It is a debate as old as the sport itself.

Who is more responsible for a great run? Is it the driver who has to be methodical in doing everything just right during the burnout, staging, reaction times, wrestling their machine down the track, and then getting it stopped, all in just a few breaths?

Or is the crew chief, who spends hours studying graphs, weather reports, track temperatures and makes sudden, last-second calls on the starting line based on ever-changing track conditions?

If you ask three-time world champion Matt Hagan, he says he knows the answer.

“It is absolutely the crew chief,” Hagan said emphatically. “Those guys, the variables they have to deal with are unbelievable. There is so much chatter in my ear every run up until we start the car that, sometimes, I just want to unplug the radio. They are constantly changing stuff – the tire pressure, wing height, how much alcohol to put in the car, fuel flows, clutch flows -- it is constant. And it changes as clouds come over the track and it gets cooler, or they go away and it heats up. There is so much more pressure on the crew chief for sure.”

But that’s not to say that the driver is just along for the ride. Hagan was quick to point out that many fans watching at home have no idea just what goes into a three-second pass at over 330 miles per hour.

“For me, I like to unplug and focus on what I need to do. I talk to my assistant crew chief about the track, things like is it dragging people in or is it pushing people out? Where are people coming loose? Conversations that put the run into perspective,” Hagan said. “In Brainerd, when everyone was coming loose, the last thing I told myself was, ‘Be patient. Wait on the car to recover. Let the tire calm down before you pedal it.’ I did all of those things, but (Alexis DeJoria) was out there farther than we were when we smoked the tires. It was just one of those things, as a driver, you have some things to key off of to know what you need to do, but our job is pretty simple.

“Still, there is a lot going on that people don’t think about or understand. Taking care of the clutch backing it up. How far you do the burnout. How long you are out on the pedal. How much brake pressure to hold. How you stage the car. It is a lot of stuff that, as a driver, you have to be consistent with. But the pressure remains on the crew chief.”

Of course, the real answer to that question is probably somewhere in the middle. It is an elaborate dance involving ever-changing variables, but it is a dance Hagan is quite familiar with after many years paired with crew chief Dickie Venables.

At the end of the day, every perfect tuneup and last-minute call on the car can only go as far as the skill of the driver knowing what to do and making sure that every pass is as consistent as possible.

“You have to become a machine in there,” Hagan said. “I am a huge variable to Dickie. If I change stuff up, everything changes. Most of the time the parts and pieces are pretty straight forward. You get to run parts for a while before they cycle out. But if I start changing up what I am doing with longer burnouts and it heats up the clutch or I am out on the pedal more and we have less fuel in the car, stuff like that, it changes everything. Being consistent as a driver helps him be a better tuner to tune around.”

And the ultimate test of that relationship of man versus machine takes place on Friday nights under the lights when crew chiefs and drivers have an opportunity to shine the brightest. It is on those cooler tracks and with favorable racing conditions that crew chiefs are able to push harder and
the drivers are able to strut their stuff.

And for Hagan, a five-time No. 1 qualifier and track record holder at Indianapolis, that is what he enjoys the most.

But Hagan’s Friday night in Indianapolis did not exactly go according to plan. About halfway into his run, a run he believed was on pace to challenge for the top spot, Hagan’s parachutes deployed while the engine was still in full song, creating a unique look as the parachute pulled against an 11,000
horsepower, nitro-burning machine under full power.

“Unfortunately, the way the parachutes are routed up into the body, it got pulled out. It felt like you threw a boat anchor out there. It didn’t feel like it dropped any cylinders, it just felt like it was looping the tires a little bit. I didn’t know what had happened. It would have been a good run, it was just an unfortunate start to the weekend,” Hagan said. “We’ve had a lot of issues here lately. So we wrangled the guys in and had a group meeting to talk about paying more attention to what we are doing with our parts and pieces on the car.

“I think sometimes it is easy to rest on your laurels a little bit with a new group and we have to get everyone back together, get our pom-poms out and talk about what we can do to improve.”

But the great thing about this race is that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Hagan has had an opportunity to incrementally improve in each pass this weekend and will have another chance at a trophy Monday. He qualified seventh on Sunday with a 3.892 at 333.41 mph.

“It is obviously a special race. You don’t want to ever leave this sport without winning Indy, Hagan said. It is our biggest race of the year. There are several races on the tour that I consider special races to me, but Indy is one of them. To be out here and have the caliber of car that I have this year and knowing I have a shot of coming out here and have a chance to win Indy again is pretty special.”

Selfishly, Hagan will admit that he would love a second victory at the U.S. Nationals one day if, for no other reason than to enjoy it properly. When Hagan won his only trophy at Indianapolis back in 2016, an illness prevented Hagan from fully celebrating the win with his team.

And his lasting memory from that race is a story not suited for the faint of heart.

“In 2016, when I won it I was pretty sick. It was one of those things where I thought God was punishing me because I kept turning the win light on and I just wanted to go home and sleep,” Hagan said with a laugh. “I had an awful cold. The thing I remember most is when the win light came on and I pulled the parachutes, snot hit the visor. I was like, ‘Man, this is awful.’ The guys wanted to celebrate and I just wanted to crawl up in a corner and go to sleep.

“I would love nothing more than to win Indy this weekend and really be able to celebrate it and take it all in.”

Hagan came into this year’s Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals second in points, having collected three wins in six final rounds. He has traded the points lead with Robert Hight, but a string of first-round defeats during the Western Swing pushed Hagan back down the pecking order.

But that is where a great duo like Hagan and Venables comes into play with a string of favorable tracks that fit their racing style coming up on the calendar during the Countdown to the Championship.

“We have been struggling with the heat, there is no way around that,” Hagan said. “Our Western Swing was really rough. We went out in the first round at all three races. We went out there and won three races, had a bunch of runner-ups, and were leading the points and then you go out to the Western Swing and you can’t hit your tail. These race cars are very humbling and they bring you back down to earth. They make you realize you still have work to do.

“We have work to do in our hot-weather tuneups, but one thing I know and I am confident about is Dickie Venables running extremely well when it is cool. And we are coming up on those cool races. That is why we are so competitive in the Countdown. And, of course, I have been blessed to keep my group together through it all and that is why we have been so successful.”

After winning championships in 2011, 2014 and 2020, Hagan made a big leap during the offseason joining the upstart Tony Stewart Racing team and, so far, the team hasn’t missed a beat. Hagan admits that the new team has a looser attitude, while still possessing a competitive fire that keeps them motivated during a long NHRA Camping World Drag Racing
Series season.

“I am really proud to be here at Tony Stewart Racing. To drive for a caliber a guy as Tony is amazing. We are having a great time and it makes you really want to show up and win,” Hagan said. “The atmosphere that this team provides for my group of guys and myself is really special. That is why I am honored to be here. Tony gives us everything we need to win. To see the work that Tony and Leah (Priuett) have done over the offseason, building a team from scratch, and bringing our stuff over here, it just shows the type of people that Tony surrounds himself with. I am excited because I know what we have with this car.

“We definitely have more parts and pieces than we had at DSR and if we need it, Tony says get it. I wouldn’t say there is not a budget, but if you can justify it and explain how it is going to improve performance he is all about it.

“That man is motivated by trophies and that is it. He wants to be here to win. If we don’t win for him, he will find someone else who can.”

While Stewart brings with him decades of experience as a multi-time NASCAR champion, Hagan said that his hunger to learn more drives him as team owner. Stewart is learning more about the straight-line racing business every day.

“He is one of those guys who is a see it, do it, figure-it-out kind of guy. He is very methodical. I will come back and tell him what happened on a run and he will say, ‘I saw this here’ or ‘You did that there.’ He is paying attention and he is always observing, which is why he is so good,” Hagan said. “It was impressive to me that Tony is not just out here shaking hands and signing autographs, he really is paying attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it and learning.”

Of course, Stewart is not the only one still learning about this sport. With every pass, Hagan is still learning new things about how he can improve as a driver.

“I learn every lap. It is so expensive to run and we don’t have a ton of test passes, so it takes more time and energy and effort to do what we do. We take the time to break down every run we make, whether it is qualifying or race day,” Hagan said. “I’ve seen so many people come and go in the sport, I don’t really know why I am lucky enough to still be here. You see all of these people cycle through, for me to be here 14 or 15 years now is incredible.

“It is really hard to stay out here and to have such a great sponsor and now TSR and a great team owner, everything is at our fingertips to be able to win. I am excited for the years to come. We can still do big, big things even though we’ve already done big things.”

So how long until we see Stewart – who is known to race anything, anywhere, anytime – behind the wheel of an 11,000-horsepower Funny Car? Hagan said he is working on it.

“I’ve been trying to rope him into driving one of these Funny Cars and he says he doesn’t want anything to do with it,” Hagan said with a laugh. “If I keep pushing him, he will eventually get in there. I already got him to warm it up once. That is a step in the right direction in my mind.”