A new national elapsed time record? Check. The fastest speed ever recorded in NHRA Funny Car history? Check. A top qualifier award, a thrilling finish and back-to-back national event wins? Check, check and check.

It is hard to find any word other than perfection to describe the weekend Matt Hagan just experienced.

Coming into the 28th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals, Hagan was riding high having just earned his first victory of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season one week prior at Atlanta Dragway. But, even with momentum on his side, not even he expected to have a weekend quite like the one he found waiting for him at Heartland Park Topeka.

First, Hagan blasted to the pole position with a historic pass of 3.862-seconds at 335.57 mph on Friday, setting both ends of the national record in the process. He then followed that up with bracket-like numbers on race day, earning his way to his second final of the season as he won in a pedal fest against Jack Beckman to collect his 20th career win and first ever in Topeka.

“The records are phenomenal. I don’t know how many national records we have been able to set. I have just been very, very blessed to have a fast racecar around me my entire career,” Hagan said. “But the race wins, that is what your common goal is. The race wins will end up turning into championship wins if you win enough of them. That is what is really important to us.

“It is important to put everything into perspective. We just set a world record out there and then, to come back out here and win the race, it is a tribute to my guys and how hard they are working.”

Hagan capped the historic weekend in exciting fashion in an all-Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car final. With both DSR cars running strong throughout the weekend, it was only fitting that the finale come down to an edge-of-your-seat pedal fest to walk away with the Wally.

In the championship tilt, Beckman struck the tires first just after launch, but Hagan lost traction a few moments later just shy of half track, pedaling the car a number of times before eventually fishtailing his way across the stripe to collect the win. Replays showed Hagan flirting dangerously close to the center stripe, but he was able to steer clear of disqualification as he limped across the line with a 5.725 at 179.04 mph. Beckman, in his second final of the year, finished with a 6.560 at 146.75 mph.

“It was wild. I would be lying if I said my butt wasn’t puckered pretty good that last run,” Hagan said. “It was one of those deals where it was like, ‘oh no, oh no, oh no.’ I don’t know how many times we hit the fuel pedal, but it was a lot. A lot of it was me not being patient enough to let it calm down and ease back into it, but you are always looking over beside you to see where he is at and if he is going to blow by me.

“You don’t have time to process it while it is happening, but you get out and you are like, wow, that was pretty stupid, I should have let it calm down. To see the win light come on after that, I am pretty tickled.

“In my career I have been on fire, blown up, exploded, those kinds of deals where you can’t even see the finish line because you are on fire, but this run was definitely up there. Honestly, that is why we crawl in these things, because you never know. It is an adrenaline rush and my heart is still pounding thinking about it.”

Prior to Hagan’s exciting final round, he had little trouble dispatching his earlier opponents, taking his Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T from point A to point B with bracket-like laps of 3.943, 3.942 and 3.951 in victories over Brian Stewart, Robert Hight and Courtney Force.

Beckman had wins over Dale Creasy Jr., Tommy Johnson Jr. and Tim Wilkerson in finishing runner-up for the second time in 2016.

Hagan’s consistent runs were especially noteworthy due to the ever-changing conditions and a semifinal incident involving Wilkerson, leaving crew chief Dickie Venables scrambling to make calls on the fly.

“It is tough when you have a fast racecar like this and then, when the sun is out, to pull those fast cars back, it takes a lot,” Hagan said. “Dickie was looking at the data and it was running 94 pretty consistently and he was just going to leave it alone. But with Wilkerson and his deal, obviously that changed the race track. They had to go out there and do some different things.

“We were setup to run a low 90, maybe a high 80, but things cooled down, the track came around a little bit, so you don’t know what to expect. It is drag racing. It is 10,000 horsepower at over 300 mph. Every time I crawl into it it is a different ride.”

With the win, Hagan leaps from 9th up to 4th in the championship standings, as the two-time champion rides the momentum of back-to-back wins for only the second time in his career into New Hampshire for the New England Nationals in two weeks.

“We have really turned the corner since Vegas and I think it has been full steam ahead since then,” Hagan said. “The back-to-back wins, I have only done that once, so that is special in itself. It just shows you how good the crew is working, how everything is clicking and you have a little luck coming your way. We just have to carry that momentum into these next few races.”

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