AUBURN HILLS, Mich.,
Oct. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
- Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers Matt
Hagan, Jack Beckman and
Ron Capps look to close gap at Dodge
NHRA Nationals powered by Pennzoil at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway on Nov. 1-3
- Leah Pritchett set to battle for
NHRA Top Fuel championship in her HEMI®-powered Mopar Dodge Top
Fuel Dragster
- Hagan drove the Western Technical
College Mopar Career Automotive Program (CAP) Dodge Charger
SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car of DSR to victory in fourth round of
the Countdown at Texas Motorplex near Dallas
- Beckman opened six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs
with a victory in Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania, behind the wheel of
Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
- Mopar CAP "Assemble Your Future" initiative hosts local,
next-generation service technician students for at-track activities
as a reward for participation in the program
- Dodge Garage, a digital content hub for muscle car and race
enthusiasts, features highlights from NHRA season
- New @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel features
Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers in NHRA action
The 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car
championship is going to come down to the outcome of the final two
events of the season. Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers Matt Hagan, Jack
Beckman and Ron Capps, all
former Funny Car world champions, can enhance their chances of
lifting the championship hardware again by hitting the jackpot in
the Dodge NHRA Nationals Powered by Pennzoil at The Strip at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, Nov. 1-3,
2019.
The Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) trio ranks fourth, second and
sixth, respectively, in the standings and each has a previous
championship run in the past six seasons. A victory in the Dodge
NHRA Nationals bodes well from a historical perspective also, with
two of the previous three Funny Car champions clocking wins at the
fall stop in Las Vegas. The
success of the HEMI®-powered Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars
in 2019, nine wins and 18 total final appearances, as well as in
the Countdown, two wins and a runner-up, enhances their odds of
tightening the points chase.
DSR's Leah Pritchett remains
alive in her quest for her first Top Fuel world championship. She
ranks fifth in the standings and is 104 points out of first. A
first Las Vegas triumph, along with early exits by the point
leaders, would likely cut that margin in half and increase her shot
at the title.
Closing the points gap in Las
Vegas is important for the Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers. The
final race of the 2019 NHRA season, the Auto Club NHRA Finals in
Pomona, California, on
Nov. 14-17, pays 1.5 times the points
of the other races in the Countdown.
The Countdown started slow for two-time Funny Car champion
Hagan, with second- and first-round defeats in Reading and St.
Louis. Crew Chief Dickie Venables got things turned around
on the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car in Charlotte as Hagan made a run to the
semifinals, then picked up his third win of 2019 in the AAA Texas
NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex in the most recent event. His
32nd career Funny Car triumph was the result of consistency on race
day as Hagan posted runs in the 3.90-second range throughout the
day to score the first-ever victory in a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Widebody Funny Car.
Winning in the Countdown has been a key to securing the
championship. In five of the previous six Countdowns, the champion
has won at least one race. In four of those years, the eventual
champion picked up three or more wins. Hagan won three times during
his title march in 2014, and he may have to duplicate that run in
order to erase the 112-point deficit he currently faces.
Beckman, the 2012 Funny Car champion, opened the Countdown with
an impressive victory at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals at
Maple Grove Raceway near Reading,
Pennsylvania. The Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT
Hellcat Funny Car was locked down en route to his 29th career
triumph and first of the season after reaching five previous
finals. After a tough first-round loss in St. Louis, Beckman and his DSR team bounced
back in Charlotte earning the No.
1 qualifier position and advancing the final.
Through four races in the 2019 Countdown, Beckman has matched
the final-round stats recorded during his 2012 championship
campaign. Scoring another win and a runner-up would greatly
increase his chances as he trails Robert
Hight by 60 points heading into Las Vegas.
Capps, the 2016 champion, opened his quest for a second title
with a new track record and the No. 1 qualifier in Reading. He advanced to the semifinals in the
first race and then again in Charlotte, but he lost a tough first-round
battle with Beckman in Dallas,
which has him 135 points out of first. The best case scenario for
Capps is to continue this year's Countdown trend and become the
fifth different winner in five races and also have the drivers in
front of him stumble.
Despite being 194 points out of first, Tommy Johnson, Jr. doesn't mind his longshot
odds. After having the best regular season of his career that
included a pair of wins behind the wheel of the Make-A-Wish Dodge
Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car, the Countdown has been a struggle.
He has scored only two round wins in the first four events, but
going his way are his recent late-season heroics. Coming on strong
late seems to be part of his DNA as evidenced by concluding 2015
with a pair of runner-ups and winning the 2016 and 2017 season
finales.
Fox Sports 1 will air coverage of qualifying Friday evening from
7 - 8:30 p.m. Eastern. The network
will broadcast coverage of eliminations Sunday from 4-7 p.m. Eastern.
Higher Education at 300 mph: Mopar CAP Students to Visit
Dodge NHRA Nationals
For the fourth NHRA national event in 2019, education will take
center stage with the Mopar Career Automotive Program (CAP)
"Assemble Your Future" initiative and the National Hot Rod
Association (NHRA) Youth & Education Services (YES)
program.
Mopar Career Automotive Program (CAP), through a partnership
with Pennzoil, will host next-generation service technician
students at The Strip at Las Vegas Friday,
Nov. 1, as part of the "Assemble Your Future" initiative.
More than 30 students from ATI's Automotive Training Technician
program are expected to attend and have the opportunity to interact
with area FCA US dealership
representatives and get an inside look at the NHRA, visiting with
Hagan and Pritchett and touring the DSR pit areas.
Established in 1984, the program prepares students to begin
their automotive technician careers upon graduation from a
certified, two-year training institution, such as a university,
college, community college or technical center. Currently, FCA has
more than 9,000 active students enrolled in its Mopar CAP program,
with students completing more than 100,000 class courses. There are
an estimated 750,000 auto technicians working nationally, according
to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Across the industry,
another 46,000 will need to be hired between 2019 and 2026 to meet
increased demand.
The program included similar Mopar CAP "Assemble Your Future"
initiative programs at NHRA national events in 2019 in Houston, Denver
and Reading. For more information on the Mopar CAP program, visit
www.MoparCAP.com.
As part of the NHRA YES initiative, more than 2,000 local Las
Vegas high school students are scheduled to hear from Dodge//SRT
Mopar driver Hagan, who will focus on the importance of math,
science and other skills that can lead to new career
opportunities.
Dodge Garage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News
Fans can follow NHRA's Countdown to the Championship at Dodge
Garage, the one-stop portal for Dodge//SRT and Mopar drag racing
news. The site includes daily updates and access to an online
racing HQ, news, events, galleries, available downloads and
merchandise.
@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram
The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel will share content
capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers in action in the NHRA Mello
Yello Drag Racing Series, NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers
competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and
Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series.
About Dodge//SRT
Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that
stand out in their own segments. Dodge is America's performance
brand and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the
Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance
brand with one vision and one voice.
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the
spirit of brothers John and Horace
Dodge, who founded the brand in 1914. Their influence
continues today. For 2020, Dodge literally expands its
high-performance Charger model lineup, adding a Widebody exterior
to America's only four-door muscle car. Powered by the
707-horsepower supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Hellcat V-8 engine, the
2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat maintains its reign as the most
powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world.
The 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is possessed by the
Demon. Its 797-horsepower supercharged HEMI® high-output engine
makes it the most powerful, quickest and fastest muscle car,
reaching 0-60 miles per hour (mph) in 3.4 seconds, and the fastest
GT production car with a ¼-mile elapsed time (ET) of 10.8 seconds
at 131 mph. It also reaches a new top speed of 203 mph.
Joining the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the 2019 Dodge
Challenger SRT Hellcat, with its more powerful 717-horsepower
engine, and the Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody, featuring fender
flares from the SRT Hellcat Widebody, which add 3.5 inches of width
to the 485-horsepower Scat Pack's standard body. Also new for 2019
is the Challenger R/T Scat Pak 1320 with exclusive drag strip
technology from the iconic Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. The
Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320 is a drag-oriented, street-legal
muscle car and a blank canvas for the serious grassroots drag
racer. The 2019 Dodge Durango SRT, America's fastest, most powerful
and most capable three-row SUV with a best-in-class tow rating of
8,700 lbs., completes the brand's performance lineup. These
visceral performance models join a 2019 brand lineup that includes
the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger — a
showroom that offers performance at every price point.
Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US
news and video on:
Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com
Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com
Dodge brand: www.dodge.com
Dodge Garage: www.dodgegarage.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgemoparmotorsports, www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or
www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA
YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica
About Mopar
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) is the
service, parts and customer-care brand for FCA vehicles around the
globe. Born in 1937 as the name of a line of antifreeze products,
the Mopar brand has evolved over more than 80 years to represent
both complete care and authentic performance for owners and
enthusiasts worldwide.
Mopar made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era, with
Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road
and racing use, and expanded to include technical service and
customer support. Today, the Mopar brand's global reach distributes
more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150 markets around
the world. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 25
customer contact centers globally, Mopar integrates service, parts
and customer-care operations in order to enhance customer and
dealer support worldwide.
Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for all
FCA US LLC vehicle brands. Mopar parts are engineered together with
the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for
FCA vehicles, offering a direct connection that no other
aftermarket parts company can provide. Complete information on the
Mopar brand is available at www.mopar.com.
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SOURCE FCA