NHRA Gatornationals
Event No. 7
Gainesville Raceway
September 26-27, 2020
DSR Qualifying Highlights:
- Matt Hagan captured the Funny Car pole for the third time in 2020, and 39th time in his career, when he rocketed the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye to the only sub-four second Funny Car run of the day
- Hagan powered his machine to the second-quickest pass of Q1 before running low E.T. of Q2 to earn five bonus points overall
- DSR will be looking to achieve its 10th straight Funny Car victory on Sunday
- Antron Brown leads the DSR Top Fuel dragster trio and will start race day from the No. 3 spot
- Ron Capps earned a qualifying position in the quick-half of the Funny Car field and will start race day from fourth
(EXCERPT)
TOMMY JOHNSON JR.
Driver of the MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 10
The Competition: No. 7 J.R. Todd
The Results:
Q1: 4.129 E.T. at 249.44 MPH
Q2: 4.969 E.T. at 152.35 MPH
Quotable:
“That is not our normal qualifying position; our average took a hit here this weekend. Come race day I think we can overcome that. It’s just a tricky track for everybody. It’s hotter than what we’ve seen most of the year and a surface we haven’t raced on in over a year. With two shots at qualifying, it’s been hard to hit it quickly. Hopefully, we have enough data for tomorrow and we can make the right changes and maybe the weather will be cooler, but we have to wait and see. It should be an interesting race and may fall in the driver’s hands and it may be a pedalfest, but we’ll be ready. They’re all big rounds now. We control our own destiny and have to fend them all off.”
About Don Schumacher Racing:
Established in 1998 as a single-car Top Fuel team, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) has grown to become the winningest organization in NHRA Drag Racing history. Including team owner Don Schumacher’s five NHRA Funny Car titles from the 1970s, DSR’s current win count stands at 351, and DSR is one of a very small handful of teams in the motorsports industry to surpass the 350 milestone. DSR owns 17 world championships in three different NHRA categories.
Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana, DSR currently fields seven professional teams competing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. In Top Fuel, the Matco Tools/Global Electronic Technology/Toyota dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown, the Mopar/Pennzoil dragster driven by Leah Pruett, and the Okuma/Sandvik Coromant machine driven by eight-time world champion, Tony Schumacher. In Funny Car, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driven by 2016 world champion Ron Capps, the Mopar Express Lane/Pennzoil Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat piloted by two-time series title-holder Matt Hagan, and in Doug Chandler’s ‘giving cars,’ 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge, and Tommy Johnson Jr. behind the wheel of the MD Anderson Dodge.
DSR also campaigns two Factory Stock Showdown entries. The duo is piloted by Pruett, the 2018 Factory Stock Showdown Series champion, and former Pro Stock racer Mark Pawuk.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at Shoeracing.com, on Twitter and Instagram at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.