A TERRIFIC 2010

Another season of racing is in the books, and an extensive list of Mopar®-powered drivers etched their names in the win columns of a variety of racing series during the 2010 campaign.

Words: Darren Jacobs

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series — Pro Stock

Mopar® Dodge Avenger Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson carries the banner for Team Mopar in the NHRA—that’s fitting, since Mopar’s factory backed representative enjoyed a banner 2010 season himself while duking it out on the quarter-mile.

The career milestones fell fast and furious for the 15-year Team Mopar veteran and J&J Racing team owner and driver. Johnson socked away eight No. 1 Qualifier Awards, one more than he had collected in all his previous years racing combined, and wrapped up the year with four straight No. 1 spots. The Mopar HEMI®-powered hotshoe also posted career single-season marks in final round appearances (four) and round wins (37).

Perhaps most importantly, Johnson came through in the clutch at Mopar’s headline event, the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, earning his second-straight win at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo. and his third in four years. Oh, one more thing—Johnson set his personal bests while breaking in his new Mopar Dodge Avenger, which he debuted at the first race of the 2010 season.

“It’s been one of our best years,” said Johnson, who finished sixth in the point standings, his fifth consecutive top 10 points finish. “We’re a solid team; we’re a championship-caliber team now. The Mopar Dodge Avenger is the best Pro Stock car out here, I feel. The Mopar and Dodge aero guys did a great job. We’re going to fine-tune the Dodge Avenger chassis and make it more consistent for 2011. Hopefully, that chassis will give us a bigger window on the car, and we’ll be even more bad to the bone.”

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series — Funny Car

Mopar-powered Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car driver Matt Hagan just missed giving Mopar its first Funny Car championship since Gary Scelzi steered a Mopar Dodge to the 2005 title. Hagan, who competed with special Mopar graphics on his Dodge Charger R/T at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, was edged out for the Funny Car crown by John Force on a heart-breaking final day of the season.

“We mixed it up with who I consider to be the best guy out there, the 15-time world champ, and we had him down to one or two rounds in the final event of the year,” said Hagan, who racked up three wins in 2010 in five final rounds. “We fought a hard fight, we dug deep.” Combined with Hagan’s DSR teammates Jack Beckman (one win in five final rounds) and Ron Capps (one win in three final rounds), Mopar Dodge Funny Car drivers accumulated five event wins on 13 final round appearances and took three spots in the top 10 of the final Funny Car point standings.

Mopar Sportsman

The 2010 campaign was a special one for Mopar-powered NHRA Sportsman drivers, especially those competing in the Mopar HEMI Challenge Race Series, which marked its 10th anniversary season. The battles between Super Stock/A HEMI (SS/AH) Dodge Dart and Plymouth Barracudas traveled to three venues in 2010, including the famed Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Ind., where Jim Daniels banked the $10,000 winner’s purse in his Ray Barton Racing Engines Dodge Dart. Daniels also added a win at the Jegs Northern SPORTSnationals HEMI Challenge stop in Columbus, Ohio, with Charlie Westcott Jr. scoring a “W” at the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion HEMI Challenge event in Bowling Green, Ky.

Mopar Challenger Drag Pak drivers were a force to be reckoned with in the NHRA Stock Eliminator Sportsman ranks. Drag Pak pilots including Jeff Teuton, Irv Johns, Carey Bales and Doug Duell scored class elimination wins at NHRA national events, and Mopar Challenger Drag Paks owned the Stock Eliminator qualifying charts, claiming the top spots on the starting grid at numerous NHRA races.

Super Stock racer Michael Volkman also brought home an IHRA championship for Mopar (see page 54). The brand also continued its popular and highly successful Mopar Contingency Program, rewarding more than 120 NHRA Sportsman racers who competed and won with specified Mopar parts.

USAC

Mopar continued its long-standing relationship with the USAC Racing Series in 2010, serving as title sponsor of the USAC Mopar Midget National Championship Series and the USAC Mopar .25 Midget Series.

Mopar first signed on as title sponsor of the USAC Mopar Midget National Championship in 2008 and saw the popular circle track racing series visit 22 different venues in 2010, both dirt and pavement tracks, and hit nine states. Mopar-powered Kasey Kahne Racing (KKR) driver Brad Sweet snatched four victories in ’10 and finished eighth in the final USAC Mopar Midget National Championship Series standings.

The USAC Mopar .25 Midget Series, a breeding ground for the next generation of USAC stars, offered the most diversified slate of quarter midget racing ever produced. In 2010 the series visited iconic facilities such as Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Florida, site of the 2010 Mopar .25 Midget Nationals. The 10-race series enjoyed national scope and recognition, from California to Florida, with drivers ages 5 to 17 years old and from 20 different states developing their talents behind the wheel.

World of Outlaws

Mopar-powered KKR World of Outlaws driver Joey Saldana clocked in at fourth in the final World of Outlaws standings after leading the points chase for much of the season. Saldana utilized Mopar power to seize 
13 A-Feature wins, the most of any driver in the World of Outlaws Series. The KKR team ended up second in owner points, after Brad Sweet filled in for Saldana at Lernerville Speedway in late September when the veteran was forced to miss an event due to a concussion.

Formula DRIFT

Mopar-powered Dodge Motorsports Formula DRIFT star Samuel Hübinette finished tenth in the FD point 
standings in his first season as a team owner. Hübinette drove his Dodge Challenger to one No. 1 spot in 
qualifying, at the FD Las Vegas event, and posted a strong debut effort in his new car. The two-time FD 
champion and winner of the inaugural series title back in 2004 has never finished outside of the top 10 since the FD Series was founded.

Dodge Viper Cup

The inaugural season of the Dodge Viper Cup series ended with Ryan Schimsk of Austin, Texas, earning the series championship, concluding a long battle for the top two spots through the first eight series races between Schimsk’s No. 67 Dodge Viper ACR-X and the No. 33 of Ben Keating of Victoria, Texas. Schimsk capped off a late season charge that saw him capture three of the final four series’ races to lock down the title. Dodge Motorsports and Mopar offered more than $200,000 in cash and Mopar parts vouchers during 2010 as part of the Dodge Viper Cup series contingency program.

Darren Jacobs is Mopar’s motorsports communications correspondent and editor of the Mopar Speed e-newsletter.