A funny thing happened on the way to the winner’s circle for Funny Car champion Matt Hagan at the NHRA FallNationals.
At the onset, let’s just say Hagan had a memorable weekend that started with helping someone in financial distress and walking out to the back of his pits to pack his Funny Car’s parachute when a hit-and-run golf cart blindsided him. Then he won the race and then considered a unique celebration but chose against it.
To tell the story, we must begin at the end and work out way back.
Hagan had just crossed the finish line, and when he saw the blue light on the guardwall lit up, signifying victory, he immediately began celebrating in the car. He even contemplated unstrapping while the car was rolling and climbing through the roof hatch to celebrate.
Hagan felt a huge celebration was in order.
“I had a hard time seeing the tree fall because of the sun,” Hagan admitted. “I didn’t know if I had covered up the tree because I could hear him beside me. It was going to be a close race. I was beating my hood latch.
“I wanted to jump out of the car while it was still going. I figured it might have made for good tv but NHRA would have fined me.”
Or, as Hagan believed, it might have turned out badly based on what happened the day before.
Hagan scored one in the good category when he was approached by a race fan who was down on their luck.
“This guy pulled up to my pits on a scooter and told me that he had lost his job and his house and was living in a race trailer,” Hagan said. “He had just been kicked out of the race trailer and asked me if I had $100 or something.”
Hagan said he would give the gentleman the money if he waited for him to walk into the lounge to retrieve it. He returned, handed the person the money, and went over to begin packing his parachute.
“I took two steps back, and a golf cart t-bones me,” Hagan said. “I said, “Dude, that’s some s***** karma. Maybe there was something else I had done in life. The guy pancaked me, and then he ran off.”
An angered Hagan set out to find the culprit.
“I found him, and the guy is like 74 years old,” Hagan said. “I was going to slap him in the head until I saw that. He’s too old to fight. But that’s how the weekends go. He hit me on my right side, and my left foot got run over. I guess I’m not going to be a foot model anytime soon.”
The golf cart initially hit him broadside and then ran over his foot.
“I asked myself, ‘Did that really just happen,” Hagan said.
Hagan said the golf cart suffered windshield damage.
“Maybe some of Saturday’s goodness transferred over to today,” Hagan said. “At least he will have to buy a new windshield; I got that in.”
And as Hagan will attest, you have to take all the victories you can get when they are there.
