Hagan Scores Runner-up Finish at Brainerd in Dodge/SRT Hellcat Funny Car, Stewart Records Best ET and Speed in TSR Top Fuel Dragster
Matt Hagan, the reigning and four-time NHRA Mission World Funny Car Champion, raced to a runner-up finish in his Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota, on August 18, 2024.
Prior to his runner-up showing, Hagan was shaking his head in disbelief after four rounds of Funny Car qualifying for the event. Hagan’s best qualifying run of 3.997 left him in the 13th starting position in the 16-car Funny Car lineup entering Sunday’s final eliminations, and the Virginia driver had to match up against three-time World Champion Ron Capps in round one in front of huge Brainerd crowd.
But as Hagan always says, “I have the best race day team out here,” and the Dickie Venables-led TSR Funny Car crew proved that statement again when Sunday’s action got underway, as Hagan drove his Dodge//SRT Hellcat all the way to a runner-up finish in the highly competitive NHRA Mission Funny Car field.
The two-time 2024 NHRA race winner pulled off the “holeshot” victory over Capps with a 3.937 to his opponent’s 3.913 in round one and then defeated Daniel Wilkerson in the second round and former world champion J.R. Todd in the semifinals. In the final round, Hagan took on Blake Alexander, but Hagan left the starting line too soon and had to settle for the runner-up finish.
Hagan’s second place finish moved him closer in the NHRA Mission Funny Car points standings to leaders Austin Prock and Bob Tasca III as the NHRA national tour heads to the biggest race of the year, the 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 28 – Sept. 2.
“We missed it a little bit in qualifying, but Dickie and crew dug deep and worked hard,” said Hagan. “We haven’t been qualifying the greatest, but we seem to really race well on Sundays. The more runs Dickie got, the more the car came around. My team did everything right this weekend, and I let them down in the final when I had a redlight. It’s a tough deal when you watch your guys work hard all day to get to the final. I haven’t done that in a while. We had the car to run with Blake or beat him. We picked up some valuable points this weekend. We’ll get ready for Indy and then the start of the ‘Countdown.’ This just continues to show that we can work through a lot of adversity during the weekend and perform well.”
Hagan’s TSR teammate and team owner, Tony Stewart, enjoyed one of the best performances in his “rookie” Top Fuel campaign at Brainerd, including his best elapsed time and speed this year.
In qualifying, Stewart posted a stellar 3.688 at 333.16 miles per hour run to place second in the Top Fuel field, his best qualifying position in the first 13 races this year. The NASCAR Hall of Famer wasn’t done after that qualifying showing as the Indiana racer clocked 334.73 mph in the first round of eliminations Sunday.
That 334.73 pass was the fastest Top Fuel speed of the entire eliminations at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals and helped advance him past eight-time World Champion Tony Schumacher into the quarterfinals. In the next round, Stewart’s dragster smoked the tires against eventual race winner Justin Ashley, but the strong performance during the weekend moved Tony to seventh in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel points.
“I feel like it was a huge success this weekend, even though we didn’t get past the second round,” said Stewart, who came off a runner-up finish at Sonoma. “In the big picture, our car has speed for the first time this season, and we’re running in the 3.60s for the first time with me in the car. We finally got the car to run in the 330 miles per hour range in Sonoma, and we broke speed records three times this weekend. I feel like we finally have a car that is competitive, it’s just a matter of getting a handle on it. And reeling it in when the conditions aren’t ideal.
“We’ve been struggling with it and found a couple things that have been holding us back. I am glad that we finally found them at the right time. We’d like to have three or four events before the start of the ‘Countdown,’ but at the same time, at least we found it. Better late than never, so we will get ready for the biggest race of the year in Indianapolis.”
Making her NHRA national event debut at Brainerd, Sweden’s Ida Zetterström drove the JCM Racing/Dodge Europe Top Fuel dragster to a semifinal finish, which included a huge upset of the No. 1 qualifier, former world champion Steve Torrence, in the first round. The defending FIA European Top Fuel champion recorded a career-best of 3.773 in the first round “holeshot” victory over Torrence’s 3.750.
“I really enjoyed my first race in NHRA competition, and I can’t wait to go to Indy now,” said Zetterström. “We did have a few tests, but it is nothing like a real race weekend. In Europe, we race with older equipment, and the tracks aren’t as good at in the U.S. So, it was a great weekend for myself and the whole JCM Racing/Dodge Europe team in our first event.”
The 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals nitro action will get underway at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 30, with the opening round of qualifying followed by Saturday, Aug. 31, qualifying at 1 p.m. EDT and 3:30 p.m. EDT. The exciting Pep Boys NHRA All-Star Funny Car Callout is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 1, at 1 p.m. EDT followed by qualifying rounds at 1:20 p.m. EDT and 4 p.m. EDT. Final eliminations are set for 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 2.
Television coverage for the 70th annual U.S. Nationals will begin on Sunday, Sept. 1, with the qualifying show at 1 p.m. EDT on Fox Sports 1. The final eliminations shows are set for Monday, Sept. 2, with a 12 p.m. EDT viewing on Fox Sports 1 and 2 p.m. EDT telecast on the FOX Network.
This story was originally published on August 19, 2024.
The post Hagan Scores Runner-up Finish at Brainerd in Dodge/SRT Hellcat Funny Car, Stewart Records Best ET and Speed in TSR Top Fuel Dragster first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
