Tony Stewart, Driver of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster
“I’m proud of the progress this team is making right now. We didn’t qualify as well as we wanted, but, with the Four-Wide, I don’t feel it is that important for eliminations. We were runner-up in the first quad (four cars) on a tie (time) and then, we outright won the next round and that makes us feel like we are gaining on it. I told the team that we are way ahead of where we were last week at Phoenix. And that was way ahead of the runs at Gainesville and Pomona. I feel like the team is doing a great job improving with each race, and we are in the window that we can make some small adjustments and pick speed. I think the crew is a little dejected with the final, but from the boss’ perspective, I can see us gaining on it. And we made great progress in just a week. I like seeing them pout a bit right now because of losing, but I’ll get them smiling again and ready for Charlotte. We will focus on the positive moving forward. On Friday and Saturday, I don’t have a theory on why I was a little late on the lights. But today (Sunday), we were back leaving on good lights and got a 50 (.050 of a second) in the final. I wanted to be consistent on the lights, and that is the best for me as a rookie driver in Top Fuel. I’m happy with that finals light because I did everything as I normally do in every run. I’m looking forward to Charlotte now.”
Matt Hagan, Driver of the Operation Healing Forces/Shelor Motor Mile Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car
“Dickie (Venables – crew chief) is always a great racer on Sunday. The TSR team put a great race car under me today and we would have liked to put the Operation Healing Forces (OHF) car in the winner’s circle with the Nellis Air Force base next to the track. We are making progress with the car. We had a lot of stuff going on with engine’s bellhousing and we made some big wholesale changes with what the guys wanted to do. We are getting our race car back to where we want it. After a couple of races being down a bit, we can run some good numbers down. It’s tough when you get beat on a ‘holeshot’ but those four cars in the final were about a foot or 18 inches apart. That’s some awfully good racing. We are happy to be a part of those big ‘heavy hitters’ in the class. You never see the other cars when it’s that close, but you can hear them. Now we want to get this race car more dialed in as we go to Charlotte in two weeks.”
Next Up
The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals April 26-28 at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.
Tony Stewart Racing
