Saturday at The Strip in Las Vegas, NHRA Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan had the kind of day a driver needs if he hopes to win a world championship.

The 2012 champion came to Vegas with a 36-point lead over 16-time champion John Force atop the Countdown to the Championship points standings…less than two rounds.

Saturday at The Strip in Las Vegas, NHRA Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan had the kind of day a driver needs if he hopes to win a world championship.

The 2012 champion came to Vegas with a 36-point lead over 16-time champion John Force atop the Countdown to the Championship points standings…less than two rounds.

After final qualifying at the Toyota NHRA Nationals Saturday, Hagan had earned six qualifying bonus points to push that lead to more than two rounds. His 3.983 pass at 322.42 miles per hour set career bests in speed and ET for Hagan and set the new track ET record.

Hagan earned his second No. 1 qualifier spot of the season, the 17th of his career, and, as a bonus, will not have to deal with a John Force Racing entry until the final round at the earliest.

John Force qualified second, Courtney third and Robert Hight 11th.

Hagan’s record-setting pass came with John Force in the other lane in the final pair of the final qualifying session.

“On the radio I told (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) we had to get three more points on this guy, so maybe we should back it up,” Hagan said of his thoughts in the staging lanes before his final qualifying pass. “We went up there to run in the threes. He came on the radio all cool, calm and collect and said, ‘Hey, kid, chill out. It’s going to be all right. It’ll be just fine.’

“Sure enough. You are sitting in the car trying to calm yourself down. You do a little praying. You ask God to give them the ability to make the right decisions, but to also give me the ability to drive it if it does go in the threes.”
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Hagan’s 2014 Charger hooked up immediately and did not budge from the groove. His incremental numbers were 0.885 at 60 feet, 2.290 at 330 feet and 3.226 at 276.63 at the 660-foot beams.

“I’ve never felt something pull like that out the back door,” Hagan said.

In the first round of eliminations, Hagain will square off with No. 16 qualifier Terry Haddock. John Force, the No. 2 qualifier, will run against No. 15 John Capps. Courtney Force, who qualified third, will face off against No. 14 Paul Lee while No. 5 Jeff Arend will contend with No. 12 Del Worsham. Jack Beckman, No. 6, will take on No. 11 Robert Hight while No. 7 Bob Tasca III will race No. 10 Tim Wilkerson. No. 8 Tommy Johnson Jr. will go up against Alexis DeJoria, with the winner taking on either Hagan or Haddock in the second round.

“The combination we’ve got right now, and what Dickie’s doing, is just phenomenal,” Hagan said. “We still have to focus on tomorrow. Yeah, we put three rounds on John, but I think we have to go put a couple more rounds on him on race day. We just have to go race our car. That’s what I’ve been saying all along.

“I can’t control what John or Courtney or anyone is doing over there. I can’t control what their crew chief is going to do. Why worry about it? We’ve got to worry about what we can control which, for me, is leaving on time, keeping it in the groove and turning the win light on. It’s pretty simple, to be honest.”

With a strong performance Sunday, Hagan could make a big move in pursuit of his second career world championship. He’s enjoying trying to fight off Force down the stretch.

“We all know there’s a lot riding on it, but on the flip side there’s always a lot riding on it,” he said of Sunday’s elimination rounds. “Every race, racing for a championship or racing to win a Wally. We want to do well for our sponsors, for all the folks that have supported us and thrown a bunch of money our way to get us to where we’re at.

“John and I have been battling it out for four of the last five years. It’s pretty phenomenal to have a kid in here slugging it out with an all-time legend.”

One thing is certain…Hagan is not getting ahead of himself.

 “Three rounds on John, that’s huge, but I think that we can count points in Pomona,” he said.

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