Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals Presented by Pennzoil
Event No. 8
World Wide Technology Raceway
Madison, Ill.
October 2-4, 2020
Note: Persistent showers on Saturday forced NHRA to abbreviate both the Mello Yello Series and the Factory Stock Showdown Series to just one round of qualifying. Mello Yello competitors made their one run on Saturday evening, while the FSS field was set from Q1 on Friday night
DSR Qualifying Highlights:
- Tony Schumacher laid down an impressive run of 3.680 seconds at 332.92 mph to reset the St. Louis Top Fuel speed record, and earn the 88th No. 1 qualifier of his career
- Schumacher’s Toyota teammate, Antron Brown, also earned a spot toward the top of the ladder by powering to the third-quickest pass of the Top Fuel session
- In Funny Car, Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan led the DSR Dodge quartet earning the No. 5 and 6 starting positions, respectively
- DSR carried a streak of 10 consecutive national event Funny Car wins and a four-way championship battle heading into the weekend and will be looking to extend the team’s current undefeated Funny Car streak to a record 11 victories on Sunday
- Mark Pawuk paced the Factory Stock field on Friday night with a strong run of 7.814 seconds at 175.48 mph to claim his third FSS No. 1 start, and second at World Wide Technology Raceway
- Double-duty driver Leah Pruett joined her Factory Stock teammate in the top half of the field by qualifying her Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak seventh
(EXCERPT)
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 5 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 12 Blake Alexander
The Results:
Q1: 4.750 E.T. at 185.03 MPH
Quotable:
“Wow! I have no idea what to expect for race day tomorrow. This race track was colder than anything we’ve run on in a year-and-a-half and nearly everybody missed it. You’ll have some highly-favored cars in the bottom half of the field and it makes no difference. Tomorrow the track should have a little more temperature on it and it should come back into the tuner’s wheelhouse. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m going to get up early, and I can’t wait to get out here to Gateway.”
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.
