Hagan set to go 4-wide Sunday at zMax Dragway

April 16

Matt Hagan will take his DieHard Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car out of the 14^th starting position here Sunday in the 2^nd annual VisitMyrtleBeach.com 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

Hagan’s 4.155-second run at 292.08 miles per hour was good enough for a spot in the 16-car field at what has been labeled the Bellagio of drag strips.

“I feel good about tomorrow,” said the cattle farmer from Christiansburg, Va. “We have a good race car. We’ve had a few gremlins, but we’re working through them.

“I have a lot of confidence in Tommy Delago (his crew chief). He took us to the top last year and will do it again. I know he will give me a good race car; I just have to do my job as the driver.”

Beginning at noon EDT, Hagan’s first round opponents in the unique four-wide format will be Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson and John Smith. The top two advance to the second round of final eliminations.

“You’ve got to dig deep,” said Hagan. “We’re having some issues, but we are sorting them out. If I can pick up a few hundredths on the tree and Tommy can pick some up, then we’ll be just fine.”

Hagan arrived in North Carolina clinging to fourth-place in the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car standings, 79 points removed from leader Robert Hight.

Television coverage of eliminations begins at 7 p.m. EDT on ESPN2/ESPN2HD.