TSR Teams Suffer Traction Issues At NHRA Northwest Nationals

Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) had a challenging weekend at the NHRA Northwest Nationals, held at Pacific Raceways near Seattle. Both TSR Nitro drivers experienced early exits due to traction issues.

Defending NHRA Mission Funny Car Champion Matt Hagan had a mixed day. Hagan, who qualified sixth, drove his TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT HELLCAT to a strong opening-round victory. He recorded an impressive 3.891-second run @ 327.43 miles per hour, defeating Dave Richards. However, his luck changed in the quarterfinals. Facing Paul Lee, Hagan’s 11,000-horsepower Funny Car lost traction early despite a strong start with a .059 reaction time, allowing Lee to advance.

Reflecting on the day’s performance, Hagan said, “We’ve been trying some different things in the heat. It’s obviously not the weekend that we wanted. Sometimes you have to try other things. If they don’t work, you go back to what you know. You always have to try and grow and adapt and evolve. I feel good moving into Sonoma because we have a good baseline there. We can go back to a combination that we’ve used there for years. We’re still where we need to be because we’re keeping it on all eight cylinders. We’ll keep digging now.”

Despite the setback, Hagan remains third in the NHRA Mission Funny Car points standings.

Motorsports Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, who is in his rookie season in the Top Fuel division, also faced difficulties. Stewart qualified with a 3.778-second run in his TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Top Fuel dragster but was eliminated in the first round of eliminations. Racing against fellow rookie Jasmine Salinas, Stewart left the starting line first but lost traction early, allowing Salinas to advance.

Commenting on his performance, Stewart said, “Today obviously didn’t go according to plan. We’ve been working on our hot weather combinations and the car wasn’t happy today. We are going to re-group and look ahead to Sonoma. That’s one of my favorite tracks, so hoping we can conquer both the road course and the drag strip.”

Stewart, who continues to lead the rookie standings in the Top Fuel division, is currently ninth in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel points standings. He is looking forward to competing at Sonoma Raceway, where he has a storied NASCAR history, having won there in 2001, 2005, and 2016.

The DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals will mark Stewart’s professional debut at the Northern California track in the NHRA series. The event schedule includes two rounds of qualifying on Friday, July 26, at 5:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. PDT. Two more qualifying sessions will take place on Saturday, July 27, at 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. PDT, with final eliminations set to begin on Sunday, July 28, at 10:30 a.m. PDT.

Fans can catch the action on FOX, with Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty races airing at 6 p.m. EDT, and Sunday’s eliminations at 4 p.m. EDT.