FUNNY CAR

(Tim Marshall photo)

Matt Hagan entered this weekend's NHRA Winternationals with a new set of goals for himself and the Mopar Express Lane team led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen.

Hagan is extremely motivated this year for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season as he continues to deal with the loss of his younger brother, Kyle, who died of natural causes earlier this year.

"It's just a real special race for me," Hagan said. "A lot of stuff happened over the offseason with losing my brother and I'm just coming out motivated. My lights have been great, the car is running great. We've just got a real powerhouse team right now."

And what a powerhouse they are. Hagan tied both ends of his national record in route to the No. 1 qualifying spot with a 3.822-second, 335.57-mph pass on Saturday evening to close out qualifying.

The team followed up their Saturday performance with four round wins on Sunday knocking off Jeff Diehl, Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman, defending Funny Car world champion and teammate Ron Capps in the semifinal, and Courtney Force in the final round.

Courtney Force lights up the cloudy Saturday night sky. (Ron Lewis photo)

It was an all-Force semifinal with John and Courtney Force. John Force had won eight consecutive rounds against Courtney, but that streak ended as Courtney whisked by at the end for the close victory, 3.872/326.24 to 3.886/328.54. (Tim Marshall photo)

“We’ve got a lot of work cut out for us, but we showed this weekend that our cars will run,” John Force said. “She showed at Phoenix that she could out-run them. They’ve had more time together as a team, and we’ve made a lot of changes in our strategy, in our engine program. We’ll see how this comes out.”