Matt Hagan’s four-wide weekend started with a statement and ended with another top qualifying effort. The four-time NHRA Funny Car champion locked down the No. 1 spot Saturday at zMAX Dragway, grabbing his second top qualifier of the season and the 54th of his career.
The performance highlighted a day where championship contenders in all four pro categories staked their claims. Brittany Force in Top Fuel, Dallas Glenn in Pro Stock, and Gaige Herrera in Pro Stock Motorcycle also secured No. 1 qualifying positions heading into eliminations at the 16th race of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Hagan’s Friday night pass of 3.891 seconds at 329.67 mph in his Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat held up through Saturday’s sessions. The run gave Tony Stewart Racing’s star a measure of stability after recent struggles with engine explosions, and he will open eliminations from the top seed.
“We’ve been down the racetrack all four times in every lane and I think that’s a real positive,” Hagan said. “I truly feel like maybe we found that problem that’s cost us a couple blow-ups with the ignition switch, so everything’s looking good on the graphs, and the crew chief seems to be pretty confident about everything.”
Even with the top position, Hagan knows the path to victory Sunday is not easy. He opens eliminations in a stacked quad that includes J.R. Todd, Jack Beckman, and John Smith.
“There’s no gimmes out there,” Hagan said. “You qualify No. 1, and you look at your quad and you’re going, ‘Did we qualify No. 1? Or what happened? Why do we have such a tough quad?’ But it’s Funny Car racing. We all have ups and downs every weekend, and you just have to make every one of these rounds count.”
Ron Capps surged into second with a 3.899 at 329.67 mph in the final session. Points leader Austin Prock was close behind in third after stringing together four consistent passes in the low 3.90s.
Top Fuel qualifying carried its own drama as Force retained the No. 1 position. The two-time NHRA champion clinched her fifth top qualifier of the season and the 57th of her career with a 3.698 at 338.85 mph Friday in her HendrickCars.com dragster.
Force showed strength across all four sessions, including the quickest run in Saturday’s warmer conditions. The consistency has her optimistic about eliminating early round mistakes that have slowed her playoff push.
“Qualifying was outstanding for us this weekend,” Force said. “We had four solid, consistent runs down the dragstrip and we were in the heat both days. The heat is always when we struggle. We’re all very happy with that.”
Force said the next step is translating strong qualifying into race-day success. “We always want to qualify top three, top five, which would be awesome, picking up bonus points and really going rounds on race day. Consistency is key. We have a great car this weekend, so I’m feeling confident going into race day,” she said.
Doug Kalitta qualified second with a 3.700 at 332.18 mph, followed by Steve Torrence’s 3.720 at 331.28. Shawn Reed, coming off his win in Reading and another in an IHRA race the previous weekend, continued his momentum with the quickest run of Saturday at 3.767.
In Pro Stock, Glenn remained the driver to beat. His 6.535 at 209.69 mph from Friday carried him to his second straight No. 1 qualifier in the playoffs and his sixth of the year.
Glenn, the points leader, has now secured half of his career top qualifying positions this season. His dominance continued with two more strong passes Saturday, further establishing his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro as the class benchmark.
“It’s been such a fantastic season; this is my sixth No. 1 qualifier and only the 12th of my career, so to get half of my No. 1s in one season shows how good this car is right now,” Glenn said. “I’ve said it before, that I’ve felt I was in the best car I’ve ever been, but I feel like it just keeps stepping up.”
Glenn’s opening-round quad includes Aaron Stanfield, Greg Stanfield, and Troy Coughlin. He will also chase a season sweep at zMAX Dragway after winning earlier this year in Charlotte.
Greg Anderson, Glenn’s teammate and reigning NHRA champion, qualified second with a 6.535 at a slightly slower 209.20. Eric Latino was third with a 6.538 at 208.01.
Pro Stock Motorcycle featured another familiar name on top. Herrera rode his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki to a 6.757 at 201.22 mph Friday, securing his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the year and the 29th of his career.
Herrera, who is chasing the points lead, backed it up with a strong 6.772 Saturday. His opening quad includes Marc Ingwersen, Chase Van Sant, and Marcus Hylton.
“You realize you only have six races left and you’ve got to make them count,” Herrera said of the Countdown to the Championship. “It brings a different excitement to the riders and the tuners, and it gets the guys all fired up. With the four-wide setup, it’s the first time we’ve been four-wide in the playoffs. It’s just a different challenge and you have to have a different mindset going into it.”
Richard Gadson grabbed the second spot with a 6.768 at 201.01 mph. Six-time champion Matt Smith was third with an identical 6.768 at 201.01.
Eliminations are scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday.
