Matco Tools 'Tools for the Cause'/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster Qualified: No. 11 (3.810 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Doug Kalitta E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated by Tony Schumacher E.T. at Race Recap: Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta met in competition for the 53 rd time during round one of the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals. Behind the wheel of the Matco Tools Tools for the Cause /U.S. Army dragster, Brown was quick on the throttle and used his starting line advantage coupled with a solid second run to extend his round win record to against Kalitta. Brown drew teammate Tony Schumacher in round two and once again, Brown was first out of the gate. Unfortunately for the three-time Top Fuel world champion, Schumacher was able to overtake Brown s lead by the 200-foot mark and drive away with the round win when Brown s machine hazed the tires at the 330. Brown leaves Texas ranked fifth in the Countdown to the Championship point standings. Quotable: It wasn t the day we wanted. We started off in E1 the way we wanted to, but we re just going through the second round blues right now. We went out there and it got through the clutch too much and it dropped a hole. Then the clutch caught up with the engine and it just spun the tires. We ve just got to keep

6 working hard. We know we are right on the cusp of some great things, but we just have to make it happen right now. We have three races left in the Countdown to the Championship. We re sitting solid in fifth place, but that s not where we want to be. We want to be in the top three. We still have a shot for that. Our main focus is just to go back and regroup and we have to come out swinging in Charlotte next weekend. We can t race scared, we just have to go out there and throw it down. LEAH PRITCHETT Driver of the Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster Qualified: No. 9 (3.808 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Kebin Kinsley E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated by Clay Millican E.T. at

7 Race Recap: Leah Pritchett overcame a No. 9 qualifying spot outside of the top half of the field to defeat the higher-qualified Kebin Kinsley, posting a second at mph run en route to leading from start to finish. In the quarterfinals against Clay Millican, the Mopar Dodge Top Fuel driver matched her opponent s reaction but dropped a cylinder right at the launch, ending any chance at a deep Dallas run. Pritchett is fourth in the Top Fuel standings with her hopes for two titles still alive heading into the allimportant final three-race stretch. Quotable: Some people say the glass is half empty or half full. For us, we think it s half full. We ve experienced gremlins we ve never experienced before in Dallas. We thought we had them completely flushed under after a not really good day of qualifying on Saturday. Were able to fix it and get that first-round win. But, with the boost problems we d been having, that resulted in a cylinder dropping at the hit in the second round. It would ve been awesome for everybody, including us, to take out Clay Millican so we could climb higher into the championship chase. This Mopar team is undoubtedly still in it and we are looking forward to still chasing it and we re definitely not counting this team or this car or any of the guys out. We have a couple of things to fix and I have confidence in this team that we will turn it around. I ll tell you what, for the fans and the people who are watching this Countdown, it s going to get interesting and it s going to be good and we re going to give it absolutely everything we have because that s what we do.

8 TONY SCHUMACHER Driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster Qualified: No. 3 (3.745 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Shawn Reed E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated Antron Brown E.T. at E3: E.T. at defeated by Steve Torrence E.T. at Race Recap: After a stellar final qualifying run late Saturday vaulted Schumacher to the No. 3 spot on the elimination ladder, The Sarge laid down a smooth and steady opening-round win over No. 14 qualifier Shawn Reed. The U.S. Army car crossed the finish line in seconds at mph to Reed s second pass. That set up a meeting with teammate Antron Brown, their third intramural

9 elimination battle in the last six events. Schumacher was solid and steady once again with a run of seconds at mph while Brown smoked the tires midway down the track. Trailing Torrence by 125 points at the start of the day, Schumacher and the U.S. Army team were hoping to turn his playoff momentum in their favor with the chance to leave Texas Motorplex having significantly downsized that deficit. But it was not meant to be as Schumacher hazed the tires at halftrack and had to settle for a run of seconds to Torrence s seconds pass. Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver at the Texas Motorplex with six career event titles, will enter the next event ranked third. Quotable: We came here in the hunt, even though we may not be leaving here in the hunt, but we finally figured out two dramatic issues with our U.S. Army car. Now we can run at the level we need to run at. We may not win a championship with it because it might be too late. If we go off and beat (Steve) Torrence right now and win the championship after struggling the way we have lately, it s almost disrespectful to the sport. Have we pulled off things like that before? No. We ve won races but we ve always done it in some dramatic form and, right now, winning off of some luck would not be the way we would want to do it. We do have a great car after this weekend, but we re down to 12 rounds and he s a lot of rounds ahead of us. He s got to go out in the first round at the next three races and we have to win them all. Is it impossible? No, but he s dominated this year. If he wins the championship, I ll be proud to call him champ. His team s led the way all year, and Clay Millican's done the same thing. So, let s watch them battle it. We ll see if we can get in everybody s way and see if we can earn some points and finish off the season No. 1, 2 or 3 but, realistically, we didn t have that championship car until this weekend. We re just getting back to that point.

10 s Funny Car: JACK BECKMAN Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Qualified: No. 5 (3.968 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Courtney Force E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated by J.R. Todd E.T. at Race Recap: Fast Jack Beckman, a two-time runner-up at Dallas, qualified strong in his Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car, collecting the No. 5 spot on his final qualifying run. A powerhouse matchup against Courtney

11 Force awaited him in the opening round. The elite pair entered the race deadlocked at in previous matchups, and were appropriately enough dead even off the starting tree with identical reaction times, but Beckman was able to claim the early lead and hold off Force in a tight drag race with a winning second at mph pass. In the quarterfinals, the Infinite Hero team faced J.R. Todd. Beckman trailed off the start but quickly reclaimed the lead before putting out a cylinder and veering toward the centerline, forcing him to back off as Todd went down the strip for the win. Beckman, the 2012 NHRA Funny Car champ, leaves Dallas eighth in the standings. Quotable: You can wish and hope that the planets line up, but that probably does it for us in the championship. The reality is that we needed to get to the final round today. We took out Courtney (Force) first round. Had the ladder we needed with J.R. (Todd) second round. We were literally driving away and it put another hole out. It has not wanted to keep eight cylinders to the finish line all weekend and despite that, we had an incredibly fast car. We figured out how to make this thing a rocketship early in the run. We just need to figure out how to keep all the E3 spark plugs lit until the finish line. I m excited. I think we ll be racing for trophies the rest of the year and that motivates us.

12 RON CAPPS Driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Qualified: No. 7 (3.986 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated by John Force E.T. at Race Recap: Starting race day from the No. 7 position, Ron Capps faced John Force in a marquee first-round matchup rife with Countdown implications. It was the 97 th time the two winningest Funny Car drivers in the sports history had met in competition. Capps launched his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T off of the starting line first and led until the 600-foot mark before Force pulled ahead and was able to drive away for the win, ending Capps day. While the first-round loss caused Capps to fall from fifth to sixth in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship standings, the points are still relatively close

13 among the Top 10 ranked Funny Car pilots as the NHRA heads to the fourth event of the six-race playoff schedule. Quotable: It was a strange weekend of qualifying here at Dallas for a lot of cars. It was luck of the draw for race day and when you have a team like John Force first round, it s going to be tough. It was a close race. I didn t see him until right at the end. Our mentality was to come in here and win the last four races and with pointsand-a-half at Pomona, we now have to win the last three races. With the race car we have and the team we have, it s very possible. It can be done. Once again, the NAPA guys gave me a great car and we lost a close race. It hurts right now and we re going to shake it off and go to zmax. MATT HAGAN Driver of the Pennzoil Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

14 Qualified: No. 15 (4.169 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated by Bob Tasca III E.T. at Race Recap: The 2018 AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals were anything but kind to Matt Hagan. The two-time Texas Motorplex winner struggled to make a full pass under power throughout qualifying, placing Hagan uncharacteristically in the 15 th position to start race day. Hagan sought to salvage the weekend on Sunday, but despite making a full pull (4.058-seconds) was unable to get past Countdown spoiler Bob Tasca III s E.T. in round one. Despite the early exit, Hagan remains in seventh departing Ennis, Texas. Quotable: We have to work to put out some of the Kalitta and Force cars and we need to step it up and go some rounds to put ourselves in a better position in the championship chase. We re working hard with some new combinations and we have a lot of help from our teammate and we re moving forward. We re going to stay positive and go into Charlotte with a game plan and grow and have a good weekend for Mopar and Pennzoil and DSR.

15 TOMMY JOHNSON JR. Driver of the Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger R/T Qualified: No. 1 (3.918 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated Terry Haddock E.T. at E2: E.T. at defeated Cruz Pedregon E.T. at E3: E.T. at defeated by J.R. Todd E.T. at Race Recap: Tommy Johnson Jr. unleashed a second run in the fourth and final qualifying session in his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to claim the sixteenth No. 1 qualifier spot of his career, his first of 2018 and first at Texas Motorplex. Johnson had a big advantage off the starting line in scoring a round one defeat of Terry Haddock with his second pass, the third lowest

16 E.T. of the session. In round two, the John Collins-tuned Dodge posted another stellar E.T., a second pass the quickest of the quarterfinals to take out Cruz Pedregon. During Johnson s sixth semifinal appearance of the last seven events, he recorded a clean, solid second at mph run but was behind from the start against opponent J.R. Todd and was unable to make up any ground, ending his day. Johnson moved up to fourth in the Countdown playoff standings with his Dallas performance. Quotable: We ve got a really good race car now it s just a matter of putting it all together on Sundays. The continuous improvement is great and hopefully we can keep doing that and have a little luck go our way. We feel really good. If a few of the top cars stumble, we re right there. We re in the hunt and not out of this championship yet. NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship Points Standings:

17 Top Fuel 1. Steve Torrence Clay Millican Tony Schumacher Leah Pritchett Antron Brown Terry McMillen Doug Kalitta Mike Salinas Brittany Force Scott Palmer Funny Car 1. Robert Hight J.R. Todd Tim Wilkerson Tommy Johnson Jr Courtney Force Ron Capps Matt Hagan Jack Beckman John Force Shawn Langdon Factory Stock Showdown Series: MARK PAWUK Driver of the Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak Qualified: No. 9 (8.269 E.T. at ) The Results: E1: E.T. at defeated by Kevin Skinner E.T. at

18 Recap: After battling poor track conditions and losing out on a qualifying session due to inclement weather, Mark Pawuk qualified ninth in his Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. Against Kevin Skinner, Pawuk had a slight starting line advantage but was unable to chase down his opponent, causing the U.S. Nationals runner-up to bow out early at the final Factory Stock Showdown event of the season. Quotable: We struggled the first qualifying session on Friday. It looks like (the issues) might date back to St. Louis so we re not sure what s going on with our car. Losing two rounds of qualifying information this weekend, spinning the tires really hard during Q2 on Friday night and then dealing with the rain all day on Saturday just set us way behind. We had a good drag race this morning but our car didn t perform. We ll figure out what s going with our Don Schumacher Racing Factory Stock Dodge Challenger Drag Pak and get ready for next season. Image courtesy of: David Hakim/DodgeGarage.com

19 About Don Schumacher Racing Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields seven professional NHRA teams. In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown and the Mopar/Papa John's Pizza/Pennzoil/FireAde/U.S. Army dragster driven by Leah Pritchett; and in Funny Car, 2016 world champion Ron Capps in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T; two-time world champion Matt Hagan in the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, and 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in Terry and Doug Chandler's Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge and the Chandlers' Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr. DSR also campaigns two Sportsman teams. The two-car Factory Stock Showdown duo is piloted by Pritchett and veteran Pro Stock racer Mark Pawuk. Both drivers compete in Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Paks. DSR has won 332 NHRA national event titles and 17 world championships. Follow Don Schumacher Racing at Shoeracing.com, on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

20