Tony Stewart drivers, including wife, fighting for NHRA titles — PHOTOS
NHRA Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan is used to the pressure that come with racing for a championship.
Hagan, a three-time Funny Car champion, has a car owner that is experienced, too, though not in racing for an NHRA title.
Driving for three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, Hagan posted the third-fastest time at an estimated 3.871 seconds at 322.58 mph on the first day of qualifying at Friday’s NHRA Nevada Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hagan holds a 36-point lead over Bob Tasca III with two races left in the season. Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing teammate Leah Pruett holds a four-point lead over Doug Kalitta and a 13-point advantage over third-place Steve Torrence in the Top Fuel standings.
Hagan stretched out his lead and Pruett took control of the Top Fuel standings with wins at the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals on Oct. 15. It was the first time Hagan and Pruett swept a weekend while driving for Stewart.
In the team’s second season, Hagan said there is an expectation to win but said Stewart has given the team everything it needs to be successful while understanding the pressures of racing as a driver.
“You have a team owner that has been in those situations and understands that environment,” Hagan said. “It just flows and works better. Tony as a person, he’s a great guy. He’s a guy that you want to win for, and he’s a guy you want to drink beers with afterwards. I just really enjoyed working for him.”
Stewart is competing this weekend in the Top Alcohol class. He posted an estimated time of 5.321 seconds at 273.55 mph in his first qualifying run, which was seventh-best.
Pruett, Stewart’s wife, was third-fastest in Top Fuel qualifying (3.707 at 331.59 mph). She said the communication between the two teams has helped the organization be in a spot where it can win two championships this season.
“It falls on the communication between the two teams,” Pruett said. “Not only between Matt and I — we are each other’s hype person for sure. If I feel like I have an insecurity with the car and my mindset, I can go straight to (Hagan). We talk about it. He gives me some tactics, and I use them. It’s just streamlining driver-to-driver communication, and then the way that the crew chiefs work together is phenomenal.”
Hagan leads all Funny Car drivers this season with six wins, including a win at the Four-Wide Nationals at LVMS in the spring for his fifth win at the track. Hagan said he’s learned to not let any pressure from a championship make the team stray away from what it does best.
“You turn something that’s nervous energy into excitement,” Hagan said. “That’s how I approach it, is being excited about that chance to go out there, create history, to make that legacy or put your name on that championship. Every round adds up, but you have to show up every round.”
Qualifying results
Being fast at LVMS isn’t new for Erica Enders. The nine-time winner at the track posted an estimated time of 6.592 seconds at 208.52 mph on Friday’s first day of qualifying.
Enders was the only driver in Pro Stock to be in the 6.950s in both qualifying runs. A five-time Pro Stock champion, Enders entered the weekend with an 85-point advantage over Greg Anderson.
“Having the provisional No. 1 here is very meaningful,” Enders said. “I’ve said this before, but we feel like we win races before we leave the shop. We want to come out here and get every single point that we can.”
In Funny Car, Robert Hight posted the fastest time (3.851 at 327.51 mph) by two-thousandths of a second over Tasca (3.853).
In Top Fuel, Mike Salinas was the only driver to dip into the 3.6-second range with an estimated time of 3.699 seconds at 332.75 mph during his second qualifying run. Austin Prock was second (3.701 at 329.99 mph).
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.