MATT HAGAN ROCKETS TO NO. 1 FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING SPOT FRIDAY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

by Tracy Renck    Fri, 2022-06-03 19:50

 

Matt Hagan’s first season with Tony Stewart Racing has been one to remember and that trend continued Friday at the New England Nationals in Epping.

Hagan clocked a 3.878-second elapsed at 332.51 mph in his Dodge Brokers Charger to claim the No. 1 qualifying spot in the lone session at New England Dragway.

“Well, these Power Broker Dodges are exciting to drive all the time,” Hagan said. “And having Dicky Venables under the hood here is a Godsend. It's one of those things where you just know these are Dickie’s conditions. When we won, I guess it was when we won Houston, it was hot. The guy's just a mastermind man, and I'm just trying to do good job driving it.

“It was shaking so hard in there. It moved the car all the way over. Then I was like, ‘I don't know if it's going to go.’ And it cleared up and then down there, it put a hole out at the finish line, and I was trying to keep it off the wall.”

It has been a banner season for Hagan so far. He has two wins in Gainesville, Fla., and Houston and three runner-up finishes. Hagan arrived in Epping first in the points standings.

“It's just a lot of fun to drive,” Hagan said. “But to go out there and run that when you see guys out here shaking the tires and smoking and not making full pulls just because the track is so good. I think a lot of crew chiefs come up here and they underestimate it a little bit. My crew doesn’t underestimate anything. They go for the jugular vein, and they seem to hit it a lot. And like I said, I'm just having a great time driving this race car. This Power Broker Dodge is really just running strong.”

Hagan began his career with Don Schumacher Racing and won three nitro Funny Car world championships with DSR in 2011, 2014 and 2020 before departing DSR following the 2021 season.

If Hagan’s time holds through Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions it would be his 46th career No. 1 qualifying spot.

Hagan has an impressive 19-5 elimination round record this season.

“I can't believe like this is the halfway point for up until the Countdown,” Hagan said. “Where did the season go? I think we're having so much fun. It doesn't realize like half the season's gone and before we start the Countdown, so that puts a lot of stuff in perspective. I think that we have to just continue this momentum and this energy and everything else that we have moving forward. I just got nothing but confidence in this team and what we're doing to keep winning races and turning my lights on.”

Working with racing legend Tony Stewart has been a delight for Hagan.

“Tony Stewart's made it fun,” Hagan said.  “Like the guy himself. I've always, like I said earlier, I've always wanted to win for myself, but he's a guy who you want to win for. He's a guy who has so many accolades, you want to impress the guy, you want to make sure that you're doing your part because eventually you're probably going to be racing against the dude. It's kind of one of those things where you're just excited to be here, be a part of it. The chemistry, the energy, the charisma in our pit is just great. And we're just riding the wave.”

Driving a Funny Car is something Hagan has encouraged the racing legend Stewart to do.

“I'm pushing him. I was trying to get him to run my Funny Car the other day, he's like, ‘Nah, I don't want to do that’,” Hagan said. “And I was like, ‘Come on, man. You know you're going to be on one of these things. He's just that type of dude. He's a great team owner obviously, but you could tell, he is just like, ‘I want to drive one of these things.’ That's just the mentality the guy has. So, I even was trying to talk to (Ron) Capps the other day. I was like, ‘Bring your seat over...’ I was like, "You guys are about the same size.’ I was like, "Come on man.’ Let's get him in one of these things, but I think Tony's got a little bit of claustrophobia issue or whatever, when that body comes down.

“But I was like, ‘You'll get over it. It's fine. Like, let's go.’ So, I told him, I was like getting tested. I was like, ‘I'll even take the bad lane.’ We'll pull the other car up and pull him out. Let's go have fun. But I don't know. We are just having a lot of fun over there.”

Hagan acknowledged getting to be a world championship driver has taken work.

“I used to drive a Pro Mod car for six years before I stepped into a fuel Funny Car,” he said. “And those cars continue to get worse. You see a lot of guys running Pro Mod cars that wreck every run regardless of whether they hit something or not. And what's so different because those cars they have the suspension and you're like, ‘I got it and I got it.’ And then it gets worse with a suspension. And you're just like, ‘I don't get it no more. I ain't got it no more.’ And you're flipping over, and I've been there, done that. 

“And these cars are, they're cool to drive because there's so much power, they're so aggressive, so much torque, but they're on, or they're off. It's kind of one of those things where like, it's going well, it's going well. And then it tires break loose and you're off, that kind of thing.”

Hagan said understanding the car is a key to being a good driver.

“The car kind of tells you itself when it is hooked up and digging, as long as it's in the nose is pointed in that dark part of the groove, I'm hanging with it,” Hagan said. “That's, what's really cool today. Like it chattered so hard, it moved the car almost out of the groove, but the nose was still squashing around to where I was like, ‘I'm still in the groove. I'm still in the groove.’”

“It comes back around and was able to kind of keep the car in the groove and make the run and put the numbers up on the board if we need to. That's what's fun about driving them and it's like, when you know, you get on a bull, you don't know which way is going to turn, right? Like you get in this thing, you don't know which way it's going to go. So, it's like, that's the excitement of it. That's the adrenaline that you can't get anywhere else.”

Hagan loves the rush of driving a nitro Funny Car, but he knows he can never take the car for granted.

“You have to be respectful of the car,” Hagan said. “You have to be mindful of what you're going, understand that these things can hurt you in a blink of an eye. But you know, that's why we do it, man. I think that you're foolish as a driver to get in one of these cars and think that it's something, it's not going to happen to you. You have no business being in the car. You run down that racetrack 300 miles an hour. Stuff's going to happen. You're going to blow up. You're going to be on fire. I mean, that's why when I first started, I had four fire suits in my locker, I was like, ‘Why I got four?’ And they're like, ‘You're going to be on fire.’ You get it, but you still respect it. And you still understand that it's a very, very dangerous, fast race car, but that's why it's so fun to drive.”

As thrilled as Hagan was to be No. 1 Friday, he doesn’t believe his ET will hold on Saturday.

“I think we're going to have to step up,” he said. “Honestly, I thought we were going to go up there to run 85 and probably it would've, if it hadn't chattered so hard early, we were a little soft early. That mindset of, I think it's going to take an 85 out there, especially with cloud cover and conditions. If that holds, then it's going to take some big runs out there. But if it pops off real sunny tomorrow, and it's hot, I think it'll stick, but we get another day like today, you better put your mouthpiece in and hang on.

“Data is everything. We won three races in a row here until last year. We didn't get it done, but Dickie Venables has a huge amount of data here. I have a lot of history here. I started here with my IHRA car and just got a lot of love for this track. And this track shows us some love back. There's some race tracks you go to and you're going like, ‘What do I got to do?’ And this one just shows us little love, so we'll take it when we get it.”

 

 
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