DSR NHRA Las Vegas 2 Final Qualifying Report
Las Vegas, NV – Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil
DSR Qualifying Highlights:
– Defending Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan powered to the quickest run of Q3 to earn three bonus points and edge past teammate 
Ron Capps for the points lead; Hagan has a two-point advantage on Capps heading into Sunday’s elimination rounds
– Hagan will start race day from the fourth seed as he looks to claim his third consecutive Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals event trophy
– Five-time Las Vegas Motor Speedway Funny Car winner Ron Capps will look to regain the point lead from Hagan as he prepares to battle for a sixth Vegas Wally trophy from the No. 8 position on the ladder
– Capps was second-quickest of Q2 to add two bonus points to his running total
– Top Fuel round one will feature an intramural match-up between Antron Brown and Leah Pruett, with Brown carrying the advantage of lane choice into his E1 contest
– The DSR Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak trio delivered a strong qualifying performance at the final Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown series event of the year. Double-duty driver Leah Pruett leads the group with a fourth-place qualifying effort, Mark Pawuk will start from fifth, and FSS rookie David Davies secured the No. 14 spot in a competitive 21-car field
Driver Information:
Top Fuel:
ANTRON BROWN
Driver of the Matco Tools ‘Tools for the Cause’ Toyota Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 8 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 9 Leah Pruett
The Results:
Q1: 5.336 E.T. at 135.69 MPH
Q2: 3.754 E.T. at 329.18 MPH
Q3: 3.748 E.T. at 327.74 MPH
Quotable:
“We had a good, consistent day of qualifying here at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and we’re really looking forward to race day tomorrow. The bad news is we have to race our DSR teammate in Leah (Pruett) and that’s a fast car. The good news for Don (Schumacher) is, one of us is going to the second round with a chance to win. I like our chances. Our Matco Tools car ran well today with Toyota and Hangsterfer’s and all the great support we have this weekend. It’s consistent, and that’s important. I’m excited to show off with our last race with the ‘Tools for the Cause’ pink car and our Matco family and give something positive for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and those involved in the fight.”
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 9
The Competition: No. 8 Antron Brown
The Results:
Q1: 3.843 E.T. at 310.55 MPH
Q2: 4.050 E.T. at 228.34 MPH
Q3: 3.769 E.T. at 314.61 MPH
Quotable:
“In Top Fuel, we are connected to our DSR teammate, Antron Brown, and that will be a fierce match-up. We had a couple of issues of our own and we had our strongest pass in our final qualifying attempt with that 3.76. We have eight cylinders in that Hemi engine and each round it’s picked one it’s not happy with. Tomorrow is part two. We’re through with qualifying and now we have race day. Just like the two parts to Direct Connection with our November 8th announcement. We’re focused on scaring everyone with the potential this team has. You don’t win very often on Halloween, so I’d really like to take this one home. This is one of my hometown races and we’re ready to go some rounds.”
Funny Car:
RON CAPPS
Driver of the Pennzoil Synthetics/NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 8 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 9 Tim Wilkerson
The Results:
Q1: 3.973 E.T. at 304.60 MPH
Q2: 3.926 E.T. at 324.51 MPH (Two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session)
Q3: 5.957 E.T. at 125.10 MPH
Bonus Points: Two
Quotable:
“That last session surely mixed things up. You never want to race someone like Tim Wilkerson early in the day. We were going up there in Q3 to try and improve and go after that No. 1 spot and you can’t be upset about that. That’s what I love about ‘Guido’ (Dean Antonelli) and (John) Medlen and this NAPA AutoCare team. We were going to try and take those three points. It is what it is, and everybody in that field has a chance of winning tomorrow. We’ll do the same thing we’ve done all season long, and that’s just race with that NAPA Know How. It will be warmer racing during the day and that should make things interesting. It should be a fun day. This is exciting with the Pennzoil blue chrome car for the last time this season.”
MATT HAGAN
Driver of the Direct Connection Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye
Qualified: No. 4 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 13 Chad Green
The Results:
Q1: 3.931 E.T. at 322.34 MPH
Q2: 4.897 E.T. at 160.10 MPH
Q3: 3.905 E.T. at 321.65 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: Three
Quotable:
“Finished strong in qualifying with running low of Q3 and retaking the points lead. This Direct Connection Dodge is running great and we have a good opportunity to go some rounds tomorrow, and hopefully, put some more points between us and the rest of the field and pull down another trophy for DSR. This track is always good to us, we’ve been to the final the last four years in a row. I’m excited to be out here. The fans have been out in full force all weekend, and I’m glad we were able to put on a great show for them. Made a good run today and a good run yesterday, and we’ll get ready for race day and see what we can do.”
Factory Stock Showdown:
DAVID DAVIES
Driver of the D H Davies Racing Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak
Qualified: No. 14
The Competition: No. Jason Dietsch
The Results:
Q1: Foul; No Time
Q2: 8.039 E.T. at 172.47 MPH
Q3: 8.071 E.T. at 173.18 MPH
Quotable:
“I feel good about tomorrow. We overcame a little driver/technical malfunction early and made a couple of clean qualifying passes. We didn’t quite have the horsepower we needed to pull through, but now that we’ve got some data, we’re going to put the screws to it at the last event of the season, and we’re looking to go some rounds tomorrow. We’ve got the car and the team to do it, and the team once again proved why they’re the best at what they do when they hustled to get Leah (Pruett’s) and my Drag Paks turned around quickly with engine swaps on both cars.”
MARK PAWUK
Driver of the Empaco Equipment Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak
Qualified: No. 5 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 12 John Cerbone
The Results:
Q1: 8.028 E.T. at 173.23 MPH
Q2: 7.970 E.T. at 174.39 MPH
Q3: 8.010 E.T. at 176.40 MPH
Quotable:
“We made some nice progress in the last couple of races. We ran really well this morning on the Q2 hit. I think we didn’t realize how good the track was for Q3, but we made consistent runs all weekend and the last few races. I’m very pleased with the performance of the car. We’ve got it figured out. I’m looking forward to a great day for the Empaco Equipment Dodge Challenger for DSR. We’ll see what happens, but the Cowboy has to do his job.”
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Direct Connection Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak
Qualified: No. 4 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 13 Ryan Priddy
The Results:
Q1: 8.026 E.T. at 168.53 MPH
Q2: 9.531 E.T. at 165.84 MPH
Q3: 7.963 E.T. at 173.21 MPH
Quotable:
“It’s been a treacherous, spooky weekend in the Factory Stock Showdown series in our Direct Connection Drag Pak. We had another phantom cylinder bite us yesterday on Q1 and we put up a smoke show on Q2 with minimal problems. We had a minor transmission issue, but it caused quite a bit of smoke. We are picking away at this Drag Pak tune-up and then, boom, our 7.96 in Q3 lands us in the No. 3 spot. All of our tricks are right so we can get the treats tomorrow with an early win light with E1 at 8:30 Sunday morning.”
