NHRA Gatornationals
Event No. 7
Gainesville Raceway
September 26-27, 2020
DSR Elimination Highlights:
- Ron Capps wins the NHRA Gatornationals and delivers the 10th consecutive Funny Car victory for Don Schumacher Racing
- All four DSR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat pilots have claimed at least one victory throughout the first seven races of 2020
- The only other time in the series’ history that a team swept 10 consecutive race wins in a single category was during the 2017 season when the same lineup of current DSR Dodge drivers contributed to that streak
- Capps’ victory advanced him to fourth in the Funny Car point standings, with DSR Dodge drivers occupying the top four spots on the leaderboard
- In Top Fuel, Leah Pruett raced to a semifinal finish, marking the fourth consecutive time that she has advanced to the semifinals or better
- Pruett is ranked third in the Top Fuel standings, and is within two rounds of the current point leader
- Mark Pawuk led the DSR Dodge Drag Pak tandem by racing to the quarterfinals
(EXCERPT)
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 9 (4.123 E.T. at 254.18 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.921 E.T. at 325.92 MPH defeated Paul Lee 4.135 E.T. at 261.67 MPH
E2: 4.134 E.T. at 242.67 MPH defeated by Matt Hagan 3.954 E.T. at 325.37 MPH
Race Recap:
For someone who has two wins in four final showdown appearances in 2020, Jack Beckman is a safe bet to pick for a long day of going deep into elimination rounds. He entered the weekend with the point lead, a position which he has maintained throughout five of the first six events of the season, and had his sights set on widening the margin between him and his teammates who have been hot on his heels all season. Beckman and the Infinite Hero Foundation Funny Car team struggled to make a clean pass during qualifying and started race day from the ninth position. In round one, Beckman had the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win over a tire-smoking Paul Lee. The quarterfinals found Beckman facing teammate and fellow championship contender Matt Hagan. Again, ‘Fast Jack’ was out of the gate first and held the lead until just before the big end when his car started to lose traction and Hagan was able to drive around for the win. Beckman remains the point leader heading into the next event in St. Louis.
While Beckman’s race day may have been cut short, his fight to raise funds for the Infinite Hero Foundation’s Task Force 22 campaign is still going strong. From now through the end of the month, Beckman has various items up-for-grabs to help raise money for the mental health and suicide prevention programming for our nation’s veterans. The former U.S. Air Force sergeant has donated a custom helmet as well as a Zoom call, among other prizes. To bid: https://www.infinitehero.org/task-force-22/
Quotable:
“If I had one do-over so far this year, I’d like to race that one (E2) again. We both knew we had to push hard against each other. I think Hagan’s car did something weird in the bell housing and it didn’t run what they were anticipating. Ours was just a handful. We were pushing hard. I’m going to have to be smoother with my steering because when the car is accelerating that hard, it’s on the razor’s edge of breaking loose and I don’t think I helped it by trying to keep it in the groove and making a lot of corrections. I think our 3.92 first-round shows people that we’re capable of running as good or better than anyone out here. We’ll head on to St. Louis next week and we have another shot at a trophy. There are four more opportunities and 16 rounds left this year; we just have to be incredibly greedy for the rest of the season. The big throw-down cars are probably ours and Dickie (Venables) and Matt’s (Hagan) cars. But don’t write off NAPA and Rahn (Tobler) and TJ’s (Tommy Johnson) also. They have a lot of poles and obviously, a ton of other cars are really good. (Tim) Wilkerson is back in the thick of things and J.R. Todd raced us in the final at Indy. I’m looking forward to St. Louis. That’s going to be a stout weekend.”
NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship Standings:
Top Fuel
1. Steve Torrence – 548
2. Doug Kalitta – 526
3. Leah Pruett – 515
4. Billy Torrence – 433
5. Justin Ashley – 402
6. Shawn Langdon – 383
7. Terry McMillen – 377
8. Antron Brown – 373
9. Clay Millican – 337
10. Doug Foley – 216
Funny Car
1. Jack Beckman – 569
2. Matt Hagan – 565
3. Tommy Johnson Jr. – 512
4. Ron Capps – 486
5. Tim Wilkerson – 448
6. Bob Tasca III – 434
7. J.R. Todd – 420
8. Alexis DeJoria – 296
9. Cruz Pedregon – 266
10. Paul Lee – 258
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 352, 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.
