Matt Hagan has frequently talked about the role he plays on his Don Schumacher-owned Funny Car team.

“Leave on time, keep it in the groove and turn the win light on,” Hagan has said numerous times this season when asked what his responsibilities were on race day.

Matt Hagan has frequently talked about the role he plays on his Don Schumacher-owned Funny Car team.

“Leave on time, keep it in the groove and turn the win light on,” Hagan has said numerous times this season when asked what his responsibilities were on race day.

With veteran tuner Dickie Venables making the calls on his 2014 Charger, Hagan sees himself as a wild card when the green light turns on and he lets out the clutch. This season Hagan tried to stay out of the way.

“What I do is not brain surgery,” he said. “It’s not rocket science, either. I just have to be consistent. I’m the biggest variable in that race car. It’s about doing the burnout the same and taking care of the clutch when you back up. It’s about staging the same and keeping the same brake pressure. Everything plays into it.

“If I can take myself out as a variable for Dickie Venables to tune the race car, that’s one less thing he has to worry about.”

It became a championship recipe this season as Hagan, Venables and company won the NHRA Mello Yello world championship in Pomona. Hagan actually clinched the title with his semifinal win over Tommy Johnson Jr. He put the icing on the cake by defeating John Force in the final round to win his fourth national event of the season.

“Everybody says it comes down to this day, and I think they lose sight of what you have to do to get to this point,” Hagan said. “It’s the five races before this, up to this point. It’s the holeshot wins, it’s the round wins, it’s the calls my crew chief makes on the race car to get it down the race track.

“There is so much that goes into it that comes down to this last day. Obviously we emphasize that this is the big day, but everything comes into play to put yourself into this position.”

Hagan put himself into position to win this weekend by consistently getting down the track. He defeated Chad Head in the first round with a 4.015 at 320.05 miles per hour, knocked off Ron Capps in the second round with a 4.081/314.83, got past Johnson Jr. in the semifinal with a 4.065/315.86 and topped Force in the final with a .049-induced 4.065/320.58 compared to Force’s .063-induced 4.086/276.58.

“I’ve been fortunate to have been around a lot of great crew chiefs and have seen a lot of different ways to tune race cars,” Hagan said. “Dickie isn’t the kind of guy that tries to run the low ET of every round because he wants to pound on his chest.

“He really is a racer on Sunday and I think that goes a long, long way towards doing what we do as a team and being able to turn four win lights on on Sunday.”

Venables thinks the entire team deserves the credit for the strong showing in Pomona, as well as for the world championship.

“This sport is a passion, not just a job,” Venables said. “It’s something you put your whole life into, and I think it takes that to be successful. That’s the way I am. This is something I love to do. I want to win and when I don’t I’m not happy. When we do it just drives you to do well.

“When you have all the tools and equipment at your fingertips there are no excuses. When you have a driver like Matt and a team that Don Schumacher put together, it means a lot to be able to have that.

“When you do have those things you make it happen. To be able to do what we’ve done in a short amount of time, I feel very blessed.”

Hagan, who also won the NHRA Funny Car title in 2012, agreed that the team Schumacher put together for his team is second-to-none.

“I can’t say enough about my guys,” Hagan said. “The team that Don Schumacher put around me is phenomenal. I couldn’t hand-pick them any better. Don has put a team and car in place that I can pull myself into, pull my helmet on and know, in my heart, that we can win on any given Sunday.”

He will also always have fond memories of this weekend.

“This was an awesome race. We won the world championship and also won the race,” Hagan said. “I knew my guys would dig a little deeper because we’re whole. We hang out together, we eat together…it’s a family out here. We’re just whole as a group, and when guys aren’t just there trying to get a paycheck they’ll give a little more.”

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