Matt Hagan stole the spotlight Saturday at the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan.

The two-time world champion nitro Funny Car driver sent shockwaves through the class when he set both ends of the national record with his 3.802-second time at 338.85 mph during the first qualifying session Saturday.

“We had an amazing hot rod, that’s Mopar power speaking out loud right there,” said Hagan, who won world championships in 2011 and 2014. “It’s pretty amazing. This is about as extreme as it gets. 338 mph with a steering wheel in your lap is craziness. We’ve got the conditions, the parts and pieces and the power and the crew that is doing a great job out there. It is just cool to go out there and get it done.”

Hagan pilots the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing. This was Hagan’s 28th career No. 1 qualifying position and second this season as he also was the top qualifier at the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

Hagan faces Jack Wyatt in the first round Sunday.

“It was pretty cool when I got strapped in the car and Dickie (Venables, Hagan’s crew chief) is like ‘hold on. You’re going to go for a ride.’ It’s pretty amazing. Everybody talks about Extreme sports, and you see Monster and Red Bull and all these other sponsors in these other sports, and this is as extreme as it gets. I mean 338 mph and we are doing it at 1,000 feet. It’s just insane. There you go for your Extreme sport, this is about as extreme as it gets. I’ve never flipped two or three times on a dirt bike, but they can’t be close to this. It was just awesome.”

Hagan said the race track conditions at Topeka are ideal for history-making runs.

“There are no bumps and dips in the track,” Hagan said. “There are some tracks we go to and you are like ‘Why are we even racing here?’ This is just one of those better tracks as far as conditions on the race track. Sometimes the facilities are nicer and there are a lot more fans (at other tracks), but sometimes the tracks aren’t as good. This is just a great race track and the conditions are great and the fans are great.”

When Robert Hight set the national speed record Friday at Topeka with a 337.66 mph performance, it didn’t go unnoticed by Hagan.

“I was sick, man,” Hagan said. “I didn’t want to see that, I was like 'damn, we have to get that back.' It’s obviously sickening to see someone steal your record, your gusto like that. We carried that record for over a year and it was nice to see we had the conditions again this morning to have a shot at it.”

Hagan set the national mph record in the nitro Funny Car class a year ago at Topeka with his 335.57 mph effort.

“(Saturday) it was fast and loose and it hopped up on the tire and made it to 60 foot, and I was like ‘Whoa.’ It was super-fast early and it calmed down then once the clutch came to it, it started floating around, and it’s kind of a weird feeling, you think going that fast it would just be planted and it would just be stuck, but it is almost like the car starts to float and loose is fast.” Hagan said. “It’s one of those things where you are afraid to touch the wheel too much. In a Funny Car, you usually have to drive them no matter what, but you’re almost afraid to because you don’t want to upset this thing. It’s a fine line and being able to have a feel for it because it’s going so fast and you are trying to make decisions from the seat of your pants. You don’t get runs like that and after it made it past 60 feet, I knew it was going to go. It was just a matter of keeping it in the groove and keeping it stuck.”

Despite Hagan’s experience behind the wheel, the amazing speed his car is traveling is hard for him to determine in the moment.

“You don’t know really how fast it is,” Hagan said. “A lot of times in these conditions, there’s a really good chance to set a record, and you know what your crew chiefs are swinging for. I know the difference between a four-flat run and a 3.80 run, it’s just one of those things. On one of those (3.80) runs, it’s so loose, so early so fast, that’s kind of how you know you are on a good quick run because it hops up on the tire and it keeps on washing and then it kind of settles down and then it gets out there and the clutch locks up and that’s when we pull the most G-forces in the middle. We pull close to 6 Gs in the middle of the race track and then once it gets to that point, you’re pretty much home unless you start putting cylinders out. Well, NHRA is putting these rev limiters on us to slow us down, and in a Funny Car, that’s very, very dangerous because it starts putting cylinders out and the next thing you know you’re really starting to have to drive these things, and a short wheel-base car doesn’t respond. They were able to put a rev limiter on a dragster a little bit earlier than (Funny Cars), but that’s a long car and it doesn’t take as much steering and correction. Even on that record run, we had a cylinder out, and this just goes to show you what it could be if it didn’t hit the rev limiter like that and start putting holes out. There’s just a lot going on with a Funny Car as far as being able to drive them and being safe and trying not to blow up down there because it has cylinders out.”

Although Hagan is nitro Funny Car’s king right now with his record ET and mph, he’s keeping things in perspective.

“As bad-ass as you feel you are, this stuff is so humbling,” Hagan said. “This stuff is so humbling. It will take you and knock your ass in the dirt. Man, we set a record, and lost first round or something. That’s just the way this deal is here. It’s just super humbling. It takes eight to 10 guys doing it all right, all the time, but then to run that kind of speed and ET, you’re still at the mercy of the parts. You can do it all right and still get it wrong because a part breaks or a valve breaks or a rod breaks. That’s what makes it so humbling because I drove the car great, my guys wrenched on it great and the crew chief made all the right calls and then you had a part failure. Then, when it all comes together and you start winning races and you win championships, that’s what really makes it so special. That’s stuff you can’t buy and stuff nobody can every take from you.”