DSR Brainerd Qualifying Report from the NHRA Nationals at Brainerd – by the Numbers
Brainerd, MN – DSR Brainerd Saturday Qualifying Highlights:
All three DSR dragsters qualify in the quick-half of the Top Fuel field
Ron Capps, Matt Hagan and Tommy Johnson Jr. will start from the top-half of the Funny Car field
Capps closed out the day by powering to the quickest pass of Funny Car Q4
Tony Schumacher and Tommy Johnson Jr. also made ‘top three’ runs on Saturday
Driver Information:
Top Fuel:
ANTRON BROWN
Driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 3 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 14 Luigi Novelli
The Results:
Q1: 4.789 E.T. at 156.21 MPH
Q2: 3.789 E.T. at 325.45 MPH (Three bonus points for third quickest run of the session)
Q3: 3.837 E.T. at 323.50 MPH
Q4: 3.834 E.T. at 319.45 MPH
Bonus Points: Three
Quotable:
“I feel really good. We went down the track almost every lap this weekend. Got beat out by four-thousandths of a second for the No. 1 qualifying spot, but hey, we’ll take it. We qualified in the top three and we’re going to get ready for tomorrow. The Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota Top Fuel dragster is running real mean. I’m pumped; just ready to get after it and hopefully we can make it a good race day here in Brainerd.”
LEAH PRITCHETT
Driver of the Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 8 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 9 Scott Palmer
The Results:
Q1: 3.841 E.T. at 324.83 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q2: 4.612 E.T. at 163.45 MPH
Q3: 3.818 E.T. at 323.04 MPH
Q4: 3.829 E.T. at 324.59 MPH
Bonus Points: Two
Quotable:
“We’ll be running an excellent guy, excellent crew, part of that Capco bunch, and Sunday’s going to be totally different. Our Q4 wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. We wanted to push, and we ended up pushing it a little bit too hard. We’re finding that right balance. I think we’ve been on the spectrum. I think Sunday will be an entirely perfect day to land it right in the middle where we want it. It’s been shown that you can win from any position. I’ve always loved racing at Brainerd. Tomorrow’s the day to bump it up.”
TONY SCHUMACHER
Driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 7 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 10 Terry McMillen
The Results:
Q1: 3.946 E.T. at 308.92 MPH
Q2: 4.936 E.T. at 144.27 MPH
Q3: 3.818 E.T. at 326.87 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q4: 4.225 E.T. at 202.30 MPH
Bonus Points: Two
Quotable:
“I like this racetrack. We were pushing it there a little bit that last run. When you see someone put up a big number ahead of you and go No. 1, you don’t want to be out there just being average. Mike (Neff, crew chief) originally wanted to just slide it down there and make sure we have a good race-day tuneup, but after seeing the numbers ahead of us, we wanted to go quicker. We were right there. It almost made it. We’ve almost made it a lot of times. We tried a lot of different things these last two days and we definitely learned a lot. Conditions are going to be cooler tomorrow so we’ll see who can come out and get it figured out soon enough.”
Funny Car:
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T
Qualified: No. 14
The Competition: No. 3 Matt Hagan
The Results:
Q1: 4.067 E.T. at 314.75 MPH
Q2: 4.905 E.T. at 159.59 MPH
Q3: 4.029 E.T. at 317.05 MPH
Q4: 4.052 E.T. at 315.71 MPH
Quotable:
“It’s not like we’re running terrible. We missed it on one run in Q2 when we pushed it hard, but that was the session where most of the cars ran their hero shots. We made three good laps and we find ourselves qualified fourteenth. I wouldn’t want to be the car with lane choice against us first round.”
RON CAPPS
Driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T
Qualified: No. 2 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 15 Jonnie Lindberg
The Results:
Q1: 4.039 E.T. at 309.20 MPH (One bonus point for third quickest run of the session)
Q2: 4.053 E.T. at 311.99 MPH
Q3: 4.030 E.T. at 317.57 MPH
Q4: 3.969 E.T. at 319.67 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: Four
Quotable:
“From the outside of the ropes, you would look at Friday’s qualifying and see that we ran the 05 and the 03. I had a lot of people make comments saying ‘man, you’ve got a great, consistent car,’ but to be honest, we had a pretty good mechanical issue pop-up yesterday that actually shut the car off on me at 900-feet on the first run, and then it did it again in the second run on Friday night. But that’s what’s great about this team, we weren’t even close to being our best and it still went 03 and 05. Then today, we just needed to go to the finish line so we made a conservative Q3 run so we could check all of the parts. Everything lookd good on that run, we knew we had fixed the mechanical issue so we could get back to it on Q4, and sure enough a 3.96 popped up. That’s the NAPA Know How I brag about. Not a lot of teams would have caught some of these issues like an old-school crew chief like Rahn Tobler. It makes it a pleasure to be able to work with this team and watch them attack something gone wrong and then come out Q4 and make a run like that. Nothing is a given, it’s going to be a tough day tomorrow, but it was a nice way to end. I take Tobler out to ‘the Zoo’ every Saturday night here in Brainerd, and he was joking earlier saying ‘we need to step it up, we’re not going to the Zoo if we’re not qualified well,’ and he was half joking, half not. Kudos to Tobler and the team.”
MATT HAGAN
Driver of the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 3 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 14 Jack Beckman
The Results:
Q1: 4.797 E.T. at 169.68 MPH
Q2: 3.990 E.T. at 324.51 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q3: 4.203 E.T. at 240.77 MPH
Q4: 4.421 E.T. at 200.23 MPH
Bonus Points: Two
Quotable:
“It was a weird qualifying weekend, we went down the track once, smoked the tires three times. We’re still trying to get a handle on things and figure things out, but (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) is a smart dude. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we’ll be alright. We’re facing a teammate tomorrow and we’re going to bring our A-game and do the best job we can.”
TOMMY JOHNSON JR.
Driver of the Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger R/T
Qualified: No. 5 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 12 Del Worsham
The Results:
Q1: 4.057 E.T. at 315.12 MPH
Q2: 4.017 E.T. at 317.42 MPH
Q3: 4.463 E.T. at 197.83 MPH
Q4: 4.003 E.T. at 315.64 MPH (One bonus point for third quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: One
Quotable:
“We’ve got a really good, consistent race car. We’re right in the hunt. Made really nice solid runs in three out of four qualifying rounds. We were right up there in the top four every session, so I think that’s favorable for a good day on Sunday. Coming off of a runner-up here last year and I’d like to do it one round better.”
