MOPAR; DON SCHUMACHER RACING EARLY SEASON WIN STREAK ENDS AT THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS

April 13, 2015 by Mopar

◾Don Schumacher Racing and the 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car's win streak ends in semifinals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

◾Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Make-A-Wish Mopar is top DSR finisher with a semifinal appearance at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals

◾No.1 qualifier Hagan puts Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T back in the Funny Car standings lead

◾Johnson takes Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart to a Pro Stock semifinal appearance

April 12, 2015 , Las Vegas, Nevada - Visitors to Las Vegas have had a long history of seeing winning streaks come to an abrupt end on 'the Strip' and the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) team and its new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T are the latest to experience it first-hand. Following four consecutive national title wins to start the 2015 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series season, DSR and the new Mopar Funny Car body fell short of advancing to a final round appearance at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals event for the first time this year.

While all four DSR entries qualified in the top half of the ladder with Matt Hagan, Jack Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr. seeded 1-2-3 for Sunday's eliminations at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, only Johnson's Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger made it to the semifinals. After disposing of John Hale and Tim Wilkerson, Johnson lost to Robert Height with an elapsed time run of 4.164 seconds at 305.56 miles per hour to his competitor's 4.145/310.34. While he is the only driver in the DSR stable to not yet have taken the new race car to the winner's circle, Johnson has been the most consistent and maintains his fourth place spot in the Funny Car standings, just 53 points behind the leader.

'We have a good racecar that hasn't reached its potential yet,' said Johnson who was very pleased with the steady progress his team has shown through the first five events. 'We've had a very decent season up to this point, but this team wants more. We're staying here to test tomorrow to get more. But to be where we are in the standings at this point and knowing we aren't yet at our full potential, it's very encouraging.'

As No.1 qualifier, Hagan had high hopes of adding to his team's win streak of five national titles which actually extends back to last season's finale at Pomona where he beat John Force, won the National title and his second NHRA World Championship. However, on this Sunday, his quarterfinal match up against Force, the 25th time the two have met in eliminations with an even win-loss record of 12-12, saw the tie breaker go to his opponent. The Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T led the first 60 feet but lost traction and the race, even after a valiant effort to peddle it back into the groove. Force went on to win the national title in a final elimination showdown against his teammate Hight.

Hagan, however, won't be leaving Las Vegas empty handed as he returned to the top spot in the Funny Car standings.

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'It's always good to be the No. 1 qualifier and we got our points lead back so you have to look at everything as positive as possible,' Hagan said. 'Obviously we wanted to win the race and keep our streak alive but the competition is tough out there. We got in the left lane when we probably should have gone for the right and you look back and second guess yourself but the fact is we just missed it out there on the primary. It was a weak shake on a 125 degree race track. I couldn't believe it and found myself peddling it. We just haven't had that issue in a long time so it kind of caught me off guard but I got it hooked back up and running back down but it was too late. We'll get back after it in Houston.'

Winners at the last two national events, Jack Beckman (Four-Wide Nationals) and Ron Capps (Gatornationals), both saw their days come to an end in the opening round.

No.2 qualifier Beckman saw his hopes of posting back-to-back national title wins cut short by 0.002 of a second, the margin in which his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T was beaten to the finish line by Cruz Pedregon, when a flash fire and loss of power within a few feet of the finish line ruined his run. As a result, Beckman's 0.095-second reaction time and elapsed of 4.138/299.00 was narrowly beaten by his opponent's 0.138 reaction time and 4.093/305.01 pass.

Meanwhile, DSR Teammate Capps (4.156/305.08) had a great run going in his HEMI®-powered Dodge but lost the first round battle against Hight (4.087/312.50).

In Pro Stock action, things started off on a positive note for the two Dodge Dart entries of Allen Johnson and V. Gaines as both won their opening round match-ups with hole-shot wins.

Johnson's 'Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar' Dodge Dart posted a .027 reaction time and an elapsed time run of 6.699/206.20 against Drew Skillman's 0.68 reaction time and 679/206.99 pass.

The next round saw V, Gaines fall to Greg Anderson, while another win-light turned on for Johnson against No.1 qualifier Jason Line who had a red-light foul to advance the Mopar to the next round. However, after feeling like his ride was down on power for both of those runs, Johnson and his team made the decision to change the motor before a semifinals match-up against Vincent Nobile.

'We decided not to take a chance and change the engine but when we reached the staging lanes, we suddenly realized that we had an ignition box problem that couldn't be resolved in time and that could cause us some grief,' said Johnson who didn't get more than a few feet from the tree before the issue ended their day. 'We're going to head to Baton Rouge to test before we head to Houston because we're not happy. We're not where we need to be at all but we're going to work our butts off to get there.'

With his semifinal appearance Johnson moves up a spot into ninth place in the Pro Stock standings.

In a rematch of Saturday's K&N Horsepower Challenge, Nobile went on to the final elimination against Erica Enders-Stevens, who for a second year in a row, not only took home the national title but also the $25,000 bonus for doubling up.

The Mopar contingent's next stop on the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule is the 28th annual NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston, Texas, on April 24-26.

2015 NHRA Championship Points Standings

(following the NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas):

PRO STOCK (season wins in parentheses)

1. Jason Line – 426 (1)

2. Erica Enders Stevens – 391 (1)

3. Greg Anderson – 379 (1)

4. Rodger Brogdon – 352 (1)

5. Chris McGaha – 338

6. Drew Skillman – 300

7. Vincent Nobile – 285

7. Larry Morgan – 268 (1)

9. Allen Johnson (Dodge Dart) – 249

10. Shane Gray – 233

13. V Gaines (Dodge Dart) – 177

FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)

1. Matt Hagan (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 369 (2)

2. Del Worsham – 360

3. Robert Hight – 323

4. Tommy Johnson Jr. (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 316

5. Ron Capps (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 313 (1)

6. John Force – 287 (1)

7. Alexis DeJoria – 271

8. Cruz Pedregon – 257

9. John Hale (2014 Dodge Charger R/T) – 256

10. Jack Beckman (2015 Dodge Charger R/T) – 249 (1)

About Mopar Motorsports

Mopar's commitment to professional motorsports competition was established in the 1950s when a partnership ignited with drag racing pioneer Don Garlits, resulting in the breaking of numerous speed and performance barriers in HEMI®-powered vehicles over the next several decades. In 2015, Mopar looks to add to its streak of five NHRA World Championship titles in the Pro Stock (2012 and 2013) and Funny Car (2011, 2012, and 2014) categories in four years. While Mopar remains involved in a various professional motorsports series, it continues to honor its roots by being a proud supporter of amateur racing within the NHRA with its sponsorship of the HEMI Challenge and Mopar's Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge.

Mopar Brand

Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product but truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical service and customer support.

Today, Mopar is FCA's service, parts and customer-care brand and distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in more than 130 markets, integrating service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.

Mopar parts are unique in that they are engineered with the same teams that create factory-authorized vehicle specifications for FCA vehicles – a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance parts is available at www.mopar.com.

Mopar-first Features

Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features including:

◾Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication with customers

◾Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format. First to offer complete vehicle-information kits in Spanish

◾Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their vehicle a wireless hot spot

◾Wireless charging: first to introduce in-vehicle wireless charging for portable devices

◾Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set parameters

◾wiAdvisor: first to provide factory-connected tablet technology in the service lane for instant vehicle diagnosis

◾wiTech: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated wireless tool network

◾2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car