Back in the early 1980s, the comedy program "SCTV" had a recurring sketch called "Farm Film Celebrity Blow-Up," featuring John Candy and Joe Flaherty as hayseeds Billy Sol Hurok and Big Jim McBob. They would interview celebrities and ultimately egg them on to blow up -- then they'd hee-haw and tell each other, "He blowed up -- blowed up real good."
 
Well, Matt Hagan, a farmer himself, "blowed up -- blowed up real good" last weekend during qualifying for the Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C. The body of his $75,000, bullet-proof, carbon-fiber Aaron's Dream Machine Dodge Charger tuned into 260-mph shrapnel, thanks to a $36 engine spring the size of a D-cell battery.
 
It didn't help the reigning champion at all for the weekend. He was unhurt, and his Tommy DeLago-led Don Schumacher Racing team replaced the car body and engine in about an hour so he could take three more shots at qualifying. But he failed to make the 16-car grid.

Back in the early 1980s, the comedy program "SCTV" had a recurring sketch called "Farm Film Celebrity Blow-Up," featuring John Candy and Joe Flaherty as hayseeds Billy Sol Hurok and Big Jim McBob. They would interview celebrities and ultimately egg them on to blow up -- then they'd hee-haw and tell each other, "He blowed up -- blowed up real good."
 
Well, Matt Hagan, a farmer himself, "blowed up -- blowed up real good" last weekend during qualifying for the Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C. The body of his $75,000, bullet-proof, carbon-fiber Aaron's Dream Machine Dodge Charger tuned into 260-mph shrapnel, thanks to a $36 engine spring the size of a D-cell battery.
 
It didn't help the reigning champion at all for the weekend. He was unhurt, and his Tommy DeLago-led Don Schumacher Racing team replaced the car body and engine in about an hour so he could take three more shots at qualifying. But he failed to make the 16-car grid.
 
However, the explosion helped him beyond the racetrack. ESPN footage of the explosion attracted an estimated 30 million viewers worldwide. Ironically, ESPN -- which airs coverage of every Full Throttle Drag Racing Series race but almost NEVER shares even the shortest of clips about the races as part of its SportsCenter show -- used the footage of the incident last Sunday. Moreover. It shared the footage with outlets in England, Northern Ireland, Spain, Australia, Middle East and Africa.
 
Domestically, Hagan's name and bad luck were broadcast Wednesday on an NBC "Today Show" segment that had an audience of 12,343,454 households. An ABC "Good Morning America" segment (that aired two minutes after the "Today Show" replay) played to a viewership of 4,742,400 households.
 
BBC radio and BBC television interviewed Hagan Thursday.
 
And, of course, what would a drag-racing engine explosion be without YouTube? Through Thursday afternoon, the shot heard 'round the world not in Concord, Mass., but in Concord, N.C., fetched more than 400,000 views. And that count continues to climb.
 
It's not the way any team wants to become world-famous. But Hagan has rolled with it.
 
"It was good I had the 'Lucky Dog' riding with me," the Christiansburg, Va., racer said, referring to his sponsor's logo, "because he must have helped me walk away from that one" -- and into a media feeding frenzy for all the dismayingly wrong reasons.