Mopar Kicks-off Second Half of NHRA Season with Qualifying at Route 66 Raceway

July 11, 2015 , Joliet, Illinois -  Kicking off the second half of the 2015 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing series season with qualifying for the 18th annual Lucas Oil Route 66 NHRA Nationals, Don Schumacher Racing’s (DSR) Tommy Johnson Jr. led the charge for Mopar with his No. 4 spot on the Funny Car eliminations ladder.
 
Drivers jostled for positions on the elimination ladder at Route 66 Raceway which featured two Friday evening sessions and just one Saturday evening session after intermittent rain delayed and eventually contributed to the cancellation of the fourth and final session.
 
Johnson Jr. drove his DSR Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T to the No. 4 spot on the eliminations ladder after bettering his first run of 4.075-seconds at 307.79 miles per hour (mph) with his best elapsed time pass of 4.003/316.15 posted in the second session to earn a bonus point. He then followed that up with the second quickest time of the third qualifying session by posting a 4.004/316.15 to add another two bonus points.
 
“We're a little disappointed that the last session got rained out because we were going to experiment with a few things that showed some good signs in testing," said Johnson who will have Brian Stewart as opponent in his first round. "We kind of wish we had that last run and had a chance at the three [a sub 4-second run] but the runs we did make so far this weekend were really good runs. Once again, our Make-A-Wish Dodge is there. Three 4.0 runs with two four flats, a thousandth apart shows that the consistency and reliability of the car right now is impressive. It gives you a lot of confidence going into raceday knowing that our team has a good handle on it."
 
DSR teammate Ron Capps took his Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Dodge Charger R/T for a best qualifying run of 4.014 seconds at 315.78 mph on Friday night to put him sixth overall on the eliminations ladder. That means he will see a familiar face in the first round as he lines up next to his DSR teammate Matt Hagan in the adjacent lane.
 
The defending NHRA Funny Car world champion, Hagan, is looking to defend the Route 66 national titles he earned the previous two years from his 11^th place qualifying position earned by the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T with a run of 4.042 /317.42 in the second session, after not making in down the track with his other two attempts.
 
“We’d have liked to seen things go a lot better in qualifying than it did, but that’s how it goes out here sometimes,” said Hagan  “This is one of those off weekends when it didn’t go our way in qualifying. We’ve won from the 14th spot and we’ve also won from the No. 1 spot. You just have to be in it to win it. Dickie Venables is going to have a great game plan on Sunday. I have so much confidence in that guy and we’ll roll up there and do our thing tomorrow.”
 
Jack Beckman had his best run in the first session, posting a 4.065/314.31 with his Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T to put him 12th on the qualifying sheets. That will pit him against Courtney Force for Sunday’s first round of eliminations, a rematch of last week’s final that gave Beckman his third win of the season.
 
It was a successful first half of the season for the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T, with DSR drivers currently occupying the top–three spots in the Funny Car championship standings with Hagan (four wins), Capps (two wins) and Beckman (three wins), while Johnson Jr. is hanging tough in the sixth spot and still working to bring home his own Wally trophy this season. The new Mopar Funny Car body has tallied nine national titles in the first 12 events and advanced to the final elimination round in all but one since being introduced to competition at the start of season after a year in development.
 
In Pro Stock competition, Allen Johnson, who sits seventh in the standings, has been encouraged by the progress made with the “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart after a rough start to his season, and feels like the team now has a much better car than what the time sheets may show. Friday evening’s pair of qualifying runs put Johnson in the provisional seventh spot with 6.567/209.75 and 6.552/210.87 but the Mopar driver was encouraged by posting the third quickest pass in Q3 with a 6.573/209.88.
 
“Down track that lane was really loose and horrible, so to be third quick that session really said something,” said Johnson who remained seventh on the final qualifying sheets and will see Bo Butner as his first round opponent. “I think we have a really fast car for tomorrow’s racing. I’m tickled to death about how much better the car has been the last few races, but we’ve just had some really bad luck. Here (at Chicago) I think we have a top-two or top-three car now when we make a good run. I think we’re going to break out and do something on raceday.”
 
V. Gaines qualified his HEMI-powered Dodge Dart 13^th on the eliminations ladder with a run of 6.582 seconds at 209.49 mph to meet No.4 qualifier Erica Enders-Stevens in the opening round. The Pro Stock no.1 qualifier position went to Drew Skillman with a track record elapsed time run of 6.528 at 210.97 mph.
 
Three hours of eliminations at the 18th annual Lucas Oil Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by General Tire, the 13th of 24 events in 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, will be broadcast live from Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, on ESPN this Sunday, July 12, starting at 2 p.m. ET.
 
2015 NHRA Championship Points Standings
(following Route 66 NHRA Nationals qualifying)
 
PRO STOCK (season wins in parentheses)
1.        Greg Anderson – 1108 (4)  
2.         Erica Enders-Stevens – 1042 (4)
3.         Jason Line – 934 (2)
4.        Chris McGaha – 871
5.        Drew Skillman– 707
6.        Larry Morgan – 663 (1)
7.        Allen Johnson – Dodge Dart – 656
8.         Shane Gray – 648
9.         Vincent Nobile – 629
10.       Rodger Brogdon – 612 (1)
12.       V. Gaines – Dodge Dart – 510
 
FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)
1.         Matt Hagan – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 964 (4)
2.         Ron Capps – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 846 (2)
3t.        Jack Beckman – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 815 (3)
3t.        Del Worsham – 815
5.        John Force – 781 (2)
6.        Tommy Johnson Jr. – (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 718
7.        Cruz Pedregon – 698
8.         Tim Wilkerson – 682 (1)
9.        Robert Hight – 667
10t.      Alexis DeJoria – 658
10t.      Courtney Force – 658

About Mopar Motorsports
Mopar’s commitment to professional motorsports competition was established in the 1950s when a partnership ignited with drag racing pioneer Don Garlits, resulting in the breaking of numerous speed and performance barriers in HEMI®-powered vehicles over the next several decades. In 2015, Mopar looks to add to its streak of five NHRA World Championship titles in the Pro Stock (2012 and 2013) and Funny Car (2011, 2012, and 2014) categories in four years. While Mopar remains involved in a various professional motorsports series, it continues to honor its roots by being a proud supporter of amateur racing within the NHRA with its sponsorship of the HEMI Challenge and Mopar’s Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge.
 
About Mopar Brand
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product, but it truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical service and customer support.

Today, Mopar is FCA’s service, parts and customer-care brand and distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150 markets around the world. With more than 50 parts distribution centers and 27 customer contact hubs globally, Mopar integrates service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.

Mopar parts are engineered together with the same teams that create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles. This offers a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance parts is available at: www.mopar.com.

Mopar-first Features
Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features including:

• Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication with customers
• Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format. First to offer complete vehicle-information kits in Spanish
• Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their vehicle a wireless hot spot
• Wireless charging: first to introduce in-vehicle wireless charging for portable devices
• Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set parameters
• wiADVISOR: first to provide factory-connected tablet technology in the service lane for instant vehicle diagnosis
• wiTECH: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated wireless tool network
• 2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car