Matt Hagan maintained his position atop of the Funny Car board and will start race day at Brainerd International Raceway from the No. 1 spot.
The driver of the MOPAR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car captured the pole when he blasted to a 3.890-second pass during Friday’s second qualifying session. The stout lap was the only sub-3.9-second Funny Car E.T. of the weekend, and his speed of 328.46-mph held up to be the fastest of the floppers.
Prior to powering to the head of the pack, Hagan kicked off his Brainerd weekend with a solid 4.004 E.T., the third-quickest run of the session. He and his Dickie Venables-guided team maintained their performance on Saturday when Hagan posted a 4.000-second E.T. in Q3.
“Everything is coming together for our team,” said the Countdown contender who officially clinched his spot to compete for the 2019 Mello Yello Funny Car world championship during qualifying. “This MOPAR Dodge is really running strong. The No. 1 spot is great, but we’ve got to focus on race day. We’ve got a good setup for the heat, and I feel really confident in this combination. Anything can happen; track conditions change all the time. We’re going to try and keep lane choice all day and focus on turning on four win lights, and hopefully, we’ll finish the day holding another Wally.”
The two-time Funny Car world champion will start from the pole for the 35th time in his career as he seeks his third victory this season. Hagan, a two-time Brainerd International Raceway runner-up, will begin his campaign for his first Brainerd victory with a first-round matchup against No. 16 qualifier Dale Creasy Jr.
The Results:
Q1: 4.004 E.T. at 317.57 MPH (One bonus point for third quickest run of the session)
Q2: 3.890 E.T. at 328.46 MPH (Three bonus points for quickest run of the session)
Q3: 4.000 E.T. at 321.12 MPH
Q4: 4.661 E.T. at 174.93 MPH
Bonus Points: Four
DSR PR
