AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals
Event No. 9
Texas Motorplex
Ennis, Texas
October 16-18, 2020
DSR Qualifying Highlights:
- Funny Car point leader Matt Hagan earned the pole for the fourth time in 2020 and 40th time of his career on Saturday during the FallNationals
- DSR will attempt to claim its 12th consecutive Funny Car victory on Sunday, a streak that was started by Hagan at the 2019 Dallas event
- As he attempts to go back-to-back at Texas Motorplex, Hagan will be trying to stave off teammates Jack Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Ron Capps who occupy the No. 2, 3, and 4 spots, respectively, in the Funny Car championship rankings
- Beckman, Capps, and Johnson join Hagan in the top half of the qualifying field and each earned bonus points on Saturday for clocking a ‘top three’ pass
- Tony Schumacher leads the DSR dragster trio and will start race day from third; Schumacher was second-quickest in both of Saturday’s qualifying rounds
- Double-duty driver Leah Pruett will start from fifth on the Top Fuel ladder as she attempts to keep her Top Fuel championship dreams alive. Pruett is currently ranked third in the point standings and will also attempt to claim the Dallas Factory Stock Showdown series hardware
- Mark Pawuk leads the DSR Drag Pak duo and will kick-off his race day from the No. 6 spot on the FSS ladder
(EXCERPT)
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 6 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 11 Cruz Pedregon
The Results:
Q1: 3.917 E.T. at 328.70 MPH (One bonus point for third-quickest run of the session)
Q2: 3.978 E.T. at 316.23 MPH
Bonus Points: One
Quotable:
“So we unloaded with a nice run and that always takes the pressure off. Even though there’s only 16 cars you always want to qualify well and you want bonus points and we did that on the first run. We tried some different parts on the second run and we’re not quite sure what happened. All of our backup parts should be good and predictable. Something probably didn’t do what it was supposed to do in the bellhousing department. We’ll go back and look at all the data and figure it out and have a hot race car for tomorrow. I’m looking for four win lights for the Infinite Hero Dodge.”
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 353, 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.
