Matt Hagan has been in uncharted territory this season.
In the offseason, Hagan saw longtime crew chief Dickie Venables depart Tony Stewart Racing and join Kalitta Motorsports. Venables guided Hagan to NHRA nitro Funny Car championships in 2014, 2020 and 2023.
This season, Hagan has been adjusting to his new crew chief, Mike Knudsen.
The learning curve appears to be a thing of the past as the duo teamed up to get Hagan the win at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals on Sunday in Kent, Wash., near Seattle.
Hagan, piloting his Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car for TSR, clocked a 3.904-second elapsed time at 331.94 mph in the finals to edge Ron Capps’ 3.919, 331.61.
“First of all, Mike Knudsen, I want to say thank you to Tony Stewart for believing in him and understanding that there was going to be a little bit of a growing deal with bringing a new guy in as far as a young guy,” Hagan said. “He’s been under Dickie’s wing, which Dickie is an old-school crew chief with so much experience and so much knowledge, and obviously he’s already won with J.R. (Todd), and they’re still going to win a lot of races along the way.
“But to give a young guy a chance to bring him up under the ranks and say, ‘Look, we’re going to take a chance on you,’ and push that forward, it’s a big risk. Tony was like, ‘I don’t want to do this and this and that,’ because he’s tried it with some other stuff on the circle-track deal, but just was really pushing for that, and he believed in it, and he believed in giving him a shot. And here we are. Obviously, you would have liked to have won earlier, but at the end of the day, we still pulled down a win this season – and I think there’s a lot more to come.”
The win was Hagan’s 53rd in NHRA national events, and his first since the Texas FallNationals on Oct. 13, 2024.
“Two finals in a row. Mike Knudsen is really starting to come into his own. He’s really getting comfortable with the car,” Hagan said. “He’s getting a little bit more aggressive as we go. I’m proud of Tony. I’m proud of our guys – Mike, Phil Shuler, Alex Conway, all those who are making the calls up there. We’ve just got a great group, man. We’ve got good chemistry – a lot of guys who are just getting along, they’re laughing, they’re happy, they’ve got smiles and wrenches in their hands, man. And give me eight guys that got wrenches in their hands and a smile on their face, and we’re going to win some races.
“I think, like everything, it takes time to build that chemistry with a new guy. Are we going to do this? And we’ve been on the back side of a lot of good drag races. And what’s so nice about it is that you can sit down with Newt and have a conversation with him and say, ‘Hey, man, what do we have to do to be a little bit more aggressive? What makes you feel comfortable to do this? And how do we get there?’ And there’s no ego involved. That’s what’s really nice with Mike, is that it’s just like he checks it at the door when he walks in the racetrack. We can have conversations, and just he’s going to be one of those guys where you’re like, ‘Wow, he’s the next [Jimmy] Prock,’ you know what I mean? But it takes time. You got to believe in people, you got to push them forward, and he’s doing all the right things to do that.”
On Sunday, Hagan, who qualified No. 2 at 3.887, ousted Buddy Hull, Jack Beckman, and Alexis DeJoria before outlasting Capps in the final round. Hagan improved his season elimination record to 18-10.
“I’ve been very blessed to win championships with two different crew chiefs, and I hope one day that we get to win one with him. We’re really coming together at the end of the season, but that’s a lot of times at the right time,” Hagan said. “I think that it shows a lot of momentum and a lot of growth from going … Look, I remember one of the first times he started up the car, and his eyeballs were as big as that camera, man. It was one of those deals where it’s so much more has changed with his confidence and everything else. I know he believes in me as a driver, and I believe in him as a crew chief, and hopefully we can keep this thing going for a little bit.
“But it’s one of those things where today was a great day, the guys did a great job. It was one of those deals where you had to dig deep on the starting line because I didn’t want to be Alexis’s third victim. She was mowing them down, man. Good job to her. She did an amazing job driving this weekend. She’s come a long way as a driver, but you gotta be up for everyone out here. And Austin [Prock], they’re tough, man. To see them bumble a little bit, you have to capitalize on that. There’s just no give-me’s out here. Everybody’s really tough, and they all bring everything to the table all the time.”
The win was Hagan’s second in Seattle. His first came in 2013 when he defeated Bob Tasca III in the final round.
“We were able to come in here after a final round in [Norwalk] Ohio, go some rounds again this weekend, and I don’t know where the points hit, but it’s got to be a good healthy weekend for us here moving into Sonoma,” Hagan said. “And Sonoma’s one I’ve never won, so I know these things are super hard back-to-back, so I’m kind of like, ‘Oh, damn it, we won here, we probably won’t win Sonoma.’ But we’d love to be able to pull that Sonoma deal out and put it on the shelf and check that off the list and all the tracks.
“But that just goes to show you, man, how greedy does that sound when you’re like, ‘Oh, I need to win Sonoma.’ These guys, there’s so many guys out here that just want to win one race, and I’ve got 53 of them now, and so just very, very blessed.”
Hagan acknowledges that making calls as a crew chief at the highest level of drag racing is no easy task.
“I think we were on the backside of some really good drag races early on, and we were losing about four thou and eight thou. And put this in perspective, it takes 10 thou to blink your eyes,” Hagan said. “So, when you’re splitting frog ears out there like that, it’s just like, ‘How do you go in and fuss about it to a guy,’ and you’re like, ‘He’s brand new.’ And it’s easy when you’ve had a crew chief there for 15 years that you just look over his shoulder and go, ‘Yeah, that’s the right call.’ Good. If it doesn’t work, it’s not on him. So, when it’s your call and it’s your decision and you have to put it out there, I can understand why he’s a little bit conservative for the most part.
“He didn’t want to smoke, and he still doesn’t want to smoke the tires. He’s like, ‘I don’t want to give it away.’ So I think the biggest thing that we had a conversation with is like, ‘Let’s race the racetrack. Let’s not race the guy beside us.’ And we got it mixed up a little bit about who we were racing, and this was all it was going to take, and it ended up taking more than what we thought because people would come up there, they put it on kill for you, and so it would stick for a lot of times. So, we were on the backside of a lot of good drag races, but having that conversation of like, ‘Hey, we have a track guy. We’re pulling the grip out, what will this track hold?’ Who cares who is beside us? Know what I mean? It doesn’t matter.”
Having the veteran Schuler join his crew is something that Hagan believes has benefitted his team.
“Phil Schuler’s a great add. Phil has been a huge component in turning Tony’s car around, I think. Those guys that were there, they’re super smart, but they’re also very inventive like, ‘Hey, let’s try this out here.’ And I think Phil has helped reel those guys in a little bit and get them a little bit more focused,” Hagan said. “And they share, they talk a lot, and they’re in our lounge a lot, and Phil goes over to their lounge a lot. Tony’s had a breakout season, and he’s won two races this year. And up until this weekend, I don’t know what the points look like, but he’s been leading the points for a while. Phil has been a huge asset to both teams for this season, and we’ve got a good group, man. I’m excited about that, and I’m able to do my job on the starting line and keep the car in the groove. And it’s like one of those things where you just feel it starting to come together.”
