A familiar face has moved to the top for NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car Championship standings….

It was an all-Dodge final at the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals with Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) pilot Matt Hagan powering the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to his first victory at Brainerd International Raceway by defeating fellow HEMI®-powered driver Cruz Pedregon. It was Hagan’s 38th career Wally trophy and his second win of the 2021 NHRA Camping World Series season.

After qualifying No. 4 on the eliminations ladder, Hagan put together a string of consistent runs and round wins over Dale Creasy Jr., Paul Lee and Bob Tasca III to advance to his 69th career final round. That paired him with No. 2 qualifier Pedregon and his hard charging Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for their first final round showdown in over ten years. 

Hagan’s quick 0.051-second reaction time gave the DSR Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat an early lead from which he never looked back on his way to a 3.923 second elapsed time run at 327.98 mph to defeat Pedregon’s 0.106-second light and solid 3.935 sec./324.83 mph pass and capture his second win in five national events.

Hagan’s two victories this season were both “firsts” in that they were both earned at venues at which he had never won. Earning the coveted Wally at the Dodge//SRT Mile-High Nationals in July and Sunday’s drive to the winner’s circle at Brainerd helped propel the defending NHRA Funny Car World Champion into the points lead for the first time this season with just one event remaining for racers to lock themselves into the “Countdown to the Championship” playoff.

That last race of the regular season will be the 68th edition of the NHRA’s cornerstone event and world’s biggest drag-racing competition – the Dodge//SRT U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend.

For their part, the Cruz Pedregon Racing team and the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat have shown season-long consistent and steady improvement that included a win at the Norwalk event in June. Following up his semifinal appearance last weekend in Topeka, Kansas, Pedregon put his HEMI-powered ride No. 2 on the eliminations ladder with a career best 3.874-second pass at 324.67 mph. 

He then continued to impress with hard fought side-by side battles and round wins over Gary Densham, defending event champ Ron Capps and J.R. Todd with a series of 3.9-second runs (3.907/3.908/3.933) before adding another 3.935 effort in his loss to Hagan. With his runner-up finish, Pedregon remains eighth on the Funny Car leaderboard heading with one regular season event left.

The NHRA Camping World Series now prepares to head to drag racing’s most prestigious event, the Dodge//SRT U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, September 1-5, which features a unique points-and-a-half format and will see racers jostling for position before the points are reset and the field tightens heading into the “Countdown to the Championship” playoffs.

Event Essentials: Lucas Oil Nationals (Aug 20-22nd 2021) 

Posted by Pat Caporali

Photos Courtesy of NHRA & Auto Imagery