Tony Stewart & Matt Hagan
Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
NHRA Arizona Nationals
April 5-7 | Chandler, Arizona
Event Recap
Tony Stewart, driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster:
- Earned No. 14 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (6.165 ET at 100.36 mph)
- Fell to No.16 provisional qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Saturday, Stewart ran 11.459 ET at 68.74 mph.
- Secured No. 15 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.982 ET at 255.24 mph)
- Advanced to Semifinal on Sunday:
- Round 1: 4.163 ET at 260.56 mph, defeated Brittany Force (6.396 ET at 94.92 mph)
- Round 2: 3.978 ET at 250.46 mph, defeated Billy Torrence (7.844 ET at 67.89 mph)
- Semifinal: 3.885 ET at 316.45 mph, lost to Justin Ashley (3.844 ET at 323.74 mph)
- Currently ninth in the championship standings, 161 points behind Top Fuel leader Shawn Langdon
Matt Hagan, driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
- Earned No. 8 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.996 ET at 281.77 mph). Hagan faced J.R. Todd in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where his run was defeated by Todd’s 3.923 ET, 320.58 mph run.
- Earned No.8 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Saturday (3.976 ET at 312.57 mph)
- Secured No. 9 qualifying position based off of Saturday’s Q2 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 4.048 ET at 283.61 mph. Hagan faced John Force in the NHRA Winternationals Final, where his run was defeated by Force’s 4.033 ET, 318.24 mph run.
- Ran a 4.043 ET at 310.48 mph in Round 1 of eliminations on Sunday, lost to Daniel Wilkerson (3.949 ET at 324.28 mph)
- Currently fourth in the championship standings, 73 points behind Funny Car leader J.R. Todd
Notes of Interest
- Following the NHRA Winternationals Final on Saturday, Hagan was tied with John Force in second in the Funny Car standings, 29 points behind leader J.R. Todd. Stewart was tied with Shawn Reed in 10th in the Top Fuel standings, 115 points behind leader Shawn Langdon.
- By defeating Brittany Force in Round 1, Stewart earned his first round win in the NHRA Top Fuel Dragster class.
- By advancing to Round 2, Stewart secured his position in the NHRA’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where he will face off against Billy Torrence at Las Vegas. The Round 2 competitors from Phoenix will rematch during qualifying on Saturday, with bonus money and points on the line.
- Hagan’s name remains in the history books at Firebird Motorsports Park as the track record holder for time at 3.823-seconds, a mark he established in 2022.
- Hagan will look to earn his 50th career win at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.
Tony Stewart, Driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster
“The struggles continued Friday and Saturday that we went through at Gainesville and Pomona. There were just difficult track conditions on Friday, so we didn’t get down. Saturday really wasn’t much better and was still a little frustrating for the team. Race day on Sunday, we ended up 15th out of 16 qualified cars and drivers, so we go up against the number two qualifier, which was Brittany Force. She had trouble, we had trouble just a little bit further out than she did. We pedaled it down to the line and got to the next round. Honestly, it’s kind of the break this Dodge Direct Connection team needed. It doesn’t sound like a lot just winning one round, but having that opportunity to keep working on this car on a tricky race track meant a lot. We’ve had three very challenging race tracks because of weather and different conditions and different variables. These guys really rallied today, so by having the opportunity to make three runs, you feel like we’re finally starting to get a base and then can work from there. The encouraging thing is we’re going to Vegas next week and we’re all very confident the track is going to be in great shape. There’s a race that ran there this weekend, so it’s going be awake so to speak and they do a great job on track prep there. We’re going to have way better conditions and feel like it gives us a better opportunity to dial in under what I would consider more normal circumstances than what we’ve been through these first three weeks. I never thought just winning one round would take such a weight off your shoulders. It’s kind of like when we made the first run at Gainesville. I kind of relaxed and settled in. It was the same way today getting through the first round and after we did that, I started to get that rhythm again. It reminds me of going rounds with Pops (Rich McPhillips Sr.) and Richie (McPhillips Jr.) last year and that team, so it’s settling into that rhythm and mindset. Having those experiences last year definitely came into play today, so it’s good for all of us as a team. We’ll just keep digging. I’m looking forward to next week.”
Matt Hagan, Driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car
“It was a tough weekend for us with three qualifiers and a tricky race track. Our setup and combination didn’t really work well all weekend. We were kind of behind the eight ball for the first round and it backed up a little bit too much. We just got out ran out there. I don’t know that we were going to run a .94, but we definitely weren’t trying to run 4.04 (Elapsed Time). At the end of the day we learned how to go down a hot race track and we can apply that to some races coming up in the middle of the summer. It was a little hotter weather conditions than we’re used to here and we didn’t really have the setup for it, so unfortunately it was a short day for us. It wasn’t the greatest weekend for us, but we have to keep our chin up and apply what we learned to move forward and hopefully put this Dodge in the Winner’s Circle soon.”
Event Recap
The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals April 12-14 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Photos Courtesy Tony Stewart Racing
