Winning an NHRA world championship wasn’t a new accomplishment to crew chief Dickie Venables on Nov. 16.

Back in 2007, he guided Tony Pedregon to a nitro Funny Car world championship and in 2003 he was an assistant crew chief when Tony Pedregon won his first world championship while driving for John Force Racing.

Despite those feats, Venables was just as thrilled when he tuned Don Schumacher Racing driver Matt Hagan to the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Series nitro Funny Car crown.

Winning an NHRA world championship wasn’t a new accomplishment to crew chief Dickie Venables on Nov. 16.

Back in 2007, he guided Tony Pedregon to a nitro Funny Car world championship and in 2003 he was an assistant crew chief when Tony Pedregon won his first world championship while driving for John Force Racing.

Despite those feats, Venables was just as thrilled when he tuned Don Schumacher Racing driver Matt Hagan to the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Series nitro Funny Car crown.

“Obviously it was a very gratifying season for us,” Venables said. “To be able to win four races and to win the championship was a huge goal of the whole team. It’s a young team. This was my second year (at DSR) and we had a good car (in 2013) early on, and we faltered a little bit in the Countdown and John (Force) got really hot. This year (2014) was kind of the other way around. We were kind of stumbling around trying to find our way early in the year and our car got better and better as the year went on and peaked at the right time.”

Hagan collected wins at Chicago, Charlotte’s fall race, Reading, Pa., and the season-finale at Pomona, Calif., Nov. 16. He beat John Force by 43 points in the final season standings. Force has won 16 Funny Car world championships, his last coming in 2013 when he beat second-place Hagan by 140 points.

“To be able to beat John Force, he’s the best there is and to be able to beat him it is an accomplishment, and it’s hard to do,” Venables said. “Anybody out there in Funny Car that races, you want to beat John because he’s the best. I have the utmost respect for the man.”

Venables knows firsthand how things work at John Force Racing. Venables worked at JFR from 2000-2003 before moving on to Pedregon Racing in 2004.

“It started in Vegas (Oct. 30-Nov. 2) with all the talk about (crew chief) Jimmy Prock leaving John Force,” Venables said. “Keep in mind, I spent time working at Force’s and I know what kind of team he can put together. I got all my guys together during qualifying at Vegas and I told them just because Jimmy Prock is gone we are going to have to be on our game. I’ve been there and that team knows how to rally and especially John. I’ve seen it and witnessed it. He’s not going anywhere. We are going to have to be on our game from here on out to the end of this thing. I reminded everybody of that because John thrives on those kind of situations. I reminded everybody before the race in Vegas that we needed to be sharp and that carried over into Pomona with a 21-point lead. Our goal was to keep that extra round (with a 21-point) lead and we were able to do that.”

Venables acknowledged meeting up with DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the semifinals at Pomona was a pressure-packed situation.

“It was crazy,” Venables said. “My gut was turning all kinds of directions, but I had been there before in 2007 with Tony (Pedregon) when it got down to that last race. I learned from 2007. I went in there and thought all we have to do is qualify and go a round or two and I went in there being too cautious and I veered off of what we were doing. It ended up turning out we won it, but what I learned from that is just do what you did to get there. I reminded my guys of that and I tried to keep that in mind all weekend long (at Pomona). Just do what you’ve been doing that got you to where you are at and the cards are going to fall how they are going to fall.”

Hagan clocked a 4.065-second run to defeat Johnson Jr., who slowed to 6.184 seconds. Hagan clinched the championship with that win and then put an exclamation point on his season by upending John Force in the finals.

Venables confirmed he will return as Hagan’s crew chief in 2015, and he’s excited to be back.

“Hagan is obviously very good at what he does as far as driving the race car,” Venables said. “He has good reaction times, he knows how to keep the car in the groove and he stays focused. He also works hard at it. I feel he works harder than any other driver out there. He stays physically fit and he works on it mentally and he works on the practice tree. He’s one of the top leavers as far as reaction time out there, and it puts the pressure on the rest of the team to give the guy a good car, and he deserves it. I have a really good group of guys and we work good together and we hang out together.”

Although Venables and Hagan reached the top of the NHRA nitro Funny Car mountain, they aren’t resting on their success.

“We are going to be testing in December at Palm Beach (International Raceway),” Venables said. “I believe we will be down there Dec. 7-8 we will be running and testing the new clutch. It is a big test for us and we’re going to be testing a six-disc clutch and it is something that I feel is the future, but it is going to require a lot of testing. I don’t plan on starting the year with it because I’m going to start basically where I left off. But, that’s something that is going to be the future and I feel strongly about it and my boss, Don Schumacher, is on board with it. You have to always try and look at stuff that’s going to make you better next year, and we are starting early.”

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