Photo by: Ted Rossino
FIFTH-STARTING SPOT FOR MATT HAGAN IN SUNDAY’S BIG O TIRES NHRA NATIONALS
LAS VEGAS, October 29, 2011 – Matt Hagan qualified his DieHard/Rimco Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car fifth and thus will go into Sunday’s 11th-annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals here as the leader in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship standings.
Hagan banked a 4.093-second pass at 310.05 miles per hour in Friday’s second qualifying session to earn a first-round match against 12th-qualifier Tim Wilkerson in the final eliminations which begin at 11 a.m. PDT.
“We’ve got a really tough draw for that first round,” explained the 28-year-old Don Schumacher Racing driver. “Tim is good in the heat and in the cool weather, but I have a lot of confidence in this DieHard Funny Car heading into tomorrow’s race.
“We made it down the track three out of four times in qualifying and are carrying a lot of momentum into the race.”
The lone off-pace lap on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway came in today’s fourth and final session. He opened Friday with a 4.142-second pass, quickest of the session, followed by the 4.093 lap in the evening run before posting a 4.130 in today’s earlier round.
“We went for it this afternoon and took a shot at the top spot because, as Tommy (DeLago, crew chief) said, the worst we could do was end up fifth,” said about a tire-smoking 5.369 lap. “We just have to put four good runs together tomorrow.”
Hagan’s qualifying points enabled him to pass DSR teammate Jack Beckman and begin Sunday with a one-point lead. Mike Neff, 13 points behind, Cruz Pedregon, 45, and Robert Hight, 50, finish out the top five in the standings, all within three rounds of the lead.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments