Crew chief Tommy DeLago was "The Animal," as driver Matt Hagan continually called him, last year when the Don Schumacher Racing team won the NHRA Funny Car championship.

After Hagan's modest season-opening streak of first-round defeats grew to three Sunday at the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., with a loss to DSR mate and eventual finalist Johnny Gray, DeLago blamed himself. Normally shying away from any publicity, positive or negative, DeLago made it clear that he thinks he is the cause of Hagan's current rough patch.

"I think it's just me. I think I'm pressing too hard. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to perform and trying to run too good," DeLago said. "It's just me. I think I'm being a little too aggressive and not making the right decisions.

"Early in the weekend we started off nice and slow, and methodically picked away at it. Then Sunday's conditions were so good and everyone was running quick that I thought I could get after it like we were last year," he said. "Realistically, when I look at it, I probably have been getting after it more than I used to."

Crew chief Tommy DeLago was "The Animal," as driver Matt Hagan continually called him, last year when the Don Schumacher Racing team won the NHRA Funny Car championship.

After Hagan's modest season-opening streak of first-round defeats grew to three Sunday at the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., with a loss to DSR mate and eventual finalist Johnny Gray, DeLago blamed himself. Normally shying away from any publicity, positive or negative, DeLago made it clear that he thinks he is the cause of Hagan's current rough patch.

"I think it's just me. I think I'm pressing too hard. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to perform and trying to run too good," DeLago said. "It's just me. I think I'm being a little too aggressive and not making the right decisions.

"Early in the weekend we started off nice and slow, and methodically picked away at it. Then Sunday's conditions were so good and everyone was running quick that I thought I could get after it like we were last year," he said. "Realistically, when I look at it, I probably have been getting after it more than I used to."

That's a rather harsh mea culpa from a man who does not seek any attention.

And the truth is, Hagan said, "I don't think he has anything to apologize for."

The Aaron's/Mopar Dodge Charger driver said, "One thing about Tommy: He always steps up and calls it as he sees it and doesn’t make any excuses about anything. Tommy, he's just straightforward."

But he indicated that DeLago was being way too hard on himself.

"There's no blame. It's something we're all going to absorb and learn from and move forward and make ourselves better," Hagan said. "If I had a dollar for every mistake I made out here, I probably could buy my own race car. He calls it as he sees  it, but we see it as a team. And I know my guys feel the same way. We're just going to move forward and dig deep and work hard to get back on top."

Hagan wasn't being willy-nilly and dismissing the importance of performing well. He just meant that this is a small hurdle the team needs to clear together so they can get on with business.

"Obviously we want to perform well for our sponsors and put on a great show. But I’d rather have a slow start to the beginning of the year than at the end of the year," Hagan said. "I think it's easy to put pressure on ourselves out here, because we won a championship and people have high expectations of us and our car -- and rightfully so." However, he said he hasn't punched the panic button.

"I'm not worried. I'm not concerned," he said. "I know that in the back of my mind and deep down in my heart, were going to get this thing figured out. We've got too good of a team to let anything creep into our minds about confidence or blame or anything like that.

"The morale of the team is actually pretty high, considering the bumpy start we've had," Hagan said. "All my guys are 'up' and very optimistic about getting back out here and winning rounds and winning races."

Hagan and DeLago are an excellent pairing, for Hagan, too, stands up for what he believes and makes no apologies. And he appreciates DeLago's willingness to be accountable, although he said in this case the crew chief has no need to shoulder all the responsibility for the team's current record.

He, too, said he has to hold up his end of the bargain.

On race day at Gainesville, he said, "We're not champions because we lucked into it. We dig deep and we don't give up.

"Right now it's a test of our character. The chips are down. We haven't got out of the first round in three races. Who would have thought that would happen? Now is the time when you have to dig deep and make sure that you're putting a foot forward and you keeping your chin up," Hagan said.

"You can choose to run away from a problem, or you can face it head on and be sure you're doing everything you need to do to determine your own fate," he said

"You lead by example. I think as far as a driver, "Hagan said, "I get to talk to the guys every day or every other day. All I can do is keep my chin up. I keep telling them we're going to be fine. I know that's the truth. We've just got to get it figured out."

The team stayed at Gainesville this past week to try to do just that. Hagan said the mood was upbeat and that the car behaved better than it did in the Gatornationals, the third of 23 races in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule.

Hagan said he "didn't set the world on fire" at the Monday test session. The car," he said, "wasn't going down the racetrack on race day, and we wet back and Tommy made some adjustments and it went down. The car seemed to be really running good. The sun was out. We didn't run any numbers where we were going to set any world records, by no means, but at least the car was being consistent and running down the racetrack.

"I was beggin' Tommy to let me go to the end a couple of times, but he didn't want to have to waste any parts," Hagan said. "So he was looking out for Don's [team owner Schumacher's] best interest. All the guys were having fun, and it was cool to crawl in the car."

During preseason testing, also in Florida, Hagan said he was excited about the new chassis he was getting to break in. He expressed fondness for the car in which he set records and gained his cherished first championship. The new frame gave him consistent 4.0 runs and boosted his confidence heading into the season.

"This new car is tight and crisp," he said back in January of the DSR Brownsburg, Ind.,  shop's handiwork. "You make an adjustment and it goes right where you want it."

But this new car acted like a child who might behave perfectly when no one is watching and then acts up, just when behaving like a model child is expected and crucial. So in a effort to experiment with the right combination of elements he has to work with, DeLago decided to switch to the familiar car they thought they had retired.

"It's just one more variable in the scheme of things," Hagan said. "We've obviously tested the new car. We ran two races with it. And things just weren't really jiving and doing great. Tommy's decision to go back to the old car was trying to take one more variable out of the equation.

"Tommy's just trying to figure everything out," he aid. "It's just like a puzzle out here. And that was maybe one more piece to it that we needed to put together, to make sure he could be confident in what he was doing., making sure it wasn't the new chassis. It was just taking out that new-car variable."

He said DeLago experimented with or looked at "everything that was kind of giving us some issues."

Said Hagan, "I don't know that the old car is bad. It's just that we wanted to go back and get on our baseline and try to figure out what steps to take next."

The team has until March 30, when action resumes with the SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, to craft a plan.