Crew chief: Dickie Venables Assistant crew chief: Mike Knudsen
2020 Season Statistics: Wins: two (Indy 1, Indy 2) Runner-ups: two No. 1 qualifiers: four 23 round wins
Career Statistics: 274 races; 35 wins; 40 No. 1 qualifiers Two-time Funny Car world champion (2011, 2014)
Las Vegas II Event Highlights:
- Two-time event champion (2017, 2019)
- Two-time runner-up (2010, 2018)
2019 Las Vegas II Recap: Qualified seventh; Event champion (defeated Paul Lee in E1, Tommy Johnson Jr. in E2, Bob Tasca III in E3, Jonnie Lindberg in E4)
Last Event (Houston): Qualified second; Semifinal finish (defeated Dave Richards in E1, Blake Alexander in E2; defeated by Tommy Johnson Jr. in E3)
Noteworthy:
- Hagan enters the season finale with a target on his back. Starting from the top of the leaderboard, Hagan will be laser-focused on maintaining his No. 1 ranking to pick up his third Funny Car world championship
- Hagan has a history of being able to race late into the day on Sundays. Throughout the first 10 races of the season, Hagan has been to the semifinals or beyond at eight events
- Hagan has been to the Las Vegas II final round the past three years
Quotable: “It’s kind of wild that we’re here – starting the season and then stopping, and then not even knowing if we’d even have a season, or what it would even entail. It’s been a weird year, and we’re happy to be racing, and even happier to be in this year’s championship hunt. We’re in the thick of it right now. Our Mopar Dodge Funny Car team has done really well at Vegas in the past. We qualify well there and we actually won that race the last time we were there (October 2019), so we’ve got some great data from that track. “I have a lot of confidence in our team, and our car, and what we’re doing. We’ve made up a lot of ground in a little bit of time. We’ve done what we needed to do to put ourselves in this position to have the points lead. That was a huge round against Tommy Johnson in the semis (in Houston) that we just didn’t win. If we had won, that would’ve pushed him closer to being out of contention, and given us an extra point cushion over Jack, so those are tough to lose. You can go back through your season and look at all kind of stuff where you’ve lost small points here and there, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be what it will be. I just want to enjoy this ride right now. You never know how many times you’ll have the opportunity to run for a championship, so putting too much pressure on yourself really doesn’t change anything. I just want to go out there this weekend at the Dodge NHRA Finals Presented by Pennzoil and treat it like a regular race. We want to qualify well and take it one round at a time, and if we can do that, we’ll be successful. We’re 43 points ahead, but with the points-and-a-half deal things can really turn quickly, but I’d rather be leading than following, and that’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got to keep digging, stay focused, and go rounds in Vegas, and if all goes according to plan, I’m looking forward to partying hard Sunday night and celebrating with my team.”
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