Hagan reaches semifinals in Tire Kingdom Gatornationals

March 12

Matt Hagan, the 28-year-old Don Schumacher Racing driver, reached the semifinals today during the 42^nd annual Tire Kingdom Gatornationals here at Gainesville Raceway.

Hagan, number-one qualifier here for the second-consecutive year, opened the eliminations with a first round victory over 16^th qualifier Bob Bode by posting a 4.095-second/305.08-mile-per-hour pass in the DieHard Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car. He followed with a pedal effort, defeating Jeff Arend in the second round (4.441/254.14 vs. 5.586/130.35).

A loss to Cruz Pedregon (4.126/306.95) in the semifinals did not diminish Hagan’s (4.238/288.15) enthusiasm or optimism.

“We picked up a lot of points this weekend,” said the runner up in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship. “There is still a lot of racing, 20 races, to go in this season. We’ll keep having fun and we’ll keep working hard.”

Hagan, who spends his non-racing days as a Christiansburg, Va., cattle farmer, holds on to the second spot in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship. His 175 points puts him 26 behind the leader, and today’s event winner, Mike Neff.

“I can’t say enough about how great a hot rod Tommy (Delago, crew chief) and my guys are giving me to drive each round,” said the runner up two weeks ago in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series opener. “I wouldn’t change them for any other team!

The DieHard team heads West for the April 1-3 12^th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals on the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.