BAYTOWN, Texas, April 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
- Ron Capps and DSR 2015 Mopar
Dodge Charger R/T earn Funny Car title win at NHRA SpringNationals
near Houston, Texas
- New 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T earns a fifth win in six
NHRA events this season
- No.1 qualifier Jack Beckman
drives 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T to his second final elimination
round of the season
- Capps takes over lead in Funny Car points standings from
teammate Matt Hagan
Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Ron
Capps earned his second national title victory of the year
with a trip to the winner's circle at the National Hot Rod
Association (NHRA) SpringNationals near Houston on a day recognized by Mopar fans as
HEMI® Day (4/26) named after the legendary 426 HEMI
engine which helped power the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T to
its fifth win in six events since making its debut this season.
"I'm very pleased to see how well the Don Schumacher Racing team
has embraced the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car and
taken it to the winner's circle for a fifth time this season with a
victory by Ron Capps at the
SpringNationals," said Pietro
Gorlier, President and CEO – Mopar
Brand Service, Parts and Customer Care. "Everyone at Mopar
is looking forward to seeing this team and the new Mopar contend
for many more wins this year and work to defend the
championship."
Seeded third, Capps faced his DSR teammate and No.1 qualifier
Jack Beckman for the all-Mopar final
elimination in what was a close race until the midway point where
both drivers began to haze the tires. Capps crossed the finish
first with a 4.244 second elapsed time run at 258.32 mile per hour
(mph) to beat Beckman's 4.480/205.16 pass to post his
44th career Funny Car victory putting him second on the
all-time list.
This is Capps' third title win in Houston (2006-2007) and his third final round
appearance of the 2015 season. The first came in the season opening
event at Pomona against DSR teammate and 2014 NHRA Funny Car
champion Matt Hagan, followed by a
coveted national title victory at the Gatornationals. With his
winning performance at the SpringNationals, Capps takes over the
lead in the Funny Car points standings from his teammate
Matt Hagan.
"That new car is just so nice to drive," said Capps who credits
the increased visibility of the newly designed Dodge Charger R/T
Funny Car for his team's early success this year. "I said it in
Gainesville, the only bad thing is
that now I can see out the side windows and that not a good thing
when I've got a fender going 300 miles per hour out my window, but
it's exciting. It's great to give the new Charger another win as
hard as everyone worked at Dodge to make that body possible. I was
like a little kid starting over as a rookie when they brought that
car to the race track. I thought, 'Man this is the greatest thing
ever.' I forgot how good it was to drive a car like that. This is
huge."
Beckman, who posted the track's very first three-second run on
Friday night, saw his runner-up finish and No.1 qualifier position
propel him and his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T from tenth in
the standings to sixth.
"I'm complaining about a runner-up finish because we are that
good now," said Beckman about his second trip to the final round of
eliminations this year after a win at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
a few weeks ago in Charlotte. "We
had a malfunction in the fuel system, the slide valve which
bypasses fuel, the fuel curve was off. We didn't have time to check
it on the warm-up because you lose 20 minutes of turnaround time
(for live television). This is the downside about live television.
You take a chance of not getting into your normal routine. You have
to take some shortcuts for the quick turnaround times and in our
case it bit us. It bit Capps' team too. They didn't make an optimal
run, theirs was just better than ours."
All four DSR entries were paired up against each other in the
quarterfinals with Beckman defeating Tommy
Johnson Jr. and his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T, while
Capps beat reigning world champion Matt
Hagan when the Rocky Boots/ Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger
R/T dropped some cylinders on the pass.
"We race a lot against Ron
(Capps)," said Hagan, who is now second in the standings,
six points behind Capps. "You want to win against your teammates
more than anyone else because you know they are the best cars out
here. They have the same parts as us and it's all about who does a
better job on the racetrack and they got us today."
In Pro Stock, Allen Johnson and
his "Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar" Dodge Dart faced a difficult
first round match-up against the current NHRA champ and defending
event winner, Erica Enders-Stevens,
after qualifying 13th, the lowest the Mopar driver has
been seeded since 2011 in Reading,
Pennsylvania. Johnson's quick 0.004 second reaction time off
the starting line against Enders-Stevens (0.005) wasn't quite
enough to give him an advantage at the other end of the racetrack.
Johnson posted a 6.617/209.36 pass to Enders-Stevens' lap of
6.562/209.46. Enders-Stevens went on to defend her national title
at Houston and take the lead in
the Pro Stock standings.
"Fuel got us again even though we thought we had it figured out
last night," Johnson said. "It's got us by the cahoochies. We
thought we fixed it and then on that run it came right back. We're
going to have to go test somewhere in humidity (where the problem
seems more evident) and run until we wear everything out and get it
worked out. We don't give up but right now this problem is like a
big sledgehammer on the head. I knew if we made a good run, I could
beat her and I got everything but the running part done. It's not
one person's fault. It's just something with this new fuel that
seems to be plaguing the HEMI engines worse than any other motor.
We're being methodical and hunting in every direction to get this
solved. We won't give up."
Johnson's new teammate Richie Stevens
Jr., who was seeded 15th for eliminations, was
seemingly a little too anxious to get going in his first
elimination round match-up against Shane
Grey and turned on the red right fouling out by -0.011
seconds.
"I knew I had to go up there and push it because he was faster
than us in qualifying and I was pretty good on the tree all
weekend," Stevens Jr. said. "I wasn't nervous or overly excited
heading in and I felt good on the tree but evidently I was 11
thousandths too quick. I threw it away before it started. We'll be
back for Englishtown where I've had a lot of success so I'm looking
forward to that one."
After qualifying sixth overall, the HEMI-powered Dodge Dart
driven by V. Gaines (6.581/210.47)
didn't fare any better with a first round loss to Larry Morgan (6.559/211.53).
Mopar racers will see action next at the 35th annual
NHRA Southern Nationals, the seventh event on the 2015 NHRA Mello
Yello Drag Racing Series schedule, set for May 15–17 at Atlanta
Dragway, near Atlanta,
Georgia.
2015 NHRA Championship Points Standings
(following the NHRA SpringNationals near Houston):
PRO STOCK (season wins in parentheses)
1.
|
Erica Enders Stevens
– 510 (2)
|
2.
|
Jason Line – 495
(1)
|
3.
|
Greg Anderson – 458
(1)
|
4.
|
Chris McGaha –
432
|
5.
|
Rodger Brogdon – 385
(1)
|
6.
|
Vincent Nobile –
337
|
7.
|
Drew Skillman –
334
|
8.
|
Larry Morgan – 320
(1)
|
9.
|
Shane Gray –
295
|
10.
|
Allen Johnson (Dodge
Dart) – 280
|
13.
|
V Gaines (Dodge Dart)
– 211
|
|
|
FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)
1.
|
Ron Capps (2015 Dodge
Charger R/T) – 431 (2)
|
2.
|
Matt Hagan (2015
Dodge Charger R/T) – 425 (2)
|
3.
|
Del Worsham –
401
|
4.
|
Robert Hight –
397
|
5.
|
Tommy Johnson Jr.
(2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 369
|
6.
|
Jack Beckman (2015
Dodge Charger R/T) – 353 (1)
|
7t.
|
Alexis DeJoria –
328
|
7t.
|
John Force – 328
(1)
|
9.
|
Courtney Force –
301
|
10.
|
Cruz Pedregon–
291
|
|
|
About Mopar Brand
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was
trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product, but
it truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From
Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road
and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical
service and customer support.
Today, Mopar is FCA's service, parts and customer-care brand and
distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150
markets around the world. With more than 50 parts distribution
centers and 27 customer contact hubs globally, Mopar integrates
service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance
dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for
genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.
Mopar parts are engineered together with the same teams that
create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles. This
offers a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company
can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance
parts is available at: www.mopar.com.
Mopar-first Features
Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features
including:
- Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone
vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication
with customers
- Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner
manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format. First to offer
complete vehicle-information kits in Spanish
- Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their
vehicle a wireless hot spot
- Wireless charging: first to introduce in-vehicle wireless
charging for portable devices
- Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with
interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when
vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set
parameters
- wiADVISOR: first to provide factory-connected tablet technology
in the service lane for instant vehicle diagnosis
- wiTECH: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates
leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated
wireless tool network
- 2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus
cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car
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