The second event of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series takes place this weekend at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Arizona.
While it’s still early days in the season, some drivers and teams will be hoping to get their years back on track after poor performances in the opening round in Pomona, such as Pro Stock racer Erica Enders who got knocked out in the first round eliminations.
Additionally, 2015 Phoenix winners and Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates Tony Schumacher and Matt Hagan also found themselves knocked out in the first round of their respective classes, and will be hoping for a little bit of the same magic that took them to their victories at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals last year.
“I’m focused for sure and very driven to win another championship this year,” said Hagan, who drives the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T in Funny Car. “We have all the folks to do it and I think DSR is one of those teams that will be a handful for everyone. I hope we’re one of those cars nobody wants to race. We’ve got good people, good parts and it’s just a matter of executing on raceday. As a driver, it’s about being focused and when you have a great car you don’t mess it up. I want to make sure I’m doing my job and holding up my end of the bargain.”
Hagan lost to Chad Head in the first round eliminations at the 2016 Winternationals, but crew chief Dickie Venables and the team disassembled Hagan’s car shortly after the race and quickly found the root of the problem.
“There was some stuff that just wasn’t right on the car,” Hagan said. “We pulled our old car back out. It’s proven, has a lot of notes on it and we won a championship with it. Eventually we’re going to have to run a new car but some of the stuff put us in a bind and we had to make some changes. Hopefully we can make up some ground with this car going to Phoenix. That’s racing, everything is not right all the time. It’s unfortunate it happened but I would rather catch it now than five races into it.”
Meanwhile, DSR has achieved even more recent success in the Top Fuel class in Phoenix, with teammates Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown taking the last four finals wins at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park drag strip.
“We certainly would like to have the same results as we did last year,” said Schumacher, who was knocked out by Terry McMillan in the opening round at Pomona. “Honestly, last year’s victory was made possible by my guys. I didn’t feel like I was on my game, but they kept putting such a great car under me that it did its job better than everyone else we raced. I’d like to improve on my role this weekend and yes, have the same outcome. We have some notes from our test runs a few weeks back. We made some good passes. The key in the early season is finding the tune-up that’s going help you win a championship at the end of the year. There are a lot of ways you can do that. We love racing in Phoenix and I know (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) are going to be digging extremely deep in order for us to have a chance at getting not only our first win of the year, but a sixth victory in Phoenix and third in the last four years.”
FS1 and FOX Sports GO will broadcast qualifying from the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in a one-hour show beginning at 10 p.m. ET Saturday night. Three hours of finals coverage will follow at 5 p.m. ET Sunday.
Top Fuel points:
Funny Car points:
Pro Stock points:
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