“This is a massive achievement to win 50 NHRA national events. It’s great to have Dodge with us in the winner’s circle for so many years. It’s so special to be around a great group of guys at Tony Stewart Racing. We have had the same crew for three straight years. Great people make the difference between winning and losing and this team is so strong and consistent. Dickie (Venables – crew chief), Mike Knudson (co-crew chief), Alex Conaway (car chief) and the whole team work so hard to give me a great race car. It’s always fun to put this Dodge//SRT Hellcat in the winner’s circle. This 50th win just passed a legend in Don “the Snake” Prudhomme in career wins and to have four NHRA Funny Car championship with John Force, Snake and Kenny Bernstein. I’m so honored to be with that group. This track is just two hours from my home in Virginia, so this is a home track for me. Winning four NHRA races at the zMAX Dragway in my career is special too. This place has always been special. I have so many fans here. I actually think I outsold Tony (Stewart) in T-shirts this weekend. So, right now, we might not be the fastest car, but the crew can really race on Sundays and showed again today. We just need to keep clicking away and score points and win races. We are going to the meat of the season, and we have been trying a lot of different pieces with this car. We didn’t get as much testing early this year due to the poor weather, but we are gaining on the tough Funny Car field with each race, and you saw that today. I never dreamed I would race a Funny Car, let alone win 50 races at the NHRA national level. We can’t do it without great sponsors like Dodge, Direct Connection, Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage, American Rebel and so many other supporters of the TSR team. I’m very excited to win again at zMAX Dragway and bring another “Wally” to the TSR crew and our sponsors.”
|