Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) two-car NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series entries have finally announced their manufacturer identity. The Top Fuel car for Leah Pruett and Funny Car for three-time class champ Matt Hagan will bear the names of Dodge//SRT and Mopar for the 2022 season.
“The Dodge brand has a long history of competing in and supporting motorsports,” declared Tim Kuniskis, Dodge brand CEO – Stellantis. “For nearly a decade, NHRA drag racing has been our primary motorsports focus, helping deliver products like the Dodge Demon, 1320 and Super Stock, cars that resonate with the Brotherhood of Muscle. The Dodge brand embodies the philosophy of the ‘last tenth’ and we are not done pushing the performance envelope,” he said. “So we are extremely excited to partner with Tony Stewart and his drag racing team to help take Dodge to the next level. Tony is a racing legend with an attitude, personality and competitive drive that aligns perfectly with our goals.”
The primary branding for both the Top Fuel dragster of Pruett and Hagan’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat will be Dodge Power Brokers and Direct Connection, the TSR team stated. The Dodge Power Brokers dealership program is the exclusive source for all new Direct Connection performance parts, including tuner, stage and performance kits for the street-going Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and race-ready kits for the Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak. Dodge Power Brokers dealership staff are trained to deliver a performance-focused customer service experience.
Tony Stewart Racing’s roots are embedded in sprint car racing, where the team owner got his start. Mopar powered its multiple entries in USAC and the World of Outlaws and this affiliation has resulted in 27 open-wheel championships for TSR from 2001 through 2007, all using Mopar power.
“I’m really pleased to have Dodge//SRT and Mopar as partners with our new NHRA venture, as manufacturer and sponsor for our two entries in Top Fuel and Funny Car,” noted Tony Stewart. “It shows confidence in your program when an OEM wants to be on your team and for you to help support their program as well. They have obviously had a great relationship with both drivers for the past few years, and to be able to continue that association is key to this team’s success – and a huge benefit to the continuity for everyone involved.
“Having that kind of history definitely helps flatten the learning curve while raising expectations for our inaugural NHRA season,” Stewart admitted. “It’ll be nice to work with Dodge and Mopar again, after sharing success together in USAC and World of Outlaws nearly two decades ago. We re certainly setting the bar high and look forward to being competitive from the start.” Since his rookie, 2009 season at Don Schumacher Racing, Matt Hagan has been supported by Dodge//SRT and Mopar. Pruett first joined forces with the manufacturer in 2016 when she came to the Schumacher team.
“I’m so grateful to have represented and shared so many successes with Dodge//SRT and Mopar for most of my career, and to say I’m excited to continue our relationship in this next chapter with Tony Stewart Racing is an understatement,” Hagan stated. The 2021 NHRA Funny Car runner-up, who earned class world titles in 2011, 2014 and 2020, has 39 Funny Car national event wins. The Christiansburg, Virginia racer’s family has been a Dodge dealer since 1979 “and we’re really proud of that,” the 39-year-old Hagan said. “We’re ready to celebrate Mopar’s 85th anniversary this year as we battle for a championship – with a few wins along the way.”
Nine-time Top Fuel national event winner Pruett marks her 26th consecutive year of NHRA competition. Like so many, she began in the series’ Jr. Drag Racing League, as an eight-year-old. She won the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series championship in the Nostalgia Funny Car class; the native of Redlands, California has spent the last eight years advancing through Top Fuel, as well as pulling double-duty by competing full-time in NHRA Factory Stock Showdown, where she won the 2018 title in her Dodge Challenger Drag Pak.
“Having Direct Connection branding on my dragster this season is really exciting,” Pruett said. “It has such a rich history of success at the drag strip with racers like Don Garlits. It’s amazing to help continue to build on that legacy and introduce it to a new generation of Dodge enthusiasts. While Dodge//SRT has been developing the new Drag Pak, we were also testing and developing some of the stage kits,” Pruett allowed. “To be on the presenting side of a massive program that I contributed to while watching it progress in pure secrecy makes me incredibly proud to run Direct Connection and Power Brokers on my Top Fuel dragster.”
Tony Stewart’s NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series team makes its official debut during the series’ 2022 season starter, the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com, scheduled February 17-20 on the legendary Auto Club Raceway at Pomona drag strip.
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