Mopar Hits the Throttle at the Winternationals to Kick Off the 2016 NHRA Season

Pomona, CA – HEMI® engines and Mopar drivers are fired up and ready to take on the 2016 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing series season which kicks off this weekend with the Winternationals at the historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California. At least 11 full-time entries will carrying the banner for Mopar, Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s (FCA) service, parts and customer-care brand; Most notably Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car pilot Matt Hagan aboard the Mopar Express Lane Dodge and Pro Stock Elite Motorsports teammates, Erica Enders at the helm of the Mopar Performance Dodge Dart GT and Jeg Coughlin Jr. piloting the “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart GT.

Mopar and Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) continue to nurture one of the most successful and longest-running partnerships in the sport after all four Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars finished top-five in the championship standings and posted record setting elapsed time (E.T.) runs and speed benchmarks throughout the year following the debut of the new body at the start of the 2015 season. The quad of DSR Mopars drove their way to 23 final elimination rounds in 24 events and collected a total of 15 national titles last year.

Two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Hagan will once again take to the drag strip with the HEMI-powered Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T after recording the fastest pass in NHRA Funny Car history at 331.45 miles per hour (mph) and earning four wins, two-runner-up finishes, and four No.1 Qualifier positions in 2015.

“This year is going to be something else,” said Hagan. “Funny Car is such a fierce class and was so competitive last year. These new Mopar Dodge Charger bodies are phenomenal and really led the way last year with consistent performances and so many records that speak for themselves. But by the end of the year all the teams were doing thing to their blowers, to their chassis, laying the header pipes back to propel the cars to incredible speeds, so you have to expect that this year the competition will be even more heated.

“I have a lot of confidence in my crew and the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T and I’m pretty pumped that it’s time to go back to racing and be able to do what I love to do. It’s a cool feeling to be able get strapped into a racecar that you know has a chance to win on every Sunday.”

2012 World Champion Jack Beckman also returns to DSR’s powerhouse foursome after a runner-up finish in last year’s championship following a hard fought battle that was decided in the semifinals of the season finale. The Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T fell just 56 points shy of claiming a second career world title, but after setting and re-setting the national E.T. record an impressive four times in 2015, Beckman closed out the year by setting the standard with a blistering 3.884-second run in the finale. He also earned a class-best seven wins, drove his way to nine final rounds, and posted five No.1 Qualifier positions.

DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. made a late-season charge with his Make-A-Wish Mopar to finish third in the 2015 standings with two wins, six runner-up finishes, three No. 1 qualifying positions, and posted career-best numbers for elapsed time and speed in the season finale. He and his crew come into this opening weekend looking to build on those efforts following a successful test in Phoenix where he posted a best run of 3.874 seconds at 325.77 mph which qualifies as the quickest unofficial Funny Car elapsed time run ever posted.

“We want to keep the momentum going from the end of last season,” said Johnson. “I have high expectations going into 2016. Being the 50th Anniversary of the Funny Car and winning the Winternationals back in 2005, I would like to take home another Wally from this event.”

Looking to build on his fourth place finish in the points last year, veteran racer Ron Capps is happy with the progress the DSR team has made in the off-season to help tame the HEMI-powered Dodge that took him to the winner’s circle twice in 2015 and garnered three runner-up finishes.

“We saw during the last half of last year that as hard and as quick as the Funny Cars were running they were becoming a bigger handful to drive,” said Capps. “They have done as much as they could to help me better steer this Dodge when it wants to run in the 3.80s, and we’re going to be seeing a lot of those runs this year.”

Gary Densham and John Hale are also expected to take their Dodge Charger R/T race cars to the drag strip on a full-time basis this season in the Funny Car class.

There are plenty of exciting changes in the NHRA’s Pro Stock class this season highlighted by the switch to electronic fuel-injected (EFI) engines from carburetors, a limit of 10,500 rpm, the removal of the hood scoop, and shortened wheelie bars. In the off-season, Mopar announced the addition of two-time and defending Pro Stock champion Erica Enders and five-time champ Jeg Coughlin Jr. to its stable of drivers for the popular factory hot rod category. The duo, winners of the past three Pro Stock World Championships, will compete as teammates in the Elite Motorsports camp.

Enders’ drive for a third consecutive world title begins this weekend behind the wheel of her new Mopar Performance Dodge Dart GT. After posting nine victories last year to break the previous single-season mark of wins by a female racer (seven by Angelle Sampey in 2001), Enders’ is looking to add to the 21 Wally trophies she has collected in her career to date.

“We’re really excited about this new partnership with Mopar and Elite Motorsports and having Jeg (Coughlin Jr.) as a teammate is all positive and there are lots of good things on the horizon for us,” said Enders. “I’m optimistic about all the rule changes for this season and the amount of work that we’ve put in to being prepared for this weekend and the season. It’s been a hectic and short off season but also a work in progress that is headed in the right direction.

“Change is always challenging, but we accept that challenge,” added Enders. “It’s interesting and fun to learn about EFI but a big difference for all of us. I think the biggest change is throttle response and control for the burnout but the more runs we get in will help with that transition.”

Coughlin returns to full-time competition aboard the “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart GT after stepping away for a season to focus on his family and is hoping to repeat the success he had with Mopar in 2013 when he last earned the Pro Stock world title.

“It feels great to be back with Mopar,” said Coughlin. “We had a great run in from 2012 to 2014 with the Dodge Avenger and then the new Dodge Dart and now here we are starting a new era of Pro Stock competition. I think the biggest change for me has been not having this huge hood scoop in my line of sight, especially from the left lane, and that helps a lot with sight lines for the tree. I just think the hot rods look sexier now and just relate better to the stock version of the Dodge Dart. I have no doubt that with all these changes the competition will be more exciting for both drivers and fans. I’m extremely excited to see the class progress technologically. It will be interesting to see how all these changes play out at the start of this season.”

Mopar’s 2012 NHRA Pro Stock champion Allen Johnson is back behind the wheel of a Dodge Dart for his 21st season with his HEMI-engine tuner and father Roy Johnson along with a new primary sponsorship from Marathon after finishing third in the 2015 championship standings with two wins to post his fourth top-five finish in the last five years and a tenth consecutive top-ten performance.

While he took his first Pro Stock run in 1994, Vieri (better known as V.) Gaines returns for an 11th season aboard a Mopar and is ready to take on the new era of electronic fuel injection aboard his Kendall Oil Dodge Dart. Deric Kramer’s American Ethanol Dodge Dart will be the fifth Mopar entry in the Pro Stock field expected to compete full-time this season.

Mopar races into the 2016 season having won five NHRA World Championships in the past five years with Funny Car world title wins by DSR’s Matt Hagan in 2011 and 2014 and Jack Beckman in 2012, as well as consecutive Pro Stock titles in 2012 and 2013 by Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin Jr.

The 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season begins this weekend with the 56th annual Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona with a new television partners FOX Sports providing qualifying coverage on Friday, February 12 at 10 p.m. (ET) and Sunday, Feb. 14 at 1 a.m. (ET) and then an eliminations broadcast including live finals scheduled for Sunday, February 14 at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.