HAGAN MIGHT BE BIG, BUT HE HAS HIS LIMITS

by Bobby Bennett    Wed, 2019-02-06 11:59


The competition in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Funny Car keeps getting bigger and bigger.

As David Hagan, father of two-time champion Matt Hagan sees it, one of its fiercest competitors keeps getting bigger and bigger.

His son.

"I think the car’s just getting smaller, man. I don’t know," Hagan said with a smile. "It’s all this padding and stuff we’re adding in there.

When you're 6-1, 232 with only 6-percent body fat, you always blame it on the padding. Dad simply said, "Son, you're too big. You need to lose some weight."

Most eveeryone knows muscle weighs more than fat. 

"Yeah, my old man’s always on me. You know, that’s the thing that everybody don’t understand. All my people in my family, I mean my dad’s 5’10” but everybody in my family is 6’3”, 270-280. They’re just big people. It’s one of those things where I gotta figure out how to lose some muscle or something. You know, it’s like anything man. I feel really good, I’m healthy, my mind’s in the right place, and I think that will start this year off right."

Even if Hagan can't win the race, he could win the fight after the race if the situation gets ugly.

"Right?" Hagan said with a chuckle. "I guess if there is one. I don’t know, I’ve had my ass handed to me before, too. It’s like anything man; you just try to stay as humble as you can brother. That’s the thing; you think you’ve got a cape on sometimes and these cars, they really do humble you. It’s incredible. I wouldn’t say you have to be cocky; you know what I mean? But you have to have confidence to drive one of these cars, and you have to feel like you’re a badass.

"Then sometimes you crawl in there, and it just shows you how un-badass you are, you know what I mean? It puts things in perspective sometimes because they’re so fast and they’re so loud, and they’re so violent, and they’re just, so fun to drive. It makes you after you haven’t hit the pedal in three months, it makes you go like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty incredible.’ It’s pretty awesome to do what we do."

Hagan participated in the recently completed PRO Winter Warm-up, driving his way to the finish line three times in as many attempts. He concluded testing with a 3.959, 319.22 best.

Hagan, for all of his muscles and strength, does have his limits. He won't chase tornados and indeed will never straddle a Top Fuel Harley-Davidson like the one Doug Vancil tested at Wild Horse Motorsports Park.

"I gotta have a little cage around me, brother," Hagan said. "Those guys have got too many screws loose in their brain man. Between Top Fuel Harley guys and Fuel boat guys, I put them up there on the list of two craziest groups of people in the world."

Hagan admits he will shed muscle any day, but the brain matter he says keeps him off a nitro-burning bike will never get smaller.

 

 

 

 
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