Thu, 26 May 2016, 17:08 PM One-on-One Matt Hagan

Courtesy of NHRA Communications Photo copyright 2016 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Matt Hagan has qualified for the Traxxas Shootout

The following is an excerpt from a teleconference featuring NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series guest Matt Hagan (Funny Car).

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Matt Hagan, driver of the Mopar Express Lane Rocky Boots Dodge Charger. Matt, racing is such a sport of ups and downs. Compare the start of the season and how it probably wasn't living up to your expectations to winning these past two weekends.

MATT HAGAN: Well, I mean, it's going from the bottom to feeling like you're on top of the world. I mean, it is huge changes in two weekends. But that's drag racing. I've been through it in 2012 and 2011 where we won the championship, you come out and you think everything is going to be great, you set the world on fire, and you don't win a race in 2012. So I get it. I understand the lows and the highs and everything, and the biggest thing that I've learned to be able to do is just get my pompons out and cheer my team on. Those guys look to me for leadership. They look to Dickie Venables for leadership, and they look to me like, hey, is everything going to be okay, tell me what you think. And that's what I've learned as a driver coming in at some of those low points that you have to be a leader, you have to keep your team morale up, you have to keep the guys laughing. You have to take them out to dinner, because it's going to turn around. The thing about DSR and Don Schumacher Racing and Dickie Venables and Mike Knudsen and all these boys that are around us, they're too smart and they're too driven and too hard a workers to just be on the bottom all the time, and we have too many parts and resources to be there. I mean, Don expects us to win. We're going to win. It's just a matter of when we put it all together and make it happen for ourselves.

Dickie Venables and Matt Hagan

Q. Talk about Dickie; he obviously has a great history within the sport, but how much of a calming influence is he to you and to the entire Mopar team there?

MATT HAGAN: Well, I mean, this is my fourth year with Dickie Venables, and I've seen nothing but great things from him. I've won 15 of the 20 races with him in four years, you know, I mean, and I was putting that in perspective the other day, that's incredible. That's a lot of races every year that he's been here and a championship on top of it and runner up one year, as well. He got sick that year, and I really feel deep down in my heart if he hadn't have been sick for the Countdown and had to go into surgery and different things like that that we might have had a really legitimate viable shot at winning the championship even though we finished second. But things happen in life and you move forward and you grow from it. I'm tickled to have him in my corner. I'm tickled to have him in my corner when we're not running well because I just know the guy is capable. He's driven. He takes his work home with him, and it's just his life. He doesn't have kids. This is it. Winning is everything to him, and I mean, winning is everything to me, but it's like anything, you surround yourself with good people, and you know you're going to win, it's just a matter of when.

Q. The Funny Car category the past couple years, starting with your first three, there's been some incredible numbers, and we saw some really spectacular racing in Topeka. Are we going to see these numbers continue out or are we going to kind of hit a stretch where we get in the hot summer and it kind of backs off? What do you see for the next handful of events?

Matt Hagan celebrates Topeka win.

MATT HAGAN: Well, when I see hot or cold, I see consistent racing, consistent cars running down the racetrack. It's going to be fast. Like you said, when we were in Topeka, those were just record-setting conditions. The track was there, the air was there, the cars were ready to run. You know, so that's kind of not going to be the case all the time, but I do definitely think that you're going to see fast racing, and it's going to be consistently good all the time. I mean, Funny Cars have gotten to where Pro Stock -- you have to have caught a 50 light up there and still run a number. It's crazy. The days of going out here and just having a good run and being able to turn a win light on are gone. The driver has to do their job and the crew chief and the crew guys have to do their job, and then on top of it what's crazy is that it's a 10,000-horsepower race car, so you do it all right and you still have an opportunity to go out here and it not work, a part break or something, so you're still at the mercy of the parts even after you do it all right. To turn win lights on and get it done, it takes everything.

Q. Matt, as you went from a regular run being 4.03 or something like that to now where a regular run is in the 3.9s, and a fantastic run, which you have, is in the 3.8s, talk about that path that you went down to accept that that's just great driving.

Matt Hagan readies for a run.

MATT HAGAN: Well, you know, I think a lot of that all started with Jimmy Prock and the Western Swing last year when they put those headers on the car and everybody was like, what is going on, how do we catch these guys, what are they doing, and how do we push our car to that limit; we can't do that. We hadn't had anything figured out to do that. And then we get looking around, and everybody is starting to bolt headers on, and it's like everybody got a permission slip to run three seconds after that. Then after you kind of get that on the car, you start fine-tuning things and getting more aggressive with your tune-up, and you change one thing on one of these Funny Cars, and it changes everything. It's not just like you bolt the headers on and here we go. It's an evolution of one thing leads to another leads to another leads to this, and we're here now to where these cars are consistently running fast. They're a little bit harder to drive because of the headers, but you know, like my crew chief said, it's my job to make them go fast and your job to drive them. But they are a handful nowadays, but that's what we get paid to do. That's what I love doing. That's what gets my blood pumping. It is an adrenaline-filled deal, and I think in Topeka this past weekend, if the fans didn't feel like they got what they paid for, they need to change sports because it was awesome to see two records set as far as in Funny Car, 18 miles an hour, and also in Top Fuel they set a national record. So it's just awesome that these fans can come out here and experience something like that. It's great that we have facilities that we can do that at, and it's all-around good show. We're showmen, and these guys, fans and girls and everybody else that are paying their hard-earned money to come out here, they want to see three-second runs. They want to see 360 runs. They want to see as fast as we can absolutely push this limit. I know we want to try to slow these cars down and make them safe, and that's great, but we're here to put on a show and make them go fast, and that's what we're doing.

Q. How strongly did you feel about just wanting to go faster? I want to go faster, I want to go faster, I want to go faster.

Matt Hagan

MATT HAGAN: Man, since I've been 13 that's all I've wanted to do. That's why I went from a four-wheeler to a truck or street car to a Pro Mod to a screw blower, Pro Mod to an alcohol Funny Car to a fuel Funny Car. Drag racing, speed, pure adrenaline, pure horsepower, pure -- it's just -- it absolutely is the best thing that I've ever experienced, and I've been able to do circle track and boats and different things like that, but fuel Funny Car racing is it. For me it's the top of the category, and it's a handful to drive. They're fast and they're continuing to get fast. We have a great hotrod, and I was just -- I'm just excited and very humbled and blessed to be here.

MATT HAGAN: Yeah, so it was just one of those things where this is it for me. I mean, this is my fix, man. I love it. I have a passion for it, and I have a passion for NHRA, and I'm just blessed that we have a place to go do this.

Q. When you look at the four tracks that are coming up, boom, boom, boom, boom, week after week, is there one that you're absolutely hungrier than the others to go to to get a victory at?

MATT HAGAN: Well, you know, I think all these tracks are good. I haven't won at them all. I'm not Tony Schumacher or John Force. I haven't been out here that long. I haven't been able to win at every racetrack. But everyone is special, and I want to win at them all. I think every year is different, so no matter -- even if you win the same track, it's a different situation, it's different circumstances. You're running different people. You've had to adapt to different situations. So every racetrack that we win at, whether it's been before or never have before, they're all very, very special to me and they all have their own individual unique memories.

Q. And how much would you put out if you had to to make sure that you had almost the same identical conditions at all the remaining tracks that you had at Topeka?

MATT HAGAN: Man, I'd give it all, you know. You know, I couldn't ask for anything more than that to be able to come out Friday night and set a national record and then come back and win the race. I mean, when we won, it wasn't pretty, but we got the job done, and it was a lot of fun. I mean, that got my blood pumping, head on the car, six times going down the racetrack, I felt like I contributed to my team at the end of the day to be able to turn that win light on. Sometimes what we do is so cookie-cutter in these fast races and runs, and that's great, but what was cool was everybody came up to me, and they said, man, when you crossed the finish line the fans went wild. They said just the crowd erupted. That's what they want to see. They want to see stuff like that. Like I said before, we're putting on a show, so we'll try to do the best job we can every weekend.

Q. Matt, you kind of touched upon it, but that Topeka final, are you just reacting to the what the car is giving you or can you process it and think it through as it's happening, or is it just you get down to the end of it, you're like, okay, now what just happened here?

MATT HAGAN: Yeah, no, I mean, you're obviously processing information, now whether you're making the best decision in the world, I don't know. But your mind slows everything down for you in that race car and you're starting to drive by the seat of your pants, and you're feeling what the tires are doing, you're hearing the cylinders fire, you feel the clutch come to it, but you're also, you know, feeling those tires break loose or a fast battle in the smoke, and you're trying to basically process that information and make a split-decision call on what to do, and hopefully it's the right thing to do. Obviously I would like to have been able to pedal the car one time, get it hooked back up and run it down the finish line, but it just was never hooked back up. I probably should have waited a little bit longer for the car to settle, but that is extremely hard to do, and it takes a lot of discipline, which I guess I'm not very disciplined to really sit there and wait, especially when you're not seeing the person beside you, to not get back on that pedal to try to get it down to the finish line.

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