Beckman Earns First No. 1 Qualifier of Season at U.S. Nationals, Leads Six Mopar-powered Dodge Charger NHRA Funny Car Drivers Into Elimination Rounds

· Jack Beckman ran his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to No. 1 qualifier in the U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis

· Six Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car drivers qualify for 16-car elimination field

· Matt Hagan pilots Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody to second starting position

· Coming off his Brainerd victory, Ron Capps will chase his first U.S. Nationals triumph in his Mopar-powered NAPA Dodge Charger SRT from fourth

· Leah Pritchett will start eliminations from the 7th spot in her Mopar-powered Top Fuel dragster

· More info on Mopar in NHRA available at http://blog.mopar.com

· Dodge Garage, a digital content hub for muscle car and race enthusiasts, features highlights from NHRA season

September 1, 2019, Indianapolis – Mopar-powered Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car driver Jack Beckman raced to his first No. 1 qualifier position of season this weekend during the 65th Annual U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, leading a contingent of six Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers into Monday’s elimination rounds for the NHRA’s biggest race of the season.

Beckman and his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Dodge//SRT Mopar teammates Matt Hagan and Ron Capps earned positions inside the top-four and were joined in the field by fellow DSR teammate Tommy Johnson, Jr. and Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers Paul Lee and Cruz Pedregon.

Since qualifying began Friday night, the most consistent machine in the Funny Car class through the five sessions was Beckman’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. After posting a Friday night run of 3.875 seconds, the 2012 Funny Car world champion never relinquished the No.1 position, topping three of the five sessions and collecting 16 qualifying points. His run early Saturday evening of 3.861 earned Beckman the 25th No. 1 qualifier of his career. It was his second No. 1 at the U.S. Nationals, his first coming in 2015 setting up Beckman for his only U.S. Nationals crown.

Two-time world champion and 2016 U.S. Nationals winner Hagan also made his best run of the weekend in the third qualifying session powering his Mopar-powered 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody to a lap of 3.874 to secure the second position. It’s the second time this season where he has qualified No. 2. The first came in Phoenix and he recorded the first of seven 2019 wins by Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers.

After earning his third NHRA Wally of the season two weeks ago in Brainerd, Capps followed the lead of Beckman making consistent runs throughout the five sessions and adding qualifying points in four of the five. He grabbed the fourth position on Monday’s elimination ladder with his run of 3.882 aboard the NAPA Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The 2016 Funny Car champion’s best Indy finish was a runner-up in 2017.

Johnson, Jr. is in the midst of a career season and his quest for a first U.S. Nationals win wasn’t as smooth as planned for the driver of the Riley’s Kids Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Through three rounds of qualifying, he was on the outside looking in, but his John Collins’ tuned Hellcat came through Sunday with a pair of runs, 3.909 and 3.912 seconds, to qualify in the 10th position.

Lee and Pedregon will race from the ninth and 12th spots, respectively.

Like Capps, DSR’s Leah Pritchett brings the momentum of winning in Brainerd to “The Big Go.” Pritchett, who’s best U.S. Nationals result was a semifinal run in 2017, began with a solid pass of 3.726 seconds at 325.22 mph Friday evening. Her run of 3.701 in session three was the best of weekend for the DSR HEMI-powered Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster.

Tune-in Info
Five hours of action from the U.S. Nationals will air on Monday, September 2, with coverage scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET for two hours before coverage switches over to FOX from 1 – 4 p.m. ET. For complete information, visit www.nhra.com

Dodge Garage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News
Fans can follow NHRA Dodge HEMI Challenge and NHRA U.S. Nationals coverage 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.

Mopar Dodge//SRT Notes & Quotes
(best elapsed times below)

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 1, will face No. 16 Justin Schriefer
Friday: (3.875 seconds at 328.46 mph – Q1); Saturday: (3.861/330.07 – Q2), (3.878/331.94 – Q3); Sunday (3.911/326.40 – Q4), (3.875/335.23 – Q5)

“I don’t want to say that we’ve been perfect all weekend, but I think we have our Dodge Hellcat Funny Car as close to perfect as it’s been in a while. Tomorrow’s conditions should be different. I don’t know if we have a huge advantage if the sun is out and the track is hot. I think psychologically everyone on our Infinite Hero team is revved up. I think that is so important to set the tone that you know that you can be the best. Tomorrow is race day and I feel like you have to be flawless, because you never know if you are going to go out there and smoke the tires against the number 16 qualifier. If you do, you have to be ready to catch it. Tomorrow it’s not about ET slips, it’s about win lights. You don’t have to be good, you just have to be better than the car in the other lane.”

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car
Qualified No. 2, will face No. 15 Bob Bode
Friday: (3.987 seconds at 287.84 mph – Q1); Saturday: (4.173/234.90 – Q2), (3.874/327.66 – Q3); Sunday (4.070/245.23 – Q4), (3.976/275.34 – Q5)

“I’m always just glad to be here racing at the Big Go. We’ve got a good race car, we’re coming off some solid finishes these last couple of races and I think we’ve got some momentum to do what we need to do. Right now, we’re still trying to dial-in the fuel curve on this car. We’ve been putting some pan pressure, cylinders out and things like that, but we’ll get all that addressed and I think we’ll have a really good race car tomorrow. Both lanes seem to be really nice and this MOPAR Hellcat Widebody is running really well.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 4, will face No. 13 Ray Martin
Friday: (3.882 seconds at 327.66 mph – Q1); Saturday: (4.206/221.13 – Q2), (3.896/329.18 – Q3); Sunday (3.891/328.22 – Q4), (3.891/329.10 – Q5)

“This is Indy. It’s so good to have a hot rod coming out of Brainerd. (Crew chief) Rahn Tobler and the NAPA AutoCare guys unloaded Friday and we made a great run. It really catapulted us to where we could go after low E.T. each session. It’s great putting two 3.89s up on Sunday going into race day. The conditions (today) kind of gave us a little inkling of what it’s going to be like on race day. I’m really looking forward to Labor Day.”

Tommy Johnson, Jr., Riley Kids Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
Qualified No. 10, will face No. 7 Shawn Langdon
Friday: (4.368 seconds at 200.71 mph – Q1); Saturday: (7.01/88.35 – Q2), (4.376/197.83 – Q3); Sunday (3.909/319.82 – Q4), (3.912/324.90 – Q5)

“We’ve got our car back. We had some issues at the beginning of qualifying but now the race car is back and we’re going to be a tough team to beat tomorrow.”

Leah Pritchett, Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified No. 7, will face No. 10 Shawn Reed
Friday: (3.726 seconds at 325.22.84 mph – Q1); Saturday: (8.789/84.02 – Q2), (3.701/322.42 – Q3); Sunday (4.711/155.70 – Q4), (3.713/324.98 – Q5)

“Today was U.S. Nationals Saturday 2.0 with a little bit better results. We were second-low of Q5 and that’s great to have that data setting up for race day. The issues we had in qualifying were slight mechanical hiccups that we found a solution to. Conditions tomorrow will be warmer than what we’ve seen so far. We look forward to putting this frost-bitten blue Mopar Top Fuel dragster in the winner’s circle one round at a time. We have a lot of great momentum coming in from Brainerd. We have a fast hot rod, a driver on her game and a crew that’s hungry to win. We’re going to start Labor Day off putting in all the work.”