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, came close to claiming his second No. 1 qualifying
position of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series today at the NHRA Virginia Nationals.
At the end of the day, the driver of the shelor.com Dodge Funny Car who lives in nearby
Christiansburg, Va., had to settle for third, behind his Don Schumacher Racing teammates Jack
Beckman and Ron Capps.
Hagan wowed the crowd when he recorded a stunning 4.051-second lap in today's third session, which
vaulted him into the No. 1 spot. But a valiant attempt to regain the top position in the final
session after slipping to third resulted in loss of traction and a 10.054/75.75 pass.
His other laps included a 4.197/294.31 (No. 7) and a 4.124/303.84 on Friday, and he earned three
qualifying bonus points this weekend.
"We went for it," said Hagan, who is not in the Countdown to 1 playoffs, and is 12th in the
standings. "Obviously, we would have liked to have had the opportunity to see what it would have
run tonight, because conditions were the best we are ever going to see out here, but we missed it.
"We ran great the session before that, and we have to be happy with that. We can't hang our heads.
"It's not so bad when your teammates are one and two. They're in the Countdown, and it's good for
them to get those bonus points. We would still like to be No. 1, but if we can't, then being No. 3
of a one-two-three for Don Schumacher Racing sounds good to me.
"We put a different engine in the car for that run and a different setup and we wanted to see if we
could try something different. I think (crew chief) Tommy DeLago had the same tune-up in there but
a little different combination to see if it would work.
"He wanted to lean on it. He told me over the radio, 'We're going to get that No. 1 spot back,' so
I know he was out there trying hard. We just missed it."
Hagan faces Del Worsham in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.
