DSR Denver Final Qualifying Report by the Numbers
Morrisson, CO – Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals
DSR Denver Saturday Highlights:
Leah Pritchett (Top Fuel) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car) lead DSR after qualifying their MOPAR-powered machines second in their respective categories
Both Pritchett and Johnson rocketed to the second-quickest E.T.s of both the third and fourth qualifying sessions
Antron Brown joins his Top Fuel teammate at the top of the field
Matt Hagan was quickest amongst the Funny Cars in Q3 to earn a spot in the top-half of the ladder
Ron Capps will have lane choice after earning a top-half starting position
Note: Funny Car Q4 was abbreviated due to rain. Ron Capps was the only DSR driver that did not get to make a Q4 run.
Driver Information:
Top Fuel:
ANTRON BROWN
Driver of the Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 6 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 11 Greg Carrillo
The Results:
Q1: 4.038 E.T. at 296.50 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Q2: 3.863 E.T. at 308.92 MPH (One bonus point for third quickest run of the session)
Q3: 4.684 E.T. at 169.38 MPH
Q4: 3.854 E.T. at 315.71 MPH
Bonus Points: Four
Quotable:
“Our Matco Tools Toyota dragster has run pretty well this weekend. We had the quick time in Q1, and we’ll have a good starting spot for Sunday. You can never make enough power on the mountain. After Friday’s heat and Saturday’s rain, we’re going to see new conditions on Sunday, and we’re going to need to adjust.”
LEAH PRITCHETT
Driver of the MOPAR Dodge 1320 Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 2 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 15 Terry Totten
The Results:
Q1: 4.213 E.T. at 213.87 MPH
Q2: 3.839 E.T. at 321.35 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q3: 3.816 E.T. at 318.77 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q4: 3.761 E.T. at 315.19 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: Six
Quotable:
“We’re feeling awesome going into race day. The Dodge MOPAR mountain magic is definitely showing its face. It’s awesome to have three solid runs out of four. We’ve been chipping away at it. We were a little light on the front end, which made it exciting to drive on that final round. We went into Q4 either smoking the tires or going for low E.T., and we were just a couple thousandths behind (No. 1 qualifier) Steve Torrence at half-track, and we feel good. Things are coming together. The fans have been out of this world, and the team has done a phenomenal job. We can’t wait for Sunday, race day. These moments of running quick passes in challenging conditions are what we live for.
“We’re looking forward to running well on the mountain and going rounds on Sunday like we know how to do.”
Funny Car:
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 10
The Competition: No. 7 Matt Hagan
The Results:
Q1: 7.389 E.T. at 93.95 MPH
Q2: 7.299 E.T. at 101.90 MPH
Q3: 4.151 E.T. at 296.96 MPH (One bonus point for third quickest run of the session)
Q4: 4.099 E.T. at 308.92 MPH
Bonus Points: One
Quotable:
“(Hagan and I) have been racing each other early far too much this year, and that’s just a by-product of one of us qualifying in the bottom half. I wish I could say ‘we’ve got lots of data to comb over tonight to figure this out for tomorrow,’ but we don’t have hardly any Denver data to comb over. And, conditions tomorrow will be radically different than what they were at 10:00 p.m. tonight. We have data from last year; we ran well in different conditions. We’re going to have to go back and lean on some of that stuff. But I’ll tell you what I’m proud of. Friday night, this thing went out there and broke the x-member out of the chassis and could’ve really affected our race car chassis. The guys did some welding, did some parts replacement, rescaled the car, and we came out here Saturday and went down the track two times.”
RON CAPPS
Driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 4 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 13 Todd Simpson
The Results:
Q1: 5.245 E.T. at 141.71 MPH
Q2: 4.005 E.T. at 316.97 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest of the session)
Q3: 6.925 E.T. at 91.27 MPH
Q4: Cancelled due to rain
Bonus Points: Two
Quotable:
“I always feel good going into race day, no matter the conditions. But, this has been an adverse weekend as far as crew chiefs and having to adapt. We saw super-hot temperatures Friday, and then Saturday, we had a storm come in, the temperature dropped and then the rain came in again and it just got pushed back to where the last two pairs of cars didn’t get to run in Funny Car. We were hoping to get a shot at the track after watching a couple of cars go 3.97, and we didn’t get that chance and ended up finishing fourth. But, no matter what, (crew chief Rahn) Tobler will be on it, and I just have to do my job, and hopefully, we’ll have another good weekend.”
MATT HAGAN
Driver of the MOPAR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody
Qualified: No. 7 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 10 Jack Beckman
The Results:
Q1: 4.324 E.T. at 232.43 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Q2: 9.089 E.T. at 80.22 MPH
Q3: 4.054 E.T. at 283.07 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Q4: 13.239 E.T. at 76.64 MPH
Bonus Points: Five
Quotable:
“We’ll take it; top-half of the field, lane choice. It’s always tough up here on the mountain, but we’ve got a new look and a new feel to the car, and we’ll get after it tomorrow on race day.”
TOMMY JOHNSON JR.
Driver of the Make-A-Wish Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 2 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 15 Jeff Diehl
The Results:
Q1: 7.235 E.T. at 89.20 MPH
Q2: 6.619 E.T. at 97.96 MPH
Q3: 4.091 E.T. at 300.86 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q4: 3.978 E.T. at 317.72 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: Four
Quotable:
“It’s tough to run up here, and Friday proved that. Everybody struggled to try and get a handle on the tune-up. Luckily, we were able to get four qualifying runs in with the rain showers and refine the tune-up and get a handle on it. Tonight’s Q4 run was probably in a little bit better conditions than we’ll see tomorrow, but it’s going to be close. It’s supposed to be nice and cool tomorrow. I was a little worried about running (E1) at 11:00 a.m. because we don’t have any data from 11:00 a.m., but this will be close. I’m excited. We hit the tune-up pretty good on that last run, and we should have a solid car for tomorrow.”
