DSR Qualifying Highlights:

• Leah Pruett and Ron Capps lead DSR in qualifying at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. Both will start race day from the No. 3 position in their respective categories
• Capps was second-quickest of both Saturday sessions, and earned four bonus points
• Both categories will feature intramural battles in round one with Atlanta winner Antron Brown and Pruett in the same Top Fuel quad, while Capps and Matt Hagan are in the same round-one Funny Car quad
• Brown will be looking to become just the sixth driver in NHRA history to achieve 750 round wins on Sunday. He will start the day with 749
• Hagan recorded a runner-up finish at the 2021 Vegas Four-Wide Nationals last month, and the reigning world champ is looking to go one step further and breakthrough for his first win of the season on Sunday

Driver Information:

Top Fuel:

ANTRON BROWN
Driver of Matco’s ‘Tools for the Cause’ Toyota Top Fuel
Dragster Matco’s Tools for the Cause to benefit
the Fisher House Foundation

Qualified: No. 6 (second to choose lane)

The Competition: No. 3 Leah Pruett, No. 11 Shawn Langdon, No. 14 Krista Baldwin

The Results:
Q1: 3.761 E.T. at 285.95 MPH
Q2: 4.523 E.T. at 168.68 MPH
Q3: 3.773 E.T. at 325.30 MPH

Quotable:
“The weekend is going good so far for this Matco Tools team with Toyota and SiriusXM, Global Electronic Technology, and Hangsterfer’s out here supporting us at the Four-Wide Nationals. We wanted to qualify better and we did that. We were the fourth-quickest on Friday night and we didn’t even make it all the way down. We’ve been working on some things and you can see it in the demeanor of this entire team, and all of the guys coming off of that big win at Atlanta. We’re just ready for race day and anything can happen at these four-wide races. The track conditions are good, but today’s first round showed it can be tricky when the track gets hot. The track can get gooey and you’ve got to know how to navigate that. We went down nice and smooth in Q3 and we wanted to get down the track. I’m pumped for my guys and this team. We want to get past first round and see how far we can march along.”

LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster

Qualified: No. 3 (lane choice)

The Competition: No. 6 Antron Brown, No. 11 Shawn Langdon, No. 14 Krista Baldwin

Bonus Points: One

The Results:
Q1: 3.718 E.T. at 324.59 MPH (One bonus point for third-quickest run of the session)
Q2: 3.826 E.T. at 315.93 MPH
Q3: 5.986 E.T. at 109.76 MPH

Quotable:
“I would call our qualifying here at the Four-Wide Nationals pleasantly successful because our Mopar race car has been more conversational than it’s been in a long time. We are not chasing parts failures or issues this weekend. We made two really good runs and that .71 out of the box was exactly where we wanted to be. The final session gave us the opportunity to push and that’s a blessing. We did push, we know where our window is at, we were over it on that run, and that gives us a great view into our capability on Sunday. We’ll give it three hard pulls and we’re having a great time this weekend.”

Funny Car:

RON CAPPS
Driver of the Pennzoil Synthetics/NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

Qualified: No. 3 (lane choice)

The Competition: No. 6 Cruz Pedregon, No. 11 Matt Hagan, No. 14 Cory Lee

Bonus Points: Four

The Results:
Q1: 7.676 E.T. at 84.83 MPH
Q2: 3.946 E.T. at 318.54 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)
Q3: 3.943 E.T. at 325.30 MPH (Two bonus points for second quickest run of the session)

Quotable:
“The track wasn’t what everybody thought it would be on Friday night under the lights here at zMAX. We thought we could go 3.80s. Today, the track was a little warmer, and ‘Guido’ (Dean Antonelli) and John Medlen have a great history with these types of conditions. We went right back to knowing what we were doing and it went right down the track on both runs. That always gives you more confidence. Of course, we’re carrying the chrome blue Pennzoil colors here this weekend. The fans are lined up just loving this car and we want to go out and do as well as this car looks. We have a lot of NAPA and GEARWRENCH folks here as well, and it’s nice to go down the track and show off for our sponsors. The driver needs to get his act together a little bit. For the first time in ages, I forgot what lane I was in. We’ve all done that in the four-wides. This type of racing presents a lot of excitement for the drivers and fans, and race day takes that up another notch. We have a great car now, we just need a long day tomorrow.”

MATT HAGAN
Driver of the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye

Qualified: No. 11

The Competition: No. 3 Ron Capps, No. 6 Cruz Pedregon, No. 14 Cory Lee

The Results:
Q1: 7.584 E.T. at 87.52 MPH
Q2: 4.128 E.T. at 247.07 MPH
Q3: 4.058 E.T. at 260.71 MPH

Quotable:
“Charlotte always seems to be a tricky track for us, but we’re here at the Four-Wide Nationals and I’m just excited to be racing close to home, and have my friends and family out here this weekend supporting us. It’s going to be a big day tomorrow, and we’re going to put this Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car in the winner’s circle tomorrow because that’s what we came here to do. Four-wide, two-wide, whatever; it’s our turn to turn the win lights on and I feel confident we’re going to do that. Qualifying is behind us and we’ve got a competitive quad tomorrow with Capps in there too. We’ll duke it out and hopefully, both DSR cars will advance.”

ABOUT DON SCHUMACHER RACING
Established in 1998 as a single-car Top Fuel team, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) has grown to become the winningest organization in NHRA Drag Racing history, and further cemented its position as one of motorsports’ elite teams when it surpassed the ‘350 wins’ milestone during the 2020 season. DSR owns 18 world championships in three different NHRA categories, and including hall-of-fame team owner Don Schumacher’s five NHRA Funny Car triumphs from the 1970s, DSR has been successful in capturing 359 national event victories overall.

Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana, DSR fields four professional teams competing in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Three-time world champion Antron Brown, and double-duty driver Leah Pruett headline DSR’s Top Fuel dragster team. DSR’s two Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars are driven by 2016 Funny Car world champion Ron Capps, and Matt Hagan, who earned his third NHRA series title in 2020.

DSR also campaigns two entries in the Factory Stock Showdown Series. The duo of DSR Dodge Drag Paks is piloted by Pruett, the 2018 series champion, and former Pro Stock racer Mark Pawuk.

Follow Don Schumacher Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter and Instagram at@shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

Photo Credit: Don Schumacher Racing, Driver photos: NHRA