Matt Hagan raced to victory in his Mopar-powered Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat at the 35th NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix on February 24, 2019 — capturing the milestone first win for the Charger SRT Hellcat body and his third victory at Wild Horse Motorsports Pass in the last five years.

Hagan and his Sandvik Coromant/Mopar crew led by crew chief Dickie Venables were on a mission in the second race of the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello campaign. The Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) team earned the provisional pole Friday when conditions were extremely difficult and continued getting stronger with every run over the course of the weekend, including in his 55th career final appearance which resulted in the two-time NHRA Funny Car champion defeating reigning NHRA champion J.R. Todd.

(Matt Hagan’s win at NHRA Phoenix was the very first for a new Hellcat bodied Funny Car)

Earning the historic triumph for the Charger SRT Hellcat has been the goal for Hagan since first making laps using the new Hellcat body last season. Two weeks ago in the season opener, Hagan qualified fourth and lost in the first round, but in Phoenix he wasn’t going to be denied.

“For us, this win is huge with the new Hellcat body,” Hagan said. “Hats off to Dickie Venerables (crew chief). He won the race. He had a race car underneath me that was just going down the track every lap. We were able to put on a great show for our fans.”

(Matt Hagan and his talented supporting staff celebrate their 3X win at the Arizona Nationals event.)

Hagan defeated Phil Burkart, Shawn Langdon and Bob Tasca III to reach his fourth career Phoenix final where he stormed down the track for the seventh consecutive time and his run of 3.890 ET was more than enough to defeat the JR Todd who experienced a blower malfunction shortly after leaving the starting line.

The victory was the 30th of Hagan’s already illustreous career.

(Defending NHRA World Champion — JR Todd — had strong event runner-up finish).

Event Essentials:   NHRA Magic Dray Organic Arizona Nationals (Feb. 22-24th, 2019) 

DSR Team racer Tommy Johnson Jr won his first round despite doing major damage to his race car.

Bob Tasca III had a very strong event effort – going to the “final four” on Sunday.

Robert Hight qualified #1 and also set low ET and stop speed at 3.863 secs and 329.91 mph.

Virginia’s Blake Alexander returned to FC class racing — he qualified #11 at 4.035 secs in his Ford Mustang.

Posted with files by Bill Klingbeil and Bruce Biegler
Photos by Bruce Biegler