Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Arizona Nationals
Event 2 of 24 (Phoenix)
Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park
Chandler, Arizona
February 22-24, 2019
Noteworthy:
- Tommy Johnson Jr. made his professional debut at the 1989 event (competing in the Top Fuel category) and celebrates his 30th anniversary behind the wheel of a fuel car this weekend
- Johnson returns as the NHRA Arizona Nationals Funny Car runner-up
- Leah Pritchett won her first Top Fuel title at the 2016 Phoenix event
- All current DSR drivers have been to the Phoenix winner’s circle at least once
DSR-Owned Track Records:
Top Fuel, E.T.: 3.649 seconds, Tony Schumacher (Phoenix 2018)
Top Fuel, speed: 336.57 mph, Tony Schumacher (Phoenix 2018)
DSR Driver Information:
Funny Car
(Excerpt)
TOMMY JOHNSON JR.
Driver of the Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Phoenix Event Highlights:
- 2006 event champion
- 2018 runner-up
- 2017 No. 1 qualifier
2018 Phoenix Recap:
Qualified sixth; Event runner-up (defeated Robert Hight in E1, Richard Townsend in E2, Shawn Langdon in E3; defeated by Courtney Force in E4)
Last Event (Pomona I):
Qualified third; Semifinal finish (defeated Tim Wilkerson in E1, Shawn Langdon in E2; defeated by Jack Beckman in E3)
2019 Season Statistics:
Two round wins; Ranked third in points
Career Statistics:
447 races; 17 wins (two Top Fuel); 18 No. 1 qualifiers (one Top Fuel)
Noteworthy:
Made his first pass as a professional NHRA Drag Racer at the 1989 event (competing in the Top Fuel category)
Quotable:
“We’re heading to Phoenix this week and we were the runner-up there last year. We had an issue with the car in the final and felt like we could have won that race, so we’d like to go back and get a little redemption. We felt like we let that one get away from us.
“We put the car away last season and didn’t make a lot of big changes to it. We put a new front-half on the chassis and mounted a new body and left it alone because the car was performing so well at the end of the 2018 season. To bring it back out at Pomona last week and pick up right where we left off is kind of neat. Sometimes you put (the car) in the corner, pull it back out and it won’t run and you think ‘what happened? It just sat there,’ but we went out there with our Make-A-Wish Dodge Hellcat last weekend and it ran really well.”
About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) is the winningest team in NHRA Drag Racing history, having claimed more than 325 NHRA national event titles and 17 world championships since opening its doors in 1998.
Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana, DSR fields seven professional teams competing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series. In Top Fuel, the Matco Tools dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown, the MOPAR/Pennzoil/Sparkling Ice dragster driven by Leah Pritchett and eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher’s machine. In Funny Car, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driven by 2016 world champion Ron Capps, the Mopar Express Lane/Pennzoil/Sandvik Coromant Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat piloted by Matt Hagan, and in Terry and 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 Make-A-Wish Dodge.
DSR also campaigns two Factory Stock Showdown entries. The duo is piloted by Pritchett, 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.