Hagan to start fifth in Funny Car at Las Vegas

April 02

Matt Hagan, the 28-year-old Funny Car driver from Christiansburg, Va., placed his DieHard Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in fifth position for tomorrow’s eliminations at 12^th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals here on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hagan’s fast round, a 4.180-second/298.73 mile-per-hour pass, was run on a very hot track, which was a challenge throughout the two qualifying days. A change in the forecast presents another challenge for Sunday’s race.

“Although we can use data from previous races here, you can never really duplicate these hot track temperatures (close to 130 degrees during both days of qualifying), hot air temperature and varying track conditions from year to year,” said Hagan about the preliminary rounds. “It will be cooler tomorrow, and our DieHard crew will make the setup adjustments, but I have to put all of that aside and just concentrate on the line and get the car down the track.

“We know we have all the elements to get the win here, and will work hard tomorrow for just that!”

His fifth-starting position earned him a first-round match with Jeff Arend – the third time after three races in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season he will race the Kalitta Motorsports Driver. Hagan is 2-0 against Arend this year, with second-round victories in both the Winternationals and the Gatornationals.

Hagan sits in second place of the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship following the first two races of the season, thanks to a final-round appearance in the opening race and a semifinal one at the second.

In addition, he took the pole position with a 4.030 pass for the Gainesville race a little more than two weeks ago.

Hagan was runner up during the last race here in November 2010 and won the pole en route to a final-round appearance during the 2009 spring race. Last spring he qualified third and reached the quarterfinals.