Fortune favors the bold.
Matt Hagan doesn’t take the saying he has plastered on the back of his team T-shirts and written on his social media bio lightly. It’s a statement he actively lives and races by, but it’s particularly taken precedence over his 16th NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series campaign this year.
“Everything you think you’ve got and you’re doing, you have to give more,” Hagan said.
The Tony Stewart Racing driver has stamped his mark on the season with a series-leading four wins and two runner-up finishes since competition began in March. The relentless effort has paid off, as Hagan is second in points heading into the regular season finale — the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
However, the three-time Funny Car champion doesn’t feel like he’s pushing hard enough.
“Sometimes we go up there and make a layup instead of trying to throw a three-pointer. That’s just my mentality with everything — I want it all or I don’t want any of it,” Hagan said. “Being on the aggressive side is where I want to live.”
His mentality has caught on in the TSR camp, as Hagan has been prodding crew chief Dickie Venables to make more aggressive calls on the starting line.
Any hundredth of a second Venables can pick up on the Dodge Direct Connect Funny Car, Hagan wants.
Especially with the rules NHRA operates under, Hagan believes it’s harder than ever for a team to hold a competitive advantage over the rest of the field.
As a result, he feels that more of the equation now rests on a driver’s abilities in the cockpit.
“You have to prepare yourself mentally to get ready to go to battle. To go in there and get up on the wheel and put your mouthpiece in and rip heads off. I have to give everything that I can give on the starting line, because everyone is coming for you,” Hagan said.
It’s no secret that Hagan has been fanning a growing flame of title hopes since the season commenced.
With his most recent Funny Car title coming in 2020, the ensuing two-year championship drought was painful enough to send his determination into the stratosphere.
Venables’ conservative approach has provided a healthy balance for the duo over the past 14 races, but with the Countdown to the Championship fast approaching, Hagan is ready to pull out all the stops and ensure he has a shot at his fourth Funny Car title.
“What we do is like walking on a razor-blade edge. You have to push so hard, but you can push over the center, and that line is so fine that you have to thread the needle through,” Hagan said. “You’re not going to back into one of these championships.”
While sometimes the all-out mentality can create a “feast or famine” situation on the race track — perhaps accounting for a few of Hagan’s four first-round losses this season — that’s still the approach Hagan prefers.
“If that means falling off the edge here and there and smoking out the tires first round, then so be it. I’d rather do that than get outrun by five-hundredths,” Hagan said. “Babe Ruth struck out a lot of times swinging for a home run, so you know, you’ve got to get up there and you’ve got to push.
“But that’s why everyone remembers Babe Ruth, because when he connected it, he’d knock it out of the park.”