It was a hard fought third national title win of the year and a return to championship form for Don Schumacher Racing’s (DSR) Matt Hagan and the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T at the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Summernationals in Englishtown, New Jersey.

(Matt Hagan’s 3rd win of the season has vaulted him to a familiar points standing – 1st!)

The victory was a seventh for the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car since being introduced to competition at the Winternationals season opening event, also won by Hagan, and returned the reigning NHRA world champion to the top of the Funny Car points standings with a 39-point lead.

“Congratulations to Matt (Hagan) for his third win of the year in the new 2015 Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO — Mopar Brand Service, Parts and Customer Care, FCA. “We’re very pleased to see the success the DSR team is having with the new body. A lot of time, investment and hard work went into designing and building a fantastic new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, and to see it win its seventh national title in just nine events this season is a great reward.”

Seeded fourth for eliminations, Hagan took the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T down the track for a monster first round lap to defeat his rival John Force with an elapsed time run of 4.035 seconds at 308.43 mph to his opponent’s 4.131/ 306.12 effort. Hagan then had the challenge of facing his DSR teammates, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Ron Capps to advance to a final round elimination against Alexis DeJoria.
Hagan ran a 4.132/299.53 against DeJoria’s 4.138/298.40 to earn his second win in three years at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park and the 17th of his career.

“It’s nice to be able to go out here and run so strong and be able to defend the (world championship) title that we won last year,” Hagan said. “Everything just started clicking here this weekend. We’ve been getting better at every race. With everything there is a learning curve and (Crew Chief) Dickie (Venables) just put a great car underneath me this weekend. We were able to beat a lot of really tough race cars out here. Funny Car is the most competitive class out here and it just gets tougher and tougher every weekend.”

(Tommy Johnson Jr was credited with top speed of the event at 315.27 mph)

Capps’ loss to his DSR teammate in the semi-finals meant losing the top spot in the points, but he stays close in second place. Despite Johnson Jr.’s quarterfinal loss, he moves up a spot into sixth place. Seventh seed Jack Beckman saw the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T endure a first round upset against DeJoria dropping him from third to fourth in the standings.

Posted by:  Pat Caporali

(Cruz Pedregon set low ET in qualifying with a track record – 3.967 secs)

Event Essentials:   NHRA Toyota Summer Nationals (June 4-7th, 2015) 

(Dom Lagana made his NHRA national event debut driving his Toyota fuel FC)

Photos by:  Bruce Biegler & Dave DeAngelis

To view additional Funny Car racing photos from Englishtown visit the DragRaceCanada event photo gallery:  HERE