POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 14, 2010) - Matt Hagan, racing the all-new DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, started off the season in good form, reaching the quarterfinals and leaving the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals in sixth place in points.

The 27-year-old Angus Cattle farmer from Christiansburg, Va., qualified fifth then dismissed Gary Densham in the opening round of eliminations with a 4.524/270.00 to Densham's 4.572/278.69. He was then defeated in the second stanza when Bob Tasca III pulled out a 4.196/301.00 to beat a tire-smoking 4.636/237.25 pass by Hagan.

He didn't think not having lane choice made a difference. "I think both lanes were pretty tough no matter what you did in the heat of the day,” said Hagan, in his second full season in the Funny Car class. “It was a hot race track. It's just one of those things where at the beginning of the year we hadn't seen a whole lot of those hot conditions. When we were testing earlier in the year we had cool, tight conditions.

"Anything goes right now. I think we definitely have a great race car in this DieHard Dodge. Tommy (DeLago, crew chief) hit it dead on with the 4.09 (-second elapsed time in qualifying) that put us where we needed to be. We just went out there and it came a little loose.

"We're going to put it behind us and move on to the next race."

Next up is the 26th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler, Ariz., Feb. 19-21.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS, after one event:
1. John Force, 121 (winner today)
2. Ron Capps, 94 (runner-up today)
3. Bob Tasca III, 78
4. Jack Beckman, 74
5. Del Worsham, 59
6. Matt Hagan, 57
7. Ashley Force Hood, 56
8. Cruz Pedregon, 51
9. Robert Hight, 43
10. Tony Pedregon, 33
10. Jim Head, 33

***
by Judy Stropus