The two rounds of qualifying needed to set the stage for the 64th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals can best be described as a test of survival.

A combination of inclement weather and challenging track conditions brewed a perfect storm of atypical sessions in the Funny Car category that saw unfamiliar faces and times atop the qualifying sheets.

After a lengthy rain delay on Saturday, it was Matt Hagan left standing as he drove his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to the top spot at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

“It was really good to do a burnout and back up and we still had fans in the stands after a long day out here not knowing what the weather was going to throw at us,” Hagan said. “The track was a tricky challenge. They were telling me if you get it too far inside the rubber it is too thin and it will come loose, and the right lane wants to suck you hard to the wall. They were like, ‘Keep it in the middle.’ Yeah, no problem. That is easy in a Funny Car.

“Dickie (Venables) does a good job of putting a good car underneath me on race day. He is a smart racer. To make that run when you see a lot of cars going up in smoke and a lot of guys not getting down, makes you feel confident going into tomorrow.”

Hagan drove his Tony Stewart Racing-backed Funny Car to the top spot with a 3.893-second lap at 330.15 mph, a far cry from the 4.014 that paced the field Friday.

Ron Capps slotted in behind Hagan in second with a 3.893 at 326.71 mph in his NAPA Toyota, with Bobby Bode jumping up to third with a 3.972 at 292.96 mph. Cruz Pedregon (3.982) and Paul Lee (3.992) rounded out the top five. Friday’s top qualifier, Daniel Wilkerson, slipped to eighth with a 4.014 from the day before.

In total, only seven cars made it into the three-second zone over the two rounds of qualifying.

“All in all we will take that run,” Hagan said. “It felt like it ran on eight (cylinders), and that is something we really need to try and focus on this year. We have a rev limiter that tries to slow us down, and it bounces off the rev limiter and tries to put holes out. I think that is a big focus for us this year is making it run on eight, and it felt like it did.

“I am pretty happy with the run. We got some good data to work off of. We want to try and stay in the right lane all day tomorrow if we can. The left lane seems like it is the kiss of death for us every year.”

While Sunday is a new day for the teams, the tricky conditions will still be present. And for Hagan, who bowed out in the second round two weeks ago in Gainesville, that early exit will be at the forefront of his planning as he looks to avoid an early hole two races into the season.

“I think Gainesville was just a human mistake,” Hagan said. “We went up there with too much primary on it. There wasn’t a smoking gun. There wasn’t anything that was broke. Nothing that went wrong mechanically. We just made a bad call. That is a tough one to take on the chin because you know what you are capable of, but we are human and we have to learn from that.”

Of course, even in those lessons learned, Hagan is not willing to surrender any advantage that his team might have in producing the power needed to accelerate past the competition.

“Last year I said we need to be more aggressive and I was very vocal about that, and I still feel like that this year,” Hagan said. “We still have a lot of work to do. You’ve got guys that are running big mile-an-hour and that is great and it looks good on paper, but at the end of the day we won a lot of races because Dickie is a good racer on Sunday. I think we just have to go out and continue to race hard.”

Seeking his 50th career win in the Funny Car category, Hagan will face Buddy Hull in Round One on Sunday.

“We are blessed to get a win whenever we can,” Hagan said. “Whenever that comes it will be great, but I plan on doing this for a bunch more years, so I think that 50 we will get it eventually. We would like to get it off the board, but we are grateful when we turn on win lights and take it one round at a time.”