Funny Car driver Matt Hagan picked up his fifth win of the season for Tony Stewart Racing on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, defeating defending world champion Ron Capps in the final round in front of a huge crowd at the 12th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals.<\/p>\n
Clay Millican (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 18th of 21 races during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season, and the third of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.<\/p>\n
Hagan went 3.991-seconds at 324.90 mph in his 11,000-horsepower American Rebel Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to slip past Capps\u2019 run of 4.025 at 306.68, earning his 48th career win in the process. The three-time world champ also pulled to within less than a round of first, as he now trails Bob Tasca III by just 13 points heading into the final three races of 2023.<\/p>\n
It was a clutch performance by Hagan as he defeated Alexis DeJoria, John Force and Tasca to reach the finals. He went 4.016 at 316.38 to get past Tasca and then held off Capps and his run of 4.025 at 306.68 to get a much-needed victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had to win this race to be in the hunt for this thing,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s meant to be, and I\u2019m just enjoying the ride.\u00a0[The team] sat down and looked across from each other, and it\u2019s one of those things where you go, I\u2019m going to dig for you, you dig for me, let\u2019s make this happen. I think that\u2019s what makes it happen, having a core group of guys you want to work hard for. You want to show up for them, and today they all showed up for me, and I felt like I showed up for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure is huge. I was telling (crew chief) Dickie Venables, damn, this is a lot of pressure, but that\u2019s what you want. That\u2019s what we\u2019re here for. If we didn\u2019t have the pressure, that means we didn\u2019t have a shot.\u00a0The pressure was huge \u2013 you just have to find a way to capitalize on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capps reached the final round for the seventh time in 2023 and the 147th time in his career after defeating Tim Wilkerson, Alex Laughlin and Blake Alexander. Tasca leads Hight by just six points \u2013 marking the first time Tasca has held the points lead in the playoffs \u2013 with Capps only 33 points back in fourth.<\/p>\n
In Top Fuel, Clay Millican powered to his third win this season and sixth in his career, defeating Leah Pruett in the championship round with a pass of 3.758 at 331.94 in his 11,000-horsepower Parts Plus\/Comp Cams dragster for Rick Ware Racing. He jumped up to eighth in points in the process, tying Antron Brown for the second-most wins in Top Fuel in 2023.<\/p>\n
He reached the finals by defeating Austin Prock, Mike Salinas and Tony Schumacher, before outrunning Pruett in a thrilling side-by-side duel. It is Millican\u2019s first career victory at World Wide Technology Raceway and the veteran was thrilled with his team\u2019s performance in the heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, what a day. This is huge,\u201d Millican said. \u201cHe gave us a hot weekend and man, (crew chief) Jim O (Oberhofer) just showed again that when it\u2019s hot out, look out. We got away with a couple, but we outperformed the cars we raced, and I am so proud. I mean, this was huge. Jim O will quickly tell you, give me a track above 90 degrees and look out. Needless to say, with this perspiration on my face here, it\u2019s above 95 degrees out there, and it was all day. I am already talking to the man upstairs, bring on the heat in Dallas, baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is obviously top 10, as far as we can possibly get. It\u2019s way too big a gap to think about chasing down No. 1, but three wins for this Parts Plus team is huge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leah Pruett advanced the finals for the fourth time this year and the 23rd time in her career, driving past Shawn Langdon, points leader Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence. She also jumped to second in points, trailing Kalitta by 47 points at the halfway point of the Countdown to the Championship. Torrence is 51 points back of Kalitta and Justin Ashley is 77 points behind.<\/p>\n
Greg Anderson\u2019s late-season surge in Pro Stock continued at St. Louis in a major way, as the veteran won for the second straight weekend thanks to a run of 6.552 at 209.92 in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro in the finals against Aaron Stanfield. After struggling for much of the season, Anderson is now second in points \u2013 just 25 points behind Erica Enders \u2013 picking up his second win of the season and the 103rd in his career. He\u2019s gone from eighth to second in just two races, taking down Jerry Tucker, Deric Kramer and Enders on Sunday to reach the final round.<\/p>\n
It was the second straight semifinal win against Enders, as Anderson was .002 on the starting line against the defending world champ, also snapping her string of four straight wins in St. Louis. He was great on the starting in the final round, too, going .021 to lead wire-to-wire against Stanfield, who went 6.567 at 209.14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back in the game. I\u2019ve legitimately got a shot at this championship with three races to go, and that\u2019s all you can ask,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI went to the first race at Reading and lost in the first round, and I\u2019ve said it a million times \u2013 you can\u2019t win the championship at the first race of the playoffs, but you can lose it. I was knocking on the door of knocking myself out of it. if I didn\u2019t have a big recovery at the next race, I was out of it. I\u2019m back in the fight, and I have a great hot rod, but there are so many great cars, so many great drivers in this class right now. It\u2019s incredible. These next three races are going to be a bare-knuckled brawl.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom first round on, it\u2019s like racing the final, every week. Right now, if you don\u2019t do a perfect job round one you go home. There\u2019s no telling what\u2019s going to happen from here on out. I feel fantastic about the way things have gone these past two weeks. With the job my guys have done on my racecar and even the job I\u2019ve been able to do behind the wheel, it feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanfield advanced to his first final round of 2023 and 14th in his Pro Stock career by defeating Camrie Caruso, Chris McGaha and Bo Butner. Matt Hartford, who was upset in the first round, is 38 points back of Enders and Dallas Glenn, who also lost in the opening round, trails the defending champ by 64 points.<\/p>\n
It was a picture-perfect weekend for Gaige Herrera in Pro Stock Motorcycle, continuing his dominant season with a run of 6.728 at 201.79 on his Mission Foods\/Vance & Hines Suzuki to defeat teammate Eddie Krawiec in the final round. It gives Herrera his eighth victory this season, extending his lead to 99 points over Matt Smith at the halfway mark of the playoffs. After qualifying No. 1 for the 11th time this season \u2013 tying the single-season mark in Pro Stock Motorcycle history \u2013 Herrera broke the track E.T. record in the first round (6.701) to defeat Joey Gladstone.<\/p>\n
He knocked off rookie Chase Van Sant to reach the final round, where he dispatched Krawiec and his 6.761 at 201.52 to deny his teammate of his 50th career victory. But in the process, Herrera moved a step closer to his first career NHRA world championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, I still have a job after knocking Ed off, but that final round was good for our whole team\u201d Herrera said. \u201cAll day I had a very consistent motorcycle, and first round was probably the most nervous round for me. Racing Joey, he\u2019s always a tough competitor, so I knew he was going to be on it. All day has been really good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t give enough credit to the whole Vance & Hines Mission Suzuki team. I still can\u2019t believe I got that phone call almost a year ago now to race for them. It\u2019s been incredible, and I\u2019m proud to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krawiec reached the final round for the second time this season and the 93rd in his career thanks to round wins against Ryan Oehler, Jianna Evaristo and Smith.<\/p>\n
The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series returns to action Oct. 12-15 with the 38th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas.<\/p>\n
The post Hagan, Millican, Anderson and Herrera Race to Playoff Wins at NHRA Midwest Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Funny Car driver Matt Hagan picked up his fifth win of the season for Tony Stewart Racing on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, defeating defending world champion Ron Capps in the final round in front of a huge crowd at the 12th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals. Clay Millican (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}