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<\/p>\nSCAG Racing started the celebration of America\u2019s military heroes throughout the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park while all four nitro entries proudly carried the team\u2019s \u201cSimply the Brave\u201d military tribute wraps. Veterans and active-duty military members signed each race car throughout the weekend, making for a memorable event both on and off the racetrack.<\/p>\n
Daniel Wilkerson led the way for SCAG Racing in his SCAG Power Equipment Ford Funny Car, advancing to the quarterfinals after defeating No. 5 qualifier Matt Hagan in the opening round. Wilkerson qualified No. 12 with a 3.938-second pass at 322.50 mph. A stellar .037 reaction time helped Wilkerson leave first, and he never looked back, running a 3.935 at 327.59 mph to defeat Hagan\u2019s 4.308 at 213.40 mph.<\/p>\n
In the second round, Wilkerson faced No. 4 qualifier, Jack Beckman. Once again, Wilkerson left first with an impressive .036 reaction time \u2014 the quickest Funny Car reaction time on race day \u2014 but smoked the tires immediately and coasted to an 11.550 at 76.39 mph while Beckman advanced with a 3.981 at 323.19 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all had pretty high hopes for today, especially after first round,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cWe love coming out to run at Summit Motorsports Park, Summit has been a huge supporter of mine for my entire career so we always like to put down some nice runs for the fans here.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely seems like we got our race car back but as you saw second round, she\u2019s still a little finicky. We slowed her down, trying to make her go down the track and it just wasn\u2019t enough. So in a very rare move for SCAG Wilkerson Racing, we\u2019re going to stay tomorrow and make some runs and see if we can figure out what\u2019s going on with this Ford Mustang. I want to thank everyone who came over to the pits to sign our \u2018Simply the Brave\u2019 body and thank you for your sacrifice and service to this great country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Richards qualified No. 8 in his Bluebird Turf Funny Car with a strong 3.930 at 335.90 mph before matching up with No. 9 qualifier Del Worsham in the first round of eliminations. Richards posted a quicker .101 reaction time to Worsham\u2019s .124 but was unable to overcome a loss of traction, running a 4.207 at 243.33 mph while Worsham advanced with a 3.963 at 331.53 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall a great weekend here in Norwalk celebrating all our heroes and debuting our Simply The Brave tribute cars,\u201d said Richards. \u201cWe had tons of veterans come and sign the car again today, it\u2019s just been an amazing time. I\u2019m really happy with the progress we\u2019re making with this race car. I keep saying it but we\u2019re getting better and better and I just I know where we\u2019re gonna be here real soon, so I\u2019m excited for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Smith qualified No. 11 with his Bluebird Turf Top Fuel team after a 3.788-second pass at 326.32 mph and faced No. 6 qualifier Tony Schumacher in the opening round. Smith delivered the quickest reaction time of all Top Fuel drivers on race day with a .037 light to Schumacher\u2019s .102, but smoked the tires soon after. He pedaled the car in an attempt to regain traction, but could not. Smith crossed the finish line in 4.648 seconds at 208.88 mph while Schumacher advanced with a 4.350 at 208.81 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we smoked the tires in the first round today,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI pedaled it and gave it everything I had, but we just couldn\u2019t recover enough to get the job done. Even though the result isn\u2019t what we wanted, I\u2019m really proud of the progress our Simply the Brave Bluebird Turf team made throughout the weekend. We learned a lot, made some positive strides with the race car, and that\u2019s something we can continue to build on.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest highlights was seeing so many veterans and active-duty military members stop by to sign our Simply the Brave tribute race car. It\u2019s been an incredible way to honor the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our country, and we\u2019re proud to represent them. We have had a great crowd of dealers and customers with us this weekend and it\u2019s always great spending time with them and giving them the ultimate NHRA experience. We\u2019ll take what we\u2019ve learned, keep working hard, and be ready for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Ashley qualified No. 13 in the SCAG Power Equipment Top Fuel dragster with a 3.801 at 328.30 mph and faced No. 4 qualifier Tony Stewart in the opening round of Top Fuel eliminations. Ashley left first with a .041 reaction time to Stewart\u2019s .070 but smoked the tires early in the run. Ashley slowed to a 5.435 at 130.10 mph while Stewart advanced with a 3.758 at 328.86 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to start by thanking all of the active and veteran military members who came to sign our cars this weekend,\u201d said Ashley. \u201cWe are honored and grateful for your service. Admittedly, it\u2019s been a struggle for the first half of the season. But we know where we\u2019re going and won\u2019t stop until we get there. Everyone loves a comeback story. We are ready to put our best foot forward for everyone at SCAG Power Equipment, Mac Tools, Mobil 1, Impact, FastTz & Signs and all those that support us. Tomorrow\u2019s test session will put on the right path for Sonoma and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, SCAG Racing will remain at Summit Motorsports Park for a Monday test session before heading west for the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, July 24-26.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on July 1, 2026. <\/p>\n
The post SCAG Racing Delivers Memorable Weekend in Norwalk Honoring America\u2019s Heroes<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SCAG Racing started the celebration of America\u2019s military heroes throughout the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park while all four nitro entries proudly carried the team\u2019s \u201cSimply the Brave\u201d military tribute wraps. Veterans and active-duty military members signed each race car throughout the weekend, making for a memorable event both on and […]<\/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-104143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104143","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=104143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}