Mopar Drivers Capps, Coughlin Headed to Final and Semifinal Rounds Moved to 60th annual U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis;
Rain and Darkness Delay Eliminations at Brainerd International Raceway

  • Intermittent rain delays and darkness at 33rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals delay Pro Stock and Funny Car eliminations until next national event
  • No.2 qualifier Ron Capps drives his Dodge Charger R/T through eliminations to advance to fourth consecutive final round at Brainerd
  • Defending title winner Capps will face off against John Force in a final Funny Car elimination rescheduled for U.S. Nationals’ third qualifying session
  • HEMI-powered Jeg Coughlin Jr. headed to Pro Stock semifinal rescheduled for U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis
August 17, 2014 , Brainerd, Minnesota -  Scattered showers delayed the completion of eliminations rounds at the 33rd annual Lucas Oil National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals on Sunday until finally the race against darkness at Brainerd International Raceway, a facility without lighting to enable might racing, was lost. The decision was made by NHRA officials to postpone the Funny Car category final and Pro Stock class semifinals and final until the next scheduled event, the 60th annual U.S. Nationals set for Aug 27- Sept. 1, in Indianapolis.
 
Defending title winner the last two years and No. 2 qualifier, Ron Capps drove his Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger R/T between intermittent rain delays and through Funny Car eliminations to advance to what would have been his fourth straight final round appearance at Brainerd International Raceway. Capps defeated Jeff Arend, Mopar teammate Jack Beckman and semifinalist Alexis DeJoria, to meet up with nemesis John Force in a final showdown, with the winner to be determined at the U.S. Nationals in the third Funny Car qualifying session scheduled for Sept. 30 at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.
 
"It's a little bittersweet because this place has become like family to me," Capps said after his semifinal win at Brainerd. "We've run so well here winning the last two years and going to the final the year before that. I'm bummed that we can't run the final in front of these passionate fans that stuck around all day. If you put together a week in the Zoo (track campground) and being in the grandstands all weekend and with the rain today, these are some of the best fans we have on the circuit."
 
Capps sits third in the Funny Car standings.
                                                                                                                                                    
Mopar Pro Stock driver Jeg Coughlin Jr., also a four-time winner at this event, beat Larry Morgan and Deric Kramer with the JEGS.com Dodge Dart to advance to a semifinal match-up against Vincent Nobile.  That meeting has now been rescheduled to occur at the U.S. Nationals during the fourth qualifying session for the factory hot rod category.
 
Coughlin’s HEMI®-powered teammate Allen Johnson, after earning his first No. 1 qualifier position at this venue, had a bye for the opening round then lined up his “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” against Vincent Nobile. Unfortunately, irregular power fluctuations due to a spark plug malfunction hampered any forward motion for Johnson’s Dodge Dart in a second round loss.  
 
Competing on a part-time basis, Dodge Avenger driver Deric Kramer used a .004 reaction time and a 6.64 second e.t. run to post a first round hole shot win over Greg Anderson’s 6.574 (209.39 mph) before his second round loss to Coughlin. HEMI-powered Dodge Dart driver V. Gaines, runner-up at this event last year, saw his day come to a quick end with a first round loss to Shane Gray.
 
While official points won’t be distributed until the finals for this event are completed at Indianapolis, Johnson currently falls to third in the Pro Stock standings behind new points leader Jason Line, who also advanced to the postponed semifinals, and Erica Enders Stevens in the second place after she suffered a first round loss. Coughlin sits in fourth place pending results from the rescheduled elimination rounds.
 
In Funny Car competition, all four DSR Dodge Charger R/T machines saw second round action with Tommy Johnson Jr. appearing in his third semifinal of the year by beating Tim Wilkerson and Bob Tasca, sustaining the loss to John Force.  
 
Matt Hagan had a solid first run with a 4.018 second (318.99 mph) lap to tie the track record for elapsed time pass in a win over Chad Head. In Hagan’s second round match-up, the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T raced to an equally impressive 4.056 second (318.77 mph) e.t. only to be outrun by the first sub four-second pass in Brainerd International Raceway’s history as Alexis DeJoria reset the track record to 3.998 seconds (315.93 mph) in the next lane.
 
"Obviously, we'd like to be going rounds and move up a few spots in the points standings,” Hagan said. “But on the flip side, we qualified in the top half at No. 3, ran really good first round and we missed it a little bit in the second round. That's part of it. You put nitro in the tank, sometimes you don't know what you're going to get. We'll role into Indy test and try to figure some more things out, but we tip our caps to (crew chief) Tommy (DeLago), Alexis (DeJoria) and that Patron team. That was a phenomenal lap."
 
Still working hard to crack into the Funny Car top-10 with one event remaining to make the playoffs, Jack Beckman got a little closer by defeating Cruz Pedregon in the first round. He then drove his Dodge Charger R/T to a quicker 4.046 second pass against DSR teammate Capps, who beat him on a hole shot with a 4.049 sec run and a margin of victory equaling less than four-thousandths of a second. With the result, Beckman trails tenth place driver Wilkerson by just 16 points.
 
The next stop on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule will be the prestigious 60th anniversary edition of the U.S. Nationals, Aug. 27-Sept. 1 , in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
2014 NHRA Points Standings
(UNOFFICIAL points following the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Eliminations)
 
PRO STOCK (season wins in parentheses)
1.         Jason Line – 1278* (1)
2.         Erica Enders-Stevens – 1269* (4)
3.         Allen Johnson – Dodge Dart – 1262* (4)
4.         Jeg Coughlin Jr.  – Dodge Dart – 1202* (2)
5.         Dave Connolly – 1130* (1)
6.         Shane Gray – 1068*
7.            Vincent Nobile – 1032* (1)
8.         V. Gaines – Dodge Dart – 774
9.         Chris McGaha – 750
10.        Greg Anderson – 685
 
FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)
1.         Robert Hight – 1308* (5)
2.         John Force – 1306* (2)
3.         Ron Capps – Dodge Charger R/T – 1070 (1)
4.         Tommy Johnson Jr. – Dodge Charger R/T – 1052 (1)
5.         Alexis DeJoria – 1035 (2)
6.         Courtney Force – 1015 (2)
7.         Matt Hagan – Dodge Charger R/T – 1009 (1)
8.         Del Worsham – 1000
9.         Cruz Pedregon – 929 (1)
10.        Tim Wilkerson – 848
11.        Jack Beckman – Dodge Charger R/T – 832
 
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 2014, Mopar celebrates the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the GEN III 426 Race HEMI® and looks to defend back-to-back NHRA World Championship titles (2012-2013) in the Pro Stock class and battle for another Funny Car World Championship after wins in 2011-2012. While Mopar remains involved in a various professional motorsports series, it continues to honour its roots by being a proud supporter of amateur racing within the NHRA with its sponsorship of the HEMI Challenge and Mopar Sportsman Cup.
 
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
 
 
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