Hagan frustrated at Sonoma, eager to rebound next week at Seattle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hagan hopes to salvage Western Swing next weekend at Seattle finale after frustrating first-round loss for Mopar Dodge at Sonoma Raceway SONOMA, Calif. (July 30, 2017) - Matt Hagan and the 80th Anniversary Mopar/Express Lane Funny Car team had opportunities the last two races to take big chunks out of Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps led in the championship race. Capps lost in the first round Sunday in the NHRA Sonoma Nationals near San Francisco as his team did the previous week at Denver. But at Denver, Hagan lost in the first round at Sonoma on Sunday and in the second round at Denver. With three NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events remaining before points are reset to start the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff, Hagan continues ranked No. 2 but trails Capps by 183 points. "Just a rough couple of weekends," said Hagan, the two-time world champion who has won three times in 15 races this year. "The Western Swing has not been treating us kindly. We need to focus on Seattle." The Western Swings includes three races in three weeks and it concludes next weekend at Seattle. "Unfortunately, we smoked the tires on four out of the five times that we were up there on the starting line and that's just not common for (crew chief) Dickie Venables and our guys to miss it that bad that often" said Hagan, whose only full pass was in Friday's first session was in 3.904 seconds at 330.39 mph that held up for the No. 6 qualifying position. Hagan's car appeared to suffer a minor fuel leak on the prerace burnout before running Del Worsham, who also lost traction but his 5.142-second run at 210.87 mph was more than enough to top Hagan's 10.951 after he smoked his tires right at the start. "Doing the burnout I was trying to talk to the guys (about the fuel leak) over the radio with one hand and back it up one-handed. I don't know if we really ended up staged where we needed to be. "I probably should have slapped (the throttle) knowing that he clicked it off in two seconds. But when you smoke the tires at the hit like that you just kind of feel like it's over. The end result is we didn't turn the win light on, and It is what it is, man, we'll just roll into Seattle and hope for the best." DSR FUNNY CARS Event winner: J.R. Todd (Kalitta Motorsports) No. 1 qualifier: Robert Hight (John Force Racing), 3.807 sec., 339.87 mph-world record MATT HAGAN, 80th Anniversary Mopar/Express Lane 2017 Dodge Charger R/T Crew chief: Dickie Venables; Assistant: Michael Knudsen SUNDAY'S CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATIONS First round: Del Worsham (5.142 sec., 210.87) def. HAGAN (10.951, 62.37) QUALIFYING RESULTS Qualified: No. 6 FRIDAY: 3.904 sec., 330.39 mph, (Session 1); 10.105, 82.71, (Session 2) SATURDAY: 9.862, 76.78, (Session 3); 6.373, 104.79, (Session 4) SONOMA BY THE NUMBERS Career best time, speed: 3.802 sec.-world record, (2017,Topeka); 338.85 mph-world record (2017, Topeka) Last event (July 23), Denver: Qualified: No. 15, lost in second round to Cruz Pedregon A year ago at Sonoma: Qualified No. 4, lost in second round to teammate Ron Capps Career at Sonoma: Wins 0; Runner-up 1 (2012); Poles 2 (2009, 2013) 2017 NHRA MELLO YELLO DRAG RACING SERIES FUNNY CAR STANDINGS (Official after Sonoma; 15 of 24 events: wins in parenthesis; DSR drivers in CAPS) 1. RON CAPPS (6) 1,276 ----- 2. MATT HAGAN (3) 1,093 -183 4. JACK BECKMAN (2) 1,049 -227 3. Robert Hight (1) 1,035 -241 5. TOMMY JOHNSON JR. (1) 982 -294 6. Courtney Force 874 -402 7. John Force (1) 821 -455 8. Tim Wilkerson 727 -549 9. J.R. Todd (1) 724 -552 10. Cruz Pedregon 570 -706 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About the Mopar Brand Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product but 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 more than 130 markets, integrating 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 unique in that they are engineered with the same teams that create factory-authorized vehicle specifications for FCA vehicles - 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. About Don Schumacher Racing Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields seven professional NHRA teams. In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the Matco Tools dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown and the Papa John's Top Fuel dragster driven by Leah Pritchett; and in Funny Car, 2011 and 2014 world champion Matt Hagan in the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T, 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in Terry Chandler's Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge driven by 2016 Funny Car champion Ron Capps and Chandler's Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr. DSR has won 312 NHRA national event titles and 16 world championships. Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jeff Wolf (wolfj@shoeracing.com), 702.524.1368 Leah Vaughn (vaughnl@shoeracing.com), 618.516.1988 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forward email http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=5uv7snbab&m=1101041391262&ea=$submit@theautochannel.com$&a=1128502230241 This email was sent to submit@theautochannel.com by vaughnl@shoeracing.com. 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