Under cool and nearly ideal conditions at Maple Grove Raceway at the 26th annual NHRA Nationals, Matt Hagan netted the provisional Funny Car pole position, racing the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car. He posted the second quickest lap in NHRA history of 4.011 seconds at 311.56 mph in the Friday night session, establishing both an elapsed-time and top-speed track record.

In his first qualifying attempt earlier in the day, he posted a 4.143/296.89, good for No. 3 at the time.

If it holds through two more qualifying rounds on Saturday, he will have earned his fourth No. 1 of the season and ninth of his career. It is also his career-best elapsed time.

Under cool and nearly ideal conditions at Maple Grove Raceway at the 26th annual NHRA Nationals, Matt Hagan netted the provisional Funny Car pole position, racing the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car. He posted the second quickest lap in NHRA history of 4.011 seconds at 311.56 mph in the Friday night session, establishing both an elapsed-time and top-speed track record.

In his first qualifying attempt earlier in the day, he posted a 4.143/296.89, good for No. 3 at the time.

If it holds through two more qualifying rounds on Saturday, he will have earned his fourth No. 1 of the season and ninth of his career. It is also his career-best elapsed time.

"Huge numbers," said Hagan, who is second in the point standings, with three events remaining in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. "(Crew chief) Tommy DeLago ... I told you guys last weekend, he's an animal and he's proven it every lap out here. I'm so proud of him and the DieHard guys. They worked so hard for this. It's been there all along. Even when we set the national record the last time (4.022 seconds in Joliet 2010), the graph showed that we had a lot more left. There's still some more.

"I'm honored to be able to drive this type of race car. Don Schumacher just really put a hell of a race car underneath. All I have to do is go out there and drive it , but I was a little worried with the lights not being so bright. I struggled a little bit at night time. I was really trying to get up on the wheel there and just make sure I kept it in the groove.

"And after seeing Ashley (Force Hood, whose car body flew off as she and the chassis crossed the finish line) have a little mishap, you kind of have some down time and it's so easy to get in that car and kind of relax and not stay focused. I was trying to make sure that we do everything right out here, because I knew Tommy was swinging for the fence.

"When we went out there and made the first lap today and got in, I was like it was either going to go really far and fast or it's not going to go far at all. It's just awesome to be able to run those kind of numbers and have a great show for the fans out here."

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