That’s a Wrap: 2022 NHRA Season Pulls the Chutes at Pomona!

1 year ago Racing

It’s quiet on Parker Avenue today, Pomona Raceway’s unofficial name for the dragstrip that has seen its share of heroes battling down the quarter-mile for over 50 years. Located on the ground of the vast LA County Fairplex, Pomona Raceway is eerily silent. The sponsor banners and inflatables have been taken down, and all that can be heard are the sweeper trucks hovering around the Fairplex collecting bits of trash. This massive paved facility has played host to both the NHRA Winternationals and World Finals for decades and put Pomona on the map for drag racing enthusiasts. Its roots go way back to when LA street racers were public menace and it was the concerted effort of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and Pomona Police Chief Ralph Parker, who back in 1951 encouraged law enforcement agencies across the country to work with local car clubs to get them off the street and race at safe and sanctioned tracks. In 1969, NHRA Founder Wally Parks christened the drag strip at Pomona Raceway as “Parker Avenue” and as they say, “the rest is history.”

For our Dodge//Mopar® drivers competing this past weekend during the NHRA World Finals in Pomona, they were also looking to make some history, and for Matt Hagan in his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT® Funny Car, he finished the 2022 NHRA season in third place. It was a hard-fought finish that included Hagan collecting four highly coveted NHRA Wally trophies during the 2022 season that got Hagan his fourth consecutive top-three performance in the Funny Car championship. Following his runner-up finish last year and his third world title back in 2020, Hagan was looking good to repeat but came up just short with an uncharacteristic first round loss. “I have to thank Dodge Power Brokers for putting a great racecar underneath me all season and Tony Stewart Racing for their phenomenal work. To be able to work for a guy like Tony Stewart has been hands down one of the best experiences of my life. He’s a solid guy and such a good dude and creates a great work environment. I’m just excited to be able to drive for him and to continue to drive for him,” said Hagan.

“I’m proud of my crew guys for the blood, sweat and tears they put in all year long. It’s really, really tough to lose the first round like that in a championship hunt and just know that when you watch him cross the finish line over there that your season’s over. It’s just one of those things where it is tough because you can taste it, you know you’re there, and that you’re capable, but it just wasn’t meant to be today. At the end of the day, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us this offseason and a lot of innovation to work on. I’m just really proud of my guys, really proud of our sponsors, and proud of the season we’ve had. We won four races this year, but it can always be better. All in all, I just know these guys are going to come back and we’re going to be better and stronger.”

Fellow Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) pilot Leah Pruett headed into the World Final ready to end her 2022 NHRA season on a high note. Her team had its shares of struggles with numerous highs and lows but when her team rolled into Pomona Raceway and unloaded her 11,000-horsepower HEMI® engine-powered Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster, they qualified fourth in the tough field. After getting past her first-round opponent, Leah was paired up with Austin Prock for round two. Despite putting a holeshot on him, Leah lost a close one as she crossed the stripe with a 3.721-second pass to Prock’s winning 3.704-second run. “Our race day with the Dodge Power Brokers dragster was the epitome of hard work and execution and embodies the team’s competitive spirit and skill. During round one, we needed to get down the track against (Alex) Laughlin who is a fierce contender. Just like many other competitors, we had some challenges and smoked the tires. Engines don’t love when you pedal the car. Cylinders get mixed up and bad things happen. We had a huge explosion from top to bottom – from the injector down to the oil pan. We had to replace every part of the engine. Our turnaround and recovery for the second round of eliminations is what is the most impressive. We had zero problems in warmup, made our call on time and ran a very competitive 3.72-second.”

“We didn’t believe a 3.70 was out there to be had on Pomona’s track, so that’s not what we pushed for. We are very proud to be able to hang our hat on quality turnarounds and having the right parts available to piece on the car when you have the worse situation available and to be able to do it where you’re only seven-thousandths away from a win light,” exclaimed Leah. “Personally, getting a holeshot on (Austin) Prock is a highlight for me this season. I’ve been working really hard on consistency, and I have my own notebook of what I do when I’m able to get it right like that and that’s got to last you four months in the offseason. We finished strong and we have everything to be proud of. The recovery we had for the second round of eliminations reflects our rebound this season and looking towards 2023 is going to be even more impressive.” 

The NHRA World Finals did see a Dodge in the winner’s circle. Fellow Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon put the newly crowned world champ on the trailer as he defeated Ron Capps in the final round. The Snap-On tools Charger SRT Hellcat was on a roll as Pedregon put down a 3.839-second run to Capps’ 3.850-second attempt. This was Pedregon’s career best performance and the team’s first win of 2022, quite a way to end a tough season. “Every run we made put more pressure on us because our racecar was so good. We ran 3.84, 3.84, 3.84 times and I thought we cannot screw this up. There was a little extra pressure here, but my team was locked in. They were solid. They made great decisions. The track changed a little bit, and some dragsters were smoking the tires, but the final round was icing on the cake to go up against my nemesis, Ron Capps. Congratulations to Ron for his two championships in a row. That’s huge. But we wanted a piece of the attention today and we got it with a 3.83-second run and my career-best speed of 335 miles per hour, but we exceeded that and that’s thanks to my team. Those guys worked hard. This will be a good offseason for us. We’ll come out next year. I just can’t wait for the next season,” noted Pedregon.

Technically, the “offseason” begins now, but don’t except the teams to take too much time “off”. They’re already back at their race shops and going through the equipment, assessing the carnage of blown-up engine parts, fatigued chassis components and inventorying their diminished parts from a long race season. They’ve done this drill before and know the 2023 NHRA season is coming fast, and it’ll be time to repack the chutes!  

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