Don Schumacher Racing
Hagan and Hagan share special Weekend with Magneti Marelli Funny Car
TOPEKA, KS – Matt Hagan’s biggest fan was enjoying his first full weekend at an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event this year.
Matt Hagan’s father, David Hagan, is joining his son and Don Schumacher Racing’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car team this weekend at the NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
The family patriarch has spent a few Sundays at Mello Yello events this year but this is the first weekend he’s been able to watch all four qualifying sessions with plans to attend Sunday’s championship eliminations scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. (CT).
“This weekend has been great because I got to fly here with him on his plane and that saved me two days away from home,” Hagan joked about the ease of flying privately from his home in Christiansburg, Va., to Topeka. “I didn’t have to waste two days out of my life sitting at an airport drinking Starbucks all day.
Beckman makes four consistent passes in Valvoline NextGen Dodge
TOPEKA, KS – A year ago at Heartland Park Topeka, not many outside of the Valvoline NextGen pit of reigning NHRA Funny Car 
champion “Fast Jack” Beckman expected the verbose California driver to take home the event title at Heartland Park.
Beckman and his Todd Smith-led crew, in their third race together did just that, upsetting favored DSR teammate Ron Capps, a three-time Heartland Park winner, in the all-DSR Funny Car final round. Six months later, with two more wins notched, Beckman edged Capps by just two points to earn his first Mello Yello NHRA Funny Car championship.
Capps hopes ‘date weekend’ with Shelley pays off with fourth Kansas event title for NAPA AUTO PARTS team
TOPEKA, KS – Ron Capps has won three Funny Car titles in the NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
A year ago, he lost in the championship round but didn’t have the person he considers his Topeka lucky charm at his side.
When the driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T begins championship eliminations today he knows it will not be a losing weekend.
It’s become a Topeka tradition for his wife, Shelley Capps, to join him for a “date weekend” at the Kansas Nationals and after coming up a little short to DSR teammate Jack Beckman last year he wasn’t about to be at Topeka without Shelley this year.
Schumacher starts with points lead Sunday, Gray leads DSR as No. 4 Funny Car seed in NHRA Kansas Nationals
TOPEKA, KS – Tony Schumacher just missed his second No. 1 qualifying position of the season in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 
but was able to earn the No. 2 spot after Saturday’s last qualifying sessions in the Kansas Nationals.
Schumacher’s time Friday night of 3.769 seconds at 326.08 mph, which was quickest of the day, was edged Saturday by Al-Anabi Racing’s Shawn Langdon’s time of 3.767 (322.50). It was Langdon’s seventh pole in the last 15 NHRA races.
In Funny Car, Johnny Gray, the most recent winner on tour, and the Pitch Energy team paced the Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car quartet of Dodge Charger R/Ts with a best time of 4.053 seconds at 313.37 mph in the final session to earn the fourth seed for Sunday’s championship eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. (CT) at Heartland Park Topeka.
Schumacher charges to Kansas provisional pole, Hagan leads DSR Funny Car foursome
TOPEKA, KS – Seven-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher is in position to record his second No. 1 qualifying 
position of the season and 73rd of his career after posting the quickest time of opening day in the 25th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
Schumacher along with U.S. Army crew chief Mike Green and assistant Neal Strausbaugh produced a time of 3.769 seconds at 326.08 mph in the second of two qualifying sessions on Friday.
Two more sessions remain on Saturday after which the top-16 will advance to championship eliminations that are scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Joining Schumacher in the quick-six Friday were Don Schumacher Racing teammates Spencer Massey in the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster, who is No. 5, and reigning world champ Antron Brown, who is No. 6.
