Matt Hagan headed a successful weekend for Mopar Dodge//SRT during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, muscling his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to his second victory of the season at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio

Hagan’s triumph was the second consecutive and fourth overall this season for a Mopar Dodge Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Funny Car driver, and the sixth win of 2018 in the NHRA Nitro classes. Hagan also leapfrogged into a tie for second in the Funny Car standings with DSR Dodge teammate Jack Beckman.

(Matt Hagan powered to his 2nd NHRA national event of the season)

Hagan, seeking a bit of redemption after first-round exits in the previous two events, began Norwalk eliminations with back-to-back battles against Mopar Dodge Funny Car DSR teammates. First up was Tommy Johnson Jr., with Hagan’s quick reflexes helping to score a close holeshot win by an ultra-thin margin of less than one-thousandth of a second. Hagan was again first off the starting line in an all-Mopar Dodge quarterfinals fight, pulling away to defeat Beckman with a 4.010/322.27 pass.

Hagan led from start to finish stripe in the semifinals, reeling off a 3.981/320.58 to defeat J.R. Todd and earn all-important lane choice against No. 1 qualifier Courtney Force in his fourth final round of the season and 51st of his career.

Hagan saved his best reaction time for the money round, a .033-second mark that gave him a jump over Force that he would never relinquish, recording a winning 4.094/288.21 to his opponent’s losing 4.220/227.54 effort.

“Super proud of my guys,” said Matt. “These cats have been working hard and we’ve obviously had a track prep change that we needed to adapt to and it took (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) a few runs to get there, but that’s why I love him and I’m glad he’s in my corner. He always figures it out.”

“We had a good, solid car all weekend. Qualified well, went down the race track pretty much every lap. It hazed the tires out there and I was legging it out, but it’s the finals, man, and I didn’t care if it was going to blow the body off of it or what. All I knew was I didn’t see her (opponent Courtney Force) beside me.”

The victory was Hagan’s second of the season, 28th of his career and first-ever at Norwalk.

Posted by Darren Jacobs

Courtney Force recorded low ET of the event during qualifying and maintained her overall points lead with a runner-up finish.

Event Essentials:   NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals (June 22-24th, 2018) 

JR Todd had another strong NHRA event – placing in the “final four” in the DHL Toyota.

John Force had a good event run at NHRA Norwalk – qualifying #4 (3.991 secs) and also going to the semi-final round.

Now driving this Toyota bodied car – John Smith qualified on the FC bump.

Photos by Bruce Biegler and Dave DeAngelis

For more Funny Car racing images from the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals visit our event photo gallery: HERE