{"id":45154,"date":"2020-11-02T07:28:13","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T12:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=45154"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:22:11","slug":"matt-hagan-crowned-nhra-funny-car-world-champion-at-dodge-nhra-finals-and-drives-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-to-undefeated-nhra-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/11\/matt-hagan-crowned-nhra-funny-car-world-champion-at-dodge-nhra-finals-and-drives-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-to-undefeated-nhra-season.html","title":{"rendered":"Matt Hagan Crowned NHRA Funny Car World Champion at Dodge NHRA Finals and Drives Dodge Charger SRT®<\/sup> Hellcat to Undefeated NHRA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matt Hagan and his \u201cdemon-possessed\u201d Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat Redeye have earned the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series Funny Car World Championship title and the national event win at the season-ending Dodge NHRA Finals Presented by Pennzoil in Las Vegas. It is Hagan\u2019s third championship crown after title wins in 2011 and 2014 and the sixth Funny Car class victory for the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) team in 18 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the No. 2 position on the eliminations ladder, Hagan earned his third Wally trophy of the year in a season dominated by the DSR stable of HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered Funny Cars. The DSR foursome of Hagan, Tommy Johnson Jr., Jack Beckman and Ron Capps finished 1-2-3-4 atop the Funny Car standings and combined for a NHRA season “sweep” in which a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat won every national event to extend the team\u2019s undefeated streak to a record 14 consecutive victories since October 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been just an unbelievable season,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cMy guys have\nput an unbelievable car behind me with Pennzoil, Dodge SRT and Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>. Everybody\nwho supports us. It\u2019s great to win for Camping World and their first\nchampionship. My guys have worked so hard all season long. I can\u2019t say enough\nabout them and thank them. Three wins, a championship, it\u2019s just special. I\ncan\u2019t wait for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo have Matt Hagan win the championship at the Dodge NHRA Finals\nand cap off it off with an undefeated season and record 14th straight victory\nis a testament to the team\u2019s hard work and the pure performance of the Charger\nSRT Hellcat,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of\nPassenger Cars \u2013 Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA \u2013 North America. \u201cIt is\nreally satisfying to watch our quickest, fastest and most powerful production\nvehicles represented so well on the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn behalf of all of us at Mopar, congratulations to Matt Hagan on\na well-deserved third NHRA World Championship and a dominating performance in\nFunny Car competition this season,\u201d said Mark Bosanac, Head of Mopar Service,\nParts and Customer Care for FCA \u2013 North America. \u201cReflecting on Mopar\u2019s\nlong-standing involvement in the NHRA, including 18 successful years in\npartnership with Don Schumacher, we take great pride in this title\nwin.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With a two-round lead over his closest championship challengers,\nteammates Johnson and Beckman, Hagan clinched the crown after wins over Cruz\nPedregon and Paul Lee in the first two rounds and just prior to staging his\nDodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye for his semifinal match-up against Alexis\nDeJoria. The deal was sealed after Beckman was upset in the opening round\nagainst Paul Lee and No. 1 qualifier Capps defeated Johnson as the first\nsemifinal pair to take the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the 2020 Funny Car championship secured, all that was left to\ndetermine was who would take home the Dodge NHRA Finals Wally trophy as Hagan\nand Capps lined up for the seventh head-to-head Hellcat final round battle of\nthe year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Capps had the early lead his efforts went up in smoke at\nhalf-track as Hagan took his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for a solid 3.914-second\nfinal lap to earn his 36th career victory and defend his 2019 win at The Strip\nat Las Vegas Speedway and tie the NHRA reco<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDodge and the DSR fab shop, they\u2019ve put a great race car\nunderneath us,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cMy crew chief Dickie Venables, I can\u2019t say enough\nabout the guy. He\u2019s won me two world championships (2014, 2020) and we\u2019ve\nrunnered-up a few times. There\u2019s a handful of guys on this team who haven\u2019t won\na championship before. I\u2019m just so proud to give them that opportunity and I\nknow how bad everybody wanted it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DSR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us to have won three world championships now in this sport,\nit\u2019s incredible,” added Hagan. \u201cIt all comes back down to my guys and the\ncar they put under me. It\u2019s not just me. I try not to mess it up. This is one\nof the most humbling sports I\u2019ve been involved in and it always seems to come\ndown to the last race and that certainly doesn\u2019t make me look any younger.\nThank you to everyone who supports what we do and we hope we made you proud to\nbe a part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Top Fuel season wrapped up with Leah Pruett racing her Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT dragster to semifinal finishes in three of the first five races, a runner-up finish at the U.S. Nationals, and another semifinal finish at the Gatornationals, making her a top-three championship contender for most of the year. Pruett remained in the hunt until the penultimate race of the year when eventual title winner Steve Torrence\u2019s points lead was insurmountable. Pruett turned her focus to finishing strong by taking her fierce-looking Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye dragster to the quarterfinals in the season finale to match her career-best fourth place finish in the Top Fuel standings for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett also spent time behind the wheel of her Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak alongside teammate Mark Pawuk in Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) competition in 2020. Winner of the 2018 class title in her rookie year, Pruett took on the challenge of battling against a competitive \u00a0field of 30 entries by scoring two round wins, but is now looking forward to making a return to competition next season aboard a new 2021 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pawuk made positive gains aboard his Empaco Equipment Mopar Drag\nPak throughout the six-race season as he battled atop the Factory Stock\nShowdown standings with a runner-up finish at U.S. Nationals and back-to-back\nsemifinal results at the Dallas FallNationals and Houston\u2019s Mopar Express Lane\nSpringNationals (rescheduled to the Fall). Pawuk\u2019s solid performances garnered\nhim a third place finish in the Factory Stock Showdown championship won by\nAaron Stanfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mopar Dodge\/\/SRT contingent will return to competition in the\nspring for the NHRA\u2019s 70th<\/sup> anniversary season. The 2021 NHRA Camping\nWorld Drag Racing Series season with feature a 22-race schedule that will\nkick-off on March\n12-14 at the 52nd annual Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Hagan and his \u201cdemon-possessed\u201d Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae Hellcat Redeye have earned the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series Funny Car World Championship title and the national event win at the season-ending Dodge NHRA Finals Presented by Pennzoil in Las Vegas. It is Hagan\u2019s third championship crown after title wins in 2011 and 2014 and the sixth Funny Car class victory for the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) team in 18 years. From the No. 2 position on the eliminations ladder, Hagan earned his third Wally trophy of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":45165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,849,615],"class_list":["post-45154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-dsr","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/matthaganwins.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45154"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59045,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45154\/revisions\/59045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}