The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington, marks the second stop of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series’ three-week long Western Swing.
In the first race of the Western Swing, TSR delivered, and the Funny Car team completed the Mile-High sweep. Hagan won the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals to collect his second Wally at Bandimere. Hagan also secured the No. 1 qualifying position for the fourth time at Thunder Mountain and won his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season in three appearances. Hagan’s No. 1 qualifying position marked the 50th No. 1 start of his career. He becomes the 19th different pro driver with as many as 50 No. 1 starts. Hagan is the fourth Funny Car driver to reach that milestone after John Force (165), Robert Hight (79) and Cruz Pedregon (62).
Matt Hagan, Driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
You’re coming off of a win at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals in Denver. What momentum does that give you heading into Seattle?
“After winning in Denver, the momentum coming into Seattle is huge. We’re down a crew guy and my guys stepped up and really made it happen. Even though we had a lot of adversity in Denver with Josh (Munoz) out, everyone did what they needed to do to turn four win lights on. Denver is one of the most challenging places there are to race at, so it just shows what our group is capable of.”
Seattle is the second race of the Western Swing and the halfway point of the season. Going into this race what are the short-term and long-term goals with five races remaining in the regular season until the Countdown?
“It’s crazy to think there are only five races remaining before we hit the Countdown. This is probably the best I’ve felt about our car and everything else moving forward. Our short-term goals are to win these next two races to sweep the swing because it’s something I’ve never done before. Long-term, we need to be ready for the Countdown. You have to win at least two or three of those races to be in the hunt for the Championship. We’re capable of doing that. I’m excited and pumped up. We’re on a high right now. We did everything we needed to do in Denver. I earned my 50th career number one qualifier. We won the race on my mom’s birthday weekend. It was a great weekend for Dodge, so we couldn’t have asked for more. We’ll carry that to the next couple races coming up and see what we can do.”
Hagan won the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals in 2013. His 4.171 ET at 294.75 mph run defeated Bob Tasca III (5.324 ET at 164.81 mph). Hagan also has one No. 1 qualifier at the event, which came in 2018 (3.913 ET at 324.75 mph).
Hagan’s crew chief, Dickie Venables, earned his first career victory as a solo crew chief at Pacific Raceways in 2002 with John Force Racing and driver Tony Pedregon, when the crew chief of record, (John Medlen), was sidelined with medical issues and was unable to make the trip.
Leah Pruett, Driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster
Pruett is eyeing her first victory in the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals. She advanced to the final in 2018, where her 3.849 ET at 320.13 mph run was narrowly defeated by Antron Brown’s 3.835 ET at 322.84 mph run. Pruett is seeking her first No. 1 qualifier at the event.
Seattle is the second race of the Western Swing and the halfway point of the season. Going into this race what are the short-term and long-term goals with five races remaining in the regular season until the Countdown?
“Our immediate goal is to win our second race of the season and to do that, we intend to have our well-running race car back that we last had at Norwalk. By doing that, our performance strategy will be back on target for our long-term goal, which is having not only a fast and low qualifying car, as we’ve shown this year, but a more consistently fast car. The goal is to go into the Countdown with a performance package that is robust, consistent, able to be managed in multiple conditions and predictable, so that we can charge hard in the final six races and win the Championship.”
Now that the team won’t be racing at altitude, what changes will they be making to get ready for Seattle?
“The list is long to get back racing at sea level. We reduce the front and rear wing angles, the pistons in Denver cannot be run in Seattle, the ignition timing is reduced, and the supercharger overdrive is slowed down by eight percent. Each cylinder fuel jets are changed. Also, the settings for the fuel management system change.”
Coming into Seattle, Pruett is currently third in the Top Fuel standings, 105 points behind leader Justin Ashley. Hagan is leading the Funny Car standings, 45 points ahead of Ron Capps.
Tony Stewart Racing
