MOHNTON, Pa. \u2013 Being the quickest competitor in NHRA Funny Car isn\u2019t new to the driver of the DieHard Dodge Charger. Matt Hagan has reset his own national e.t. record three times, but he\u2019d like to do a few more things, including make more history of his own as the Countdown to the Championship continues with the 27th annual Auto-Plus\u00ae NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pa.<\/p>\n
The defending event winners of the third of six events in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship are Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Dave Connolly (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
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\nDuring last season\u2019s stop at Maple Grove, Hagan set the national e.t. record and earned a runner-up finish, which set him up for a spectacular run for the championship. Unfortunately for Hagan, the team couldn\u2019t turn that success into his first championship, but he doesn\u2019t plan to let those struggles hurt this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast season was a perfect example that it doesn\u2019t matter until the last day is over at Pomona,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWhen things change, they change quickly in this sport. To me, the Countdown is nothing to worry about until it\u2019s all said and done, but it is great to know, though, that we might have a chance to win a few more races and see where we are when we head to Pomona.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team has dealt with many struggles this season, collecting its first win just two races ago, in Charlotte, N.C., as well as setting the national e.t. record. After testing different combinations all season, crew chief Tommy DeLago decided to go back to the car they ran last season, and Hagan couldn\u2019t be happier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge confidence boost for me and our guys,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWe\u2019re back in last year\u2019s car where we set two national records, and then we go out to Charlotte two weeks ago and set another one and get the win. If that\u2019s not a good change, I don\u2019t know what is. I\u2019m not saying we\u2019re going out and going to run the table every weekend, but it\u2019s nice to know we have a car that can go out there and have a chance to win these races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four races remain in the Countdown, and although Hagan suffered a second-round loss in Dallas, he knows that Maple Grove Raceway has been good to him, and he hopes to build on that success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love running at Reading,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWe\u2019d love to repeat our record run from last year \u2014 those 20 bonus points would be great for the Countdown. It\u2019s a great track, and considering we\u2019re in the fall, it\u2019s probably going to be fast. We\u2019re looking to go rounds, gain points and improve our Countdown position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagan\u2019s goals are the same as those of the nine other Funny Car drivers in the Countdown: They all plan to do what they can to be championship contenders. His teammates Jack Beckman and Ron Capps are fourth and fifth, respectively. Mike Neff still leads the point standings, and Cruz Pedregon, who won the last event in Dallas, is right behind Hagan in third. Robert Hight, Bob Tasca, Jeff Arend, John Force and Tim Wilkerson round out the playoff field for Funny Car.<\/p>\n
With the tightening of the points two races into the Countdown, the standings have been shaken up not only in Funny Car, but in Top Fuel as well. Del Worsham led the points from the second race of the season until the first race of the playoffs but is now third. Spencer Massey and Antron Brown have capitalized on his early exits at the last two races and sit first and second, respectively. 2010 champ Dixon has moved up to fourth, and Tony Schumacher is fifth. Brandon Bernstein, Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, David Grubnic and Morgan Lucas round out the Top Fuel playoff field.<\/p>\n
Pro Stock is dominated by the one-two punch that is the KB Racing team of Jason Line and Greg Anderson. They seem to have a combination that others are doing their best to figure out but just haven\u2019t been able to. Though Anderson has suffered two first-round losses in the Countdown, no other competitors have capitalized on his struggles, and he still sits second. Erica Enders moved up to third with her success in Dallas. The top 10 also includes Mike Edwards, Vincent Nobile, Greg Stanfield, Allen Johnson, Rodger Brogdon, Shane Gray and Ron Krisher.<\/p>\n
The playoff drama is getting to all of the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders. After two rounds of the Countdown, Eddie Krawiec still leads the class despite his semifinal exit in Dallas. Karen Stoffer, who sits second, didn\u2019t capitalize on Krawiec\u2019s misstep as she exited in round two. Rookie Hector Arana Jr. is third, Matt Smith is fourth, and Krawiec\u2019s teammate, Andrew, Hines, is fifth. 2010 world champ LE Tonglet sits sixth, Dallas winner Michael Phillips is seventh, followed by Jerry Savoie, Hector Arana Sr. and Jim Underdahl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOHNTON, Pa. \u2013 Being the quickest competitor in NHRA Funny Car isn\u2019t new to the driver of the DieHard Dodge Charger. Matt Hagan has reset his own national e.t. record three times, but he\u2019d like to do a few more things, including make more history of his own as the Countdown to the Championship continues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4151],"tags":[7746],"class_list":["post-8073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drag-racing","tag-nhra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}