TONY STEWART RACING’S MATT HAGAN – MOTORSPORT AMERICA PHOTO
Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
Tony Stewart & Matt Hagan
Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
56th NHRA Gatornationals
March 7-9 | Gainesville, Florida
EVENT RECAP
Tony Stewart, driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel
Dragster:
* Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.760
ET at 326.79 mph)
* Fell to No. 11 provisional qualifying position based off of Q1 run.
In Q2 on Friday, Stewart ran a 3.872 ET at 313.88 mph.
* Saturday’s Q3 and Q4 runs were canceled due to rain
* Secured No. 11 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run
* Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
* Round 1: 3.722 ET at 329.91 mph, defeated Brittany Force (8.643 ET
at 74.73 mph)
* Round 2: 3.742 ET at 331.53 mph, lost to Shawn Langdon (3.739 ET at
333.82 mph)
* Currently seventh in the Top Fuel championship standings, 69 points
behind leader Antron Brown
Matt Hagan, driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny
Car:
* Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.953
ET at 328.06 mph)
* Fell to No. 9 provisional qualifying position based off of Q1 run.
In Q2 on Friday, Hagan ran a 4.290 ET at 207.75 mph.
* Saturday’s Q3 and Q4 runs were canceled due to rain
* Secured No. 9 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run
* Advanced to Semifinal on Sunday:
* Round 1: 4.275 ET at 221.20 mph, defeated Cruz Pedregon (10.461 ET
at 77.23 mph)
* Round 2: 3.987 ET at 327.74 mph, defeated Jack Beckman (4.678 ET at
214.48 mph)
* Semifinal: 3.988 ET at 324.20 mph, lost to Chad Green (3.922 ET at
330.88 mph)
* Currently fourth in the Funny Car championship standings, 39
points behind leader Chad Green
NOTES OF INTEREST
* By advancing to the Semifinals, Hagan has secured his position in
the NHRA’s #2Fast2Tasty Mission NHRA Challenge, where he will face off
against Chad Green at Phoenix. The semifinalists from Gainesville will
rematch during qualifying on Saturday, with bonus money and points on
the line.
* Tony Stewart Racing and Dodge announced a multi-year partnership
extension on Friday at the Gatornationals. Dodge and TSR’s partnership
began in 2022 and together, they have recorded 16 NHRA national event
victories. Stewart’s ties to Mopar date back 25 years to his sprint
car program, so the extension comes full-circle. 2025 marks Hagan’s
18th season driving for Dodge.
* Dodge launched the Dodge Livery Shootout, where fans get the chance
to vote between three schemes that TSR will run at the U.S. Nationals.
Fans can visit DodgeGarage.com to vote for their favorite.
* Due to weather, the All-Star Top Fuel Callout has been moved to the
NHRA Winternationals March 27-30 at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Stewart was called-out by Steve Torrence, so they are two of eight
drivers that will participate in the specialty event with bonus money,
bragging rights and a special Callout trophy on the line.
* The Gatornationals marked the first event that Converge Technology
Solutions activated with TSR. Converge is a services-led,
software-enabled, IT & Cloud Solutions provider focused on delivering
industry-leading solutions.
TONY STEWART, DRIVER OF THE TSR DODGE//SRT DIRECT CONNECTION TOP FUEL
DRAGSTER
“We were all thrown a curveball today with an early start time,
weather and tough track conditions. I was super, super proud of Neal
(Strausbaugh – crew chief), Mike (Domagala – co-crew chief), Ryan
(McGilvry – car chief) and the team. We were the only car to make it
down the race track in Round 1 this morning. After the rain, the track
was in better shape and we were still low (ET) of the round. I’m
really proud of that. We lost in a good drag race to (Shawn) Langdon. My
reaction times have been consistent, I just need to work on improving
from being the fifth-best guy on the tree to beating these top-three
guys. I have some work to do, but at least they are consistent and that
is the first step on making them better. We made six runs in testing and
the car made it down four of those. It made it down the track all four
runs of the event. I’m very encouraged after Bradenton. The team went
back and yard-sale’d our entire program and came here with a new
approach. It’s showing a lot of promise. We have room for improvement
performance wise, but we have a car that is consistent. The car is a lot
happier, so we can take what we learned this week and go to Phoenix to
keep building the program. Last year was bad and Bradenton was even
worse, but I truly believe we are in a way better spot going into
Phoenix. I’m proud of the team. They had tough turnaround times with
the weather and they’re doing flawless work. My crew chiefs are
gaining confidence, so we’re all in a lot better spot. We’re finally
in a position where we can start racing, rather than just hoping the car
makes it down the racetrack.”
MATT HAGAN, DRIVER OF THE TSR DIRECT CONNECTION DODGE//SRT HELLCAT FUNNY
CAR
“All in all, we had a pretty good weekend. We have new crew chiefs
with Mike Knudsen and Phil Shuler and some guys in new positions. We
were able to go rounds, which was nice. The weather was tough, which
made qualifying tricky. We had some heavy hitters, but Jack (Beckman)
was a big one to get around. We’ll move onto Phoenix, where hopefully
it’ll be dry with no humidity. I’m really happy with my guys making
the calls and doing what they need to do. We had a crew member get hurt
at the start of the weekend, but everyone adapted. It speaks volumes to
having a group of guys that are trained in different positions. Alex
(Conaway – car chief) really stepped up and was doing two jobs this
week. Mike has been great all week and in Bradenton. It seems like the
blower we put on the car was down on power and never recovered in the
Semifinal, but we’ll put a new one on and look forward to the next
race.”
NEXT UP
The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is
the NHRA Arizona Nationals March 21-23 at Firebird Motorsports Park.
-TSR-