Matt Hagan’s season couldn’t be off to a better start.

Hagan, a two-time NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion (2011, 2014) won his second race in a row in 2017, the latest coming at the Arizona Nationals Sunday at Wild Horse Motorsports Park.

Hagan, driving his Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger, beat reigning world champion and DSR teammate Ron Capps in the final.

Hagan clocked a 3.878-second time at 330.88 mph to defeat Capps’ 3.883-second lap at 330.88 mph.

“This is just great,” Hagan said. “We have us a hot rod right now and the car is running strong and my lights are on point and I’m just feeling it, this race car and this team. We’re just digging. Everybody is working hard and Dickie Venables (Hagan’s crew chief), he’s killing it out there. The car is going down the race track every lap and how much more could you ask for? We might as well put an 85 on this thing and bracket race it. It’s just a great feeling to crawl in the car, knowing you have the confidence to go down the race track and it’s going to run strong, and when your lights are good it is real hard combination to beat.”

This is Hagan’s 24th NHRA national event win. He beat Courtney Force in the finals of the season-opening Winternationals Feb. 12 in Pomona, Calif.

“I have a lot of confidence going into play from Pomona into this race, and we hope to carry some of that into the Gators,” Hagan said.

The Gatornationals March 16-19 in Gainesville, Fla., are the next race on the NHRA’s national circuit.

Hagan’s victory parade in Phoenix consisted of wins over Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson, Tommy Johnson Jr and then Capps.

The race wins for Hagan are coming at a time when Hagan is dealing with the unexpected death of his brother, Kyle Hagan, Jan. 8. Kyle, 33, died of an apparent aneurysm. A month earlier, Matt’s paternal grandfather passed.

“I had a really tough offseason, losing my brother and my grandfather,” Matt said. “It’s just one of those deals, your grandfather is 82 years old and you expect that and prepare for that. My brother was 33 and he went to sleep and he never woke back up. It put it in perspective how every life matters and every day counts. Sometimes you get up and go through the motions and I know I have done that sometimes just getting through the day, but now I look at things a little different. You make every day count because you don’t when it is your last. You still should make good decisions. Everybody says you could go out here and get hit by a semi, but 90 percent of the time you’re not going to and the decisions you make you’re going to have to live with probably another 60 years, so you should make some good decisions. Coming out here and be able to win the first two races and just putting things together, it’s definitely a healing process for me.”