{"id":61293,"date":"2022-04-25T07:08:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T11:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=61293"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:37","slug":"second-wally-trophy-of-season-for-dodge-power-brokers-funny-car-with-hagan-win-in-final-nhra-springnationals-at-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2022\/04\/second-wally-trophy-of-season-for-dodge-power-brokers-funny-car-with-hagan-win-in-final-nhra-springnationals-at-houston.html","title":{"rendered":"Second Wally Trophy of Season for Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car with Hagan Win in Final NHRA SpringNationals at Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matt Hagan powered his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup>\nHellcat to victory at the 35th<\/sup> and final National Hot Rod\nAssociation (NHRA) SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, giving Tony Stewart\nRacing (TSR) its second Funny Car Wally trophy of the team\u2019s inaugural season\nin the Camping World Drag Racing Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It was Hagan\u2019s 41st career win and his third final round\nappearance at the SpringNationals after earning his first career Funny Car\nvictory in 2010 and a runner-up finish in 2019 at the Houston dragstrip which\nannounced earlier this year that it would no longer host an event after the\nproperty was sold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cCongratulations to Matt Hagan and the Tony Stewart Racing\nteam for charging to the win aboard the Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car at\nHouston,\u201d said Tim Kuniskis, Dodge Brand Chief Executive Officer – Stellantis.\n\u201cIt\u2019s great to see Matt continue to perform at the level that enthusiasts have\ncome to expect from Dodge\/\/SRT performance and bring attention to what Dodge\nPower Brokers and Direct Connection can do for their rides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

After securing the No. 8 qualifying position, Hagan kicked\noff eliminations against No. 9 qualifier John Force by taking the Dodge Power\nBrokers Charger SRT Hellcat for a stout 3.954-second run at 325.77 mph run to\nturn on his first win light of the day and gain lane choice over No. 1\nqualifier Ron Capps in the next round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Hagan had the early advantage against the defending Funny Car World Champion and fellow HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered driver and, while his opponent smoked the tires, set the low elapsed timed run of the round to advance with lane choice over No. 13 seed J.R. Todd for their semifinal matchup. While Todd\u2019s ride went up in smoke right at the hit, the Dodge Power Brokers Dodge Power Brokers and Direct Connection supported Funny Car powered to another strong and straight run to take the TSR team to a fourth consecutive final round and Hagan\u2019s 75th career final round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The final showdown was a nail biter as Hagan battled closely\nwith No. 11 seed and rookie driver Bobby Bode who was making his first career\nfinal round appearance. After Hagan had the quicker start, the two 11,000\nhorsepower nitro machines battled neck and neck with Bode leading slightly at\nthe eighth-mile mark. Hagan retook the lead just as his opponent began to drop\ncylinders and then blew the supercharger and the body of his Funny Car into the\nair. Hagan crossed the finish with a 3.982-second elapsed time at 326.63 mph,\nhis third consecutive 3.9-second run in a row, leaving no doubt about the\nconsistency and winning performance of the Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT\nHellcat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The win was noteworthy as the final one at the venue but\nalso because the team had extra incentive as Hagan\u2019s ride carried a special\ndecal this weekend to honor Houston native and Crew Chief Dickie Venables\u2019s\nfather, Dick Sr., who passed away in December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It was also TSR\u2019s fourth final round appearance in five\nnational events to maintain the lead in the Funny Car championship points\nstandings following runner-up finishes at the Arizona Nationals in February and\nthe NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Las Vegas in early April, along with team\u2019s\nfirst win at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cDickie (Venables) has been such a big part of this, and\nthis is such a special event,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cI won my first race here in Houston\nwith a pedal job and its crazy how history works. This is for Dickie and his\ndad in remembrance of him. We\u2019re leading the points now and we\u2019ve got a second\nwin for Tony Stewart Racing. Our crew is doing a hell of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cruz<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sitting fourth in the Funny Car standings heading into\nHouston, Cruz Pedregon returned to the site of his first career nitro win as a\nrookie in 1992 by taking his Snap-on\u00ae “Makers and Fixers” Dodge\nCharger SRT Hellcat to the third quickest run of the first qualifying session\nwith a repeat performance in the second session. He continued his string solid\nqualifying efforts this season by earning the No. 3 spot on the eliminations\nladder for race day, his fourth top-five start in the first five national\nevents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cruz<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

His opening round opponent, No. 14 seed Paul Lee, had a\nquicker start but the Cruz Pedregon Racing Hellcat quickly took over lead and\nheaded straight for the finish to turn on the win light. Staged next to No. 11\nseed Bode in the quarterfinals, Pedregon launched first but saw the 20-year\ndriver make the pass and race to the finish first, ending his run through eliminations\nat the last national event for the Houston track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leah<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Top Fuel\naction, TSR pilot Leah Pruett\u2019s best qualifying effort of the weekend came in\nthe final session as she wheeled her Dodge Power Brokers dragster to a stout\n3.711-second pass at 329.26 mph to earn a bonus point for setting the third\nquickest run of the session. That put her in No. 7 spot on the eliminations\nladder for Sunday\u2019s SpringNationals where she would line up next to No. 10 seed\nShawn Langdon for the opening round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pruett powered\noff the starting line first with a 0.052-second reaction time to her opponent\u2019s\n0.072-sec. start, but both lost traction early and pedaled their machines down\nthe track look for the finish line. Unable to get her machine to hook up,\nPruett couldn\u2019t reach the line first and saw her race day end prematurely.\n\nThe Dodge\/\/SRT and Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>\nsupported drivers and teams will be back on track next weekend in Charlotte,\nNorth Carolina, for the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, the\nsixth of 22 NHRA national events on the schedule this season.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Hagan powered his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT\u00ae Hellcat to victory at the 35th and final National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, giving Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) its second Funny Car Wally trophy of the team\u2019s inaugural season in the Camping World Drag Racing Series. It was Hagan\u2019s 41st career win and his third final round appearance at the SpringNationals after earning his first career Funny Car victory in 2010 and a runner-up finish in 2019 at the Houston dragstrip which announced earlier this year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":61292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,615,2992],"class_list":["post-61293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/HaganSpringNationalsWin_Feature.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\/61293"}],"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=61293"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61310,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61293\/revisions\/61310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}