Optimism Reigns in Mopar Camp Despite Challenging Race Day at Phoenix
· Challenging day for Mopar teams in both Funny Car and Pro Stock categories without a semifinal appearance at the 32nd annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals near Phoenix
· No. 1 Qualifier Ron Capps remains Funny Car points leader despite quarterfinal loss at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park
· This event marks only the second time a DSR Dodge Charger R/T hasn’t advanced to finals in 26 national events since new Mopar body made its debut at the 2015 Winternationals
· Erica Enders and Jeg Coughlin Jr. optimistic about improvements to Mopar-powered Elite Motorsports Dodge Dart regardless of early exit in Pro Stock eliminations
Chandler, Arizona, (February 28, 2016) – It was an relatively unusual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) race day occurrence not to see a HEMI®-powered Dodge vehicle advance to a final elimination round, but while Mopar drivers in both Funny Car and Pro Stock classes were disappointed by early exits at 32nd annual NHRA Nationals near Phoenix, there was a lot of optimism about the early season progress being made by their teams in their very competitive fields.
Coming off a win in the season opening Winternationals event, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Ron Capps earned the No. 1 qualifier position for Sunday’s eliminations at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park with his tenth sub 4-second pass of the season and a track record time of 3.925 seconds. His Dodge Charger R/T posted another stellar run in the first round of eliminations with a 3.965 second pass at 319.29 miles per hour (mph) to beat Jeff Diehl.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as planned in the quarterfinals, when Capps’ day went up in tire smoke halfway through the run against competitor Tim Wilkerson, who had similar issues in his own lane but regained control for the round win.
“We were a little more aggressive than what the track temperature and conditions would hold,” said Capps of his loss to eventual Funny Car title winner Wilkerson. “We just had such a great racecar, so consistent. Even in the heat on Saturday we felt comfortable going down the track but it lost some grip today; enough to where it slowed everybody down, we just didn’t back ours down enough.”
Despite the early exit, Capps retains his lead in the Funny Car class points standings.
Another positive is that this weekend marks only the second time in 26 national events that a DSR Dodge Charger R/T hasn’t advanced to the final round of eliminations since the new Mopar body made its debut at the Winternationals in 2015.
Even Matt Hagan, driver of the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T, who so far this season has endured two opening round losses, sees positive gains from the work his crew put in this weekend to help diminish the disappointment.
“I think that we are so close to getting this turned around and going down the racetrack and getting our consistency back,” said Hagan who lost to DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. “We tried some new things at the beginning and it just wasn’t working. We’ve just been having some bad luck and it’s unfortunate. (Crew Chief) Dickie (Venables) basically had one run to work off of this weekend. You just can’t go into race day like that. You need three or four good runs to go into Sunday and feel confident.
“It’s been a really rocky start to the year but that’s drag racing,” added Hagan. “If you look at last year, we came out and won the first two races and then struggled at the end. We’re having our struggles now and we’ll go out and win the last couple of races.
“We’re going to stay over on Monday and test this Mopar/Rocky Boots car and build some confidence to go into Gainesville and hopefully get the job done.”
Both DSR teammates Jack Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr. also fell in the second round of eliminations to John Force and Courtney Force respectively.
HEMI-powered factory hot rods didn’t fare much better in Pro Stock eliminations as Jeg Coughlin Jr. was the only Elite Motorsports Mopar to advance out of the first round. However, the lessons learned this weekend have the “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart driver feeling positive regardless of the results as teams adapt to changes in the class.
“We’ll gather everything together and everything is in one piece, which is extremely exciting,” Coughlin said. “I know the Elite Performance guys and the SRT engineers are joined at the hip, and that’s exciting, too. We’re really looking to improve the performance of this HEMI, and I feel like we’ve got some great opportunities to do so.”
NHRA mandated changes to electronically fuel-injected engines with a 10,500 rpm limit, as well as a switch to the HEMI-powered Dodge Dart Mopar has the Elite Motorsports crews working feverishly to find the right set ups to generate success on the track.
“We made some more changes in the program coming into round one today, and the car seemed like it responded really well,” said Coughlin, who beat Alex Laughlin before falling to eventual event winner Jason Line in the second round. “We made a few more changes, but we just need a little more. We were behind by .017 on the run to Jason there, and certainly I had enough room on the starting line to have picked up that much, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“We massaged the car from top to bottom, front to rear, and side to side. We never really seemed to hit a home run with it, so we’ll go back and make some brute power, and that will solve a lot of issues.”
Competing in her 200th career Pro Stock event, Erica Ender’s was in great race day form for her first round match-up against Drew Skillman, posting a .005-second reaction time off the starting line. However, it wasn’t quite enough of an advantage to propel her Mopar Performance Dodge Dart to the finish first with a 6.705 second/ 207.53 mph pass to her opponent’s 6.633/208.33. It was her first opening round loss since Norwalk in 2015.
“Cutting a .005 light made me happy but it was short lived,” said Enders of her quick reaction time in a losing effort. “I unclutched it and I thought ‘Dang, Drew (Skillman) is probably in trouble because that felt pretty good’ but our car has been extremely unhappy all weekend and we’re trying to get her settled down and back to our real race car.
“It stinks that we are out early in Phoenix but that round was certainly a step in the right direction. It gives us a little positive breath of air throughout all of this interesting learning curb. It’s easy to get frustrated especially coming off two successful year like we have had, but my crew continue to dig deep and have positive attitudes and that’s what I feel champions are made of. I’m so proud of them and proud to be their driver.
“I know that this early elimination exit trend is going to end pretty quickly and the rest of the field will be in trouble. Until then we’ll just continue to work on our racecar. The Dodge Dart is a great car and we’re going to test before Gainesville and that will help get us moving in the right direction.”
After qualifying fourth, Allen Johnson’s Marathon Petroleum Dodge Dart GT fell in the first round after its 6.711-second / 206.16 mph pass was edged by Deric Kramer’s run at 6.747/206.95. Kramer’s Dodge Dart lost its quarterfinal battle to Chris McGaha. HEMI-powered ride of V. Gaines fell to No. 1 qualifier Bo Butner in the opening round.