New 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger Has Hagan and DSR Teammates Optimistic at Wild Horse Pass;
Allen Johnson Looks to Defend Phoenix Pro Stock Title in a Dodge Dart
· Mopar drivers are back in the saddle for the second event of the 2015 National Hot Rod Association season at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park
· Hagan riding high into Phoenix with the new 2015 Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T atop the Funny Car standings after a win in its inaugural race
· Allen Johnson looks to defend last year’s Pro Stock title win with the “Magneti Marelli Quality Auto Parts Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart Pro Stock
· Don Schumacher Racing teammates Capps and Beckman both working for fourth Funny Car title wins at Phoenix
Chandler, Arizona (Friday, Feb. 20, 2015) – There was plenty of optimism in the Mopar pits as teams worked to qualifying their Dodge machines at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park on Friday for the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals near Phoenix, the second event on the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series schedule, with Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Matt Hagan leading the charge into this weekend’s competition from atop the Funny Car standings after driving his new 2015 Mopar Express Lane/ Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T to the winner’s circle in its maiden run at the season opening event in Pomona.
Hagan picked up right where he left off by posting the quickest run of the first Funny Car qualifying session of the weekend with a 4.025-second lap at 316.60 miles per hour. He followed that up with a 4.032 sec /320.13 mph on his second pass to find himself fourth in provisional qualifying with two sessions left to fine tune his Mopar for Sunday’s elimination rounds.
“We’re working with the same combo that we had in Pomona so obviously the car is running good,” Hagan said. “We made two great laps out there in the new Dodge Charger with a .02 and a .03 and you can’t ask for much more. We’ve got a good race car and we’re going cleanly down the race track and that is half the battle. The rest of it, we can go after tomorrow because we don’t have anything to lose.”
Also off to a great start is DSR teammate Ron Capps who finished runner-up to Hagan in the all-Mopar final elimination in Pomona. Capps comes into this weekend second in the points and with the confidence of having won the Funny Car title at this track in 2013 and a total of three win in six final round appearances at Wild Horse Pass. He also finds himself feeling particularly optimistic each time he straps into his new ride.
“This is the most excited I’ve been about driving a racecar just for the feel of the car,” said Capps who was fifth quickest after the first session with a 4.066 sec. /311.20 mph run and ended up provisionally tenth after a smoking the tires on his second pass. “Every time we drop the Dodge Charger body down, it is just such a huge difference. The visibility is tremendous and it drives so nice.
“Going to the final (in Pomona) was great and coming to Phoenix second in points is all good, but we need to keep the momentum going and we will,” Capps added. “We’re still kind of playing around with combinations. (Crew Chief Rahn) Tobler has the six disc (clutch) in it and hasn’t even tapped the potential of the rear spoiler and let this thing run some mile per hour, which we will do soon. We’re still in the feeling out process of the season, but it’s good to be where we are right now.”
Another DSR driver with three Phoenix victories is Jack Beckman who would love to earn a fourth one to end a streak of 52 events without a title win. The first race of the season didn’t go well as Beckman struggled to get in a good qualifying lap in his new Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T and then failed to qualify for the Pomona elimination rounds when a fourth attempt was thwarted by rain. Friday qualifying in Phoenix was a little bit of deja-vu as Beckman wasn’t able to make a clean run down the track.
“We fixed what was ailing us with a four test runs after Pomona and then today we had two bad runs,” Beckman said. “You almost have to chuckle to yourself because it is so frustrating. We can’t work any harder so we just have to work smarter on this thing. We had a bad run and then we broke a wheelie bar on the second attempt. We’ll fix it and move forward.”
All the DSR teams are working diligently to get to know and improve the performance of their all-new 2015 Dodge Charger R/T carbon-fiber bodies that spent the better part of a year in development before taking the track for the first time to start this season. Beckman knows it’s just a matter of getting one good run in to join his teammates in the top-ten.
“We’ll be in good shape but we just don’t like going into Saturday not qualified because you start thinking about the what-ifs,” Beckman added. “It puts more stress on you but I’m optimistic. This is a great team but we’re struggling and we shouldn’t be. We’ll figure it out and when we do, we’ll be at the top of the heap so it’s hard to get too down about this.”
Aboard his 2015 Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger RT, DSR driver Tommy Johnson was sixth in provisional qualifying on the merit of a solid 4.034 sec. / 312.21 mph run. Two more Dodge entries will try to qualify for Funny Car eliminations with drivers Shane Westerfield and John Hale at the helm.
Last year at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, Allen Johnson took his Dodge Avenger to the Pro Stock winner’s circle before its retirement to make way for the new “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart that made its debut at the following event at Gainesville in 2014. This season new tires and new fuel have changed things up for the Pro Stock teams, and along with new Crew Chief Adam Hornberger the J&J Racing team is getting the bugs worked out. Johnson and his Mopar team made gains in Friday qualifying to move from a sixth quick 6.567 sec / 210.64 mph in the first session to a provisional fourth place spot on the eliminations ladder with a 6.551 /211.36.
“We’re sneaking up on it little by little as the crew is working conservatively and that’s something we decided to do as a team from the start of the year,” said Johnson who is coming off a quarterfinal finish in Pomona and looking to defend last year’s win at this venue. “We are getting a handle on the car and on the new fuel. One more run and we might just take that number one away from them so that’s our goal.”
V. Gaines has his Dodge Dart qualified 12th with a 6.620/209.95 pass while the third Dodge Dart in the field sits 14th with a 6.637/208.55 driven by Deric Kramer.