Spencer Hyde, Funny Car driver of the Head Contractors and Engineers Funny Car, continued to build a rhythm in his sophomore season at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, qualifying ninth in a stacked 16-car field and gaining valuable data despite an early loss on race day.
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Hyde delivered a strong 3.981 second pass at 319.67 mph during Friday qualifying to secure his position. He also picked up two bonus points with that pass, since it was the second-quickest run of the qualifying session.
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\u201cIt\u2019s kind of becoming our thing to come out really strong in Q1 and pick up bonus points,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cI don\u2019t hate it. Every point in the battle for the championship matters, and those bonus points add up quickly.\u201dThe weekend carried added meaning, as Jim and Janet Russell of The Caine Group stepped in as primary sponsors with a special livery to honor their late son, Caine, whose passion for racing continues to inspire. Hyde, the only full-time Canadian professional racer on the NHRA tour, emphasized his appreciation for the weekend\u2019s meaningful partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving The Caine Group on board as our main sponsor this weekend meant a lot to all of us,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cJim and Janet Russell\u2019s son was a very special guy, and we were proud to carry his name on our car. We wish we could\u2019ve gone more rounds for them, but we\u2019ll keep pushing to make them proud the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
On race day, Hyde faced a formidable opening-round quad that included No. 1 qualifier and three-time world champion Ron Capps, No. 8 qualifier and recent Gainesville winner Chad Green, and two-time reigning world champion Austin Prock. Hyde\u2019s run was cut short by traction issues, preventing advancement to the next round. Capps went on to win the race.<\/p>\n
Despite the outcome, the second-year driver and 2025 NHRA Rookie of the Year remains encouraged by the progress his team is making.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned a lot this weekend, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cThis track can be tricky, especially in the four-wide format, but Jim Head and this entire team gave me a great car. That 3.98 run shows what we\u2019re capable of, and we\u2019re getting closer to putting it all together on race day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde leaves Charlotte seventh in the NHRA Funny Car points standings and now turns his focus to the next event, the NHRA Southern Nationals, a new addition to the schedule that presents a fresh opportunity for every team in the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting heading into a brand-new race,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cNobody has notes, so it really levels the playing field. We\u2019ll take what we learned here, apply it and come out swinging. I\u2019m confident in this team and ready to see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde and the Head Contractors and Engineers Funny Car will be back in competition next weekend at the NHRA Southern Nationals on May 1-3 at South Georgia Motorsports Park. There will be two qualifying sessions on Friday, May 1 and two qualifying sessions on Saturday, May 2. For tickets or more information on the NHRA Southern Nationals visit www.nhra.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post Spencer Hyde Makes Early Exit in Charlotte<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spencer Hyde, Funny Car driver of the Head Contractors and Engineers Funny Car, continued to build a rhythm in his sophomore season at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, qualifying ninth in a stacked 16-car field and gaining valuable data despite an early loss on race day.\u00a0Hyde delivered a strong 3.981 second pass at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}