Stopping\na 330 mile per hour, nitro-breathing monster can be a handful. Just ask\nthree-time NHRA Camping World Funny Car champion Matt Hagan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hagan,\nthe hottest driver entering the NHRA Circle K Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte,\nhad won three of the first four 2023 NHRA national events with his Tony Stewart\nRacing (TSR) Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat and was seeking a fourth\n\u201cWally\u201d trophy two weeks ago at zMAX Dragway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nopening round of qualifying, with four nitro-burning machines, was set on\nFriday afternoon and Hagan\u2019s 1000-foot pass was a good one. But there was a\nproblem with the car at the finish line at 326 miles per hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ntwo parachutes attached to the rear of Hagan\u2019s Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat didn\u2019t\ndeploy. A small part in the release of the chutes failed and, while he was hard\non the car\u2019s brakes, Matt had to drive his Dodge Funny Car into the sand trap\nat the end of the track and then the safety netting stationed for stopping any\nracing vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hagan\nwalked away from the incident, but his Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat was damaged. The\ncarbon fiber body was destroyed, and the car\u2019s chassis was bent. This required\nthe TSR crew to pull out the team\u2019s backup Dodge for the remainder of the\nweekend\u2019s racing events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\nare always prepared for anything with the primary car,\u201d said Dickie Venables,\nCrew Chief for Hagan\u2019s Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car, whose team is ready with a\nrebuilt car for the upcoming NHRA National event at Joliet, IL, on May 19-21.\n\u201cIt was very unfortunate what happened at Charlotte with Matt and the car going\ninto the netting. But we had the backup car ready to go for the next round of\nqualifying. It had been a few years since that had happened to us back in\nGainesville, but we went on to win that race. So, the backup is always ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nVenables\u2019 squad was prepared for a busy week following the Charlotte event as\nthe team rebuilt the Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat for the next event on May 19-21 in\nJoliet, IL \u201cThe\ncar was a mess with sand everywhere and the chassis being bent,\u201d said Venables.\n\u201cIt took us half a day for the cleanup of the car, and we then drove the\nchassis down the street for the repairs. Joe Fitzpatrick and Dan Murphy at\nPrecision Built Race Cars were ready for us after a Saturday night phone call\nregarding the bent chassis. It\u2019s just down the street from the TSR shop and\nthey began repairing the car immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With\nthe chassis in rebuild mode, Venables and crew continued their regular\npreparation work including cylinder heads, clutch and engine building for the\nnext event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLuckily,\nwe didn\u2019t have any damage with the engine and clutch,\u201d said Venables, the\nveteran crew chief who has led Hagan to multiple World Championships. \u201cJoe and\nDan\u2019s group basically cut off the first eight feet of the chassis and rebuilt\nthe frame right by where Matt\u2019s feet are in the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything\nis coming together very well. It was a tough weekend at Charlotte, but we have\na very experienced crew, and they can handle these misfortunes very well. We\nhave prepared all the parts for the new chassis, and I\u2019ve confident the car\nwill be strong at Joilet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hagan\nalso is confident in his team\u2019s preparation for Joliet despite the Charlotte\nincident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll\ntake our guys against the other Funny Car teams in preparation after a mishap,\u201d\nsaid Hagan, the current NHRA Camping World Funny Car point leader. \u201cDickie and\nhis boys are the best at coming back from adversity. We have been through a lot\nover the years, and I trust their experience giving me a strong car. Charlotte\nwas a tough weekend, but I\u2019m anxious for the Route 66 event. We\u2019ll be ready\nwhen qualifying opens on Friday.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hagan\ncurrently holds a 58-point lead in the NHRA Camping World Funny Car standings\nentering the May 19-21 Gerber Collision and\nGlass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been several years (since 2019) since we have\nraced at Joliet,\u201d said Venables. \u201cBut we have some excellent research from our\npast events at the track, and I think the rebuilt chassis will perform very\nwell at that place. We will study the conditions for that track and be ready to\nroll this Friday when qualifying opens.\u201d\n\nAction begins this Friday, May 19, at Route 66\nRaceway with Nitro qualifying set for 6 p.m. CDT. Saturday\u2019s qualifying will\ntake place at 2:35 p.m. CDT and 6 p.m CDT with final eliminations scheduled for\n11 a.m. CDT on Sunday, May 21. Television coverage of the Route 66 Raceway\neliminations will be televised at 10 p.m. EDT on Fox Sports 1.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stopping a 330 mile per hour, nitro-breathing monster can be a handful. Just ask three-time NHRA Camping World Funny Car champion Matt Hagan. Hagan, the hottest driver entering the NHRA Circle K Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte, had won three of the first four 2023 NHRA national events with his Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Hellcat and was seeking a fourth \u201cWally\u201d trophy two weeks ago at zMAX Dragway. The opening round of qualifying, with four nitro-burning machines, was set on Friday afternoon and Hagan\u2019s 1000-foot pass was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":70439,"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-70436","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\/2023\/05\/HaganCarRoute66_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/HaganCarRoute66_Social.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\/70436"}],"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=70436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70443,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70436\/revisions\/70443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}.<\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\n