Matt Hagan, a contender for the 2009 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future
Award as an NHRA rookie-of-the-year frontrunner, put together a string of mostly consistent laps to
qualify the Valvoline Engine Guarantee/shelor.com Dodge Funny Car in No. 13 for the NHRA Carolina
Nationals.
He pulled out his quickest lap of 4.145 seconds at 292.14 mph right out of the box in the opening
qualifying round, which placed him No. 4, then followed that with a 4.159/292.77 (No. 8), a
5.316/135.82 (No. 13) and finally a 4.150/300.33.
"We know how to run 4.15s, that's for sure," he said. "Obviously, we definitely wanted to qualify
better than we did, but we went out there and it shook the tires the last lap. It probably would've
run a little better than that."
Hagan will face points leader Tony Pedregon in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. "He's
always a tough draw. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Were gong to get up in the morning and hope
that things will come together for us.
"We definitely have running 4.15 down pat. I think that will be an advantage tomorrow going into
the heat of the day on race day. It's probably gong to take a .10 to a .15 to win some races
tomorrow."
