HEMI fans from Smithtown to Riverhead and all over Long Island were glued to the televisions as Matt Hagan claimed victory on Sunday at the 36th annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Southern Nationals, scoring his first win of the season and 19th of his career in his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car. Hagan defeated teammate and fellow Dodge Charger R/T driver Jack Beckman in the all-Mopar NHRA Funny Car final round to claim his first win in 19 races.
It was a dominant weekend for the Mopar-powered Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car squad, with Hagan, Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr. combining to put three Mopar Dodge machines in the semifinals at Atlanta Dragway. Beckman claimed the pole on Saturday and all four DSR Dodge drivers qualified in the top half of the field. Hagan also reset both ends of the track record on Sunday after Beckman accomplished the feat during Friday qualifying.
"Congratulations to Matt Hagan for his first win of the year in the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T," said Pietro Gorlier, Head of Parts and Service (Mopar), FCA - Global. "Everyone at Mopar is proud to see the DSR team's hard work and perseverance payoff with a national title at Atlanta."
The No. 2 qualifier, Hagan began eliminations by blasting to a track-record run of 3.906 seconds at 329.02 mph in a defeat of Chad Head. Hagan was also quickest of the round in the quarterfinals, posting a 3.926/327.19 in a win over Del Worsham. In the semifinals Hagan used a 3.939/325.06 (once again quickest of the session) to beat points leader Courtney Force to the stripe and set up a HEMI vs. HEMI duel with Beckman.
The No. 1 qualifier, Beckman took out Jim Campbell and then DSR Dodge teammates Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson Jr. on his road to the money round. Beckman paid a visit to the sand trap after besting Campbell, but his Infinite Hero team was able to fix his Dodge and defeat Capps (who sent home John Force in round one) with a 3.989/323.81 to his stablemate's 3.992/320.81. The 2012 Funny Car champ outraced Johnson's Make-A-Wish Dodge to the finish in the semis with a winning 3.967/323.58 to TJ's 3.992/317.79.
In the final round, Hagan's 3.965/314.90 was more than enough as Beckman smoked the tires and tried in vain to recover, slowing to a 8.073/79.59. Hagan moved to ninth in the points, with Beckman jumping from sixth to the second spot.
"We went back to what we know," said Hagan, who won Funny Car world championships in 2011 and 2014. "Setting low ET of every round today, I would say that (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) has a pretty good handle on it. We all knew it was just a matter of time before we figured it all out."
In NHRA Pro Stock, Allen Johnson raced his HEMI-powered Marathon Petroleum Dodge Dart to a second consecutive semifinal round appearance. Starting from the sixth seed as the top Mopar qualifier on the charts, Johnson used his quickest pass of the weekend, a 6.600 run at 209.79 mph, to knock out first-round foe and former teammate Vincent Nobile.
In the quarterfinals Johnson was again first off the line, never trailing as he ended Alex Laughlin's day with a winning 6.680/209.33. AJ's run would end in the semifinals, where his 6.656/208.20 effort couldn't match up with event winner Jason Line's quicker and faster 6.603/210.24 pass.
"I feel really good," said Johnson, who closed to within a point of the fifth spot in the spot standings. "We're just on the cusp on something I think. Just gotta keep going down this path and doing what we're doing. We need to be the top four or fifth car each race, maintain lane choice and hopefully that'll be the way we get to the winner circle."