The first round of qualifying for the NHRA Arizona Nationals, the second event of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season, begins on Friday night at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.
Despite a strong start to the year, Funny Car driver Matt Hagan is guided by a decisive sense of humbleness as he enters the event with his Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat.
He may have secured the points lead with a victory in the season-opening Gatornationals two weeks ago, but the three-time Funny Car champion has been around long enough to know things can change in an instant.
“We’ve been lucky the last couple years,” Hagan said. “As good as we did, I think there’s always humility with these Funny Cars. You can come out like gangbusters, and then these things kick you in the butt.”
After collecting his third title in 2020 and teetering on the cusp of winning another, Hagan has watched Ron Capps earn back-to-back championships in the Funny Car category. Hagan finished second in ’21 and third in points in ’22. While he’s not necessarily bitter at the turn of events, the Tony Stewart Racing driver is still fueled by the “close but no cigar” situation he’s been in the last few years.
“It’s such a sickening feeling. It’s like you don’t ever want that feeling again. You just go back through the offseason and dig deep and work hard. You’re on the practice tree, in the gym and doing all the mental mind-game stuff to help you be more tough out there,” Hagan said.
For two of his three championship runs, Hagan finished runner-up the previous year.
In short, the sting of being one position and a few points away from winning the title matters a great deal to Hagan in regard to mounting a comeback.
Due to his recent triumph at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway, he has already placed himself in a key spot as the series leader going into round two of the 22-race season.
Whether he falls out of the lead and his position fluctuates during the year or not, Hagan’s end game is to hold a cozy points lead by the Countdown to the Championship — NHRA’s six-race playoff configuration that begins in September.
There’s just one catch: The playing field resets when the Countdown begins, giving the points leader a small, but vital, 20-point gap.
“That cushion is just irreplaceable. As far as what your guys feel like, the morale of your crew. So every round, every race that we go to, it’s super important for us to soak up qualifying points, soak up round points,” Hagan said. “Anybody who says they’re not counting points — they’re not competitive.”
However, there is a new twist this season with the introduction of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. The new program, which applies to all professional NHRA categories, will match semifinalists from the previous round of competition during the following Saturday’s first qualifying session.
The two winners will then face off during the second round of qualifying on Saturday, with the victor earning an additional purse and three bonus points that will carry into the Countdown.
The challenge will take place at 12 of the regular-season events.
“This changes the whole dynamic of the game,” Hagan said, in reference to the #2Fast2Tasty challenge. “You really get one run to qualify and then it’s racing. Everybody wants to win. We all have egos out here, so we’ve just got to bring it and see what we can do.”