Matt Hagan absolutely crushed it at the Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals this Sunday in Vegas, racking up his 55th career Funny Car win and throwing down the gauntlet for a fifth championship. Behind the wheel of that beastly Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) American Rebel Beer Dodge//SRT Hellcat, he scorched the track for his third victory this season—and his sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, proving yet again he owns that strip.
The Virginia speed demon rolled into the weekend sitting pretty in second place, but let’s be real, he needed this win to keep the heat on heading into the final showdown. After sliding into third in quals, he bulldozed through eliminations, taking out Cruz Pedregon, Chad Green, and Daniel Wilkerson before locking horns with defending champ Austin Prock in the finals. Hagan’s blistering 3.877-second pass? Not just a win—it was the quickest run all weekend, and his first final-round dub over Prock. Now that’s how you close.
One race left. One shot to snag that fifth title and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with drag racing royalty like Prudhomme and Bernstein. The tension? Palpable.
Over in Top Fuel, TSR boss Tony Stewart brought the smoke too. The NASCAR-turned-drag-racing wildcard muscled his Rush Truck Centers dragster to the semis, knocking out Dan Mercier and stomping past Tony Schumacher before Brittany Force ended his party with a traction hiccup. Still, Stewart clawed his way to fifth in the standings—not too shabby for a guy still cutting his teeth in nitro.
And let’s not forget the weekend’s other head-turner: Dodge dropped jaws with the first public run of their 2026 Charger Hustle Stuff Drag Pak, a HEMI-powered monster that left folks buzzing.
The curtain closes on the 2025 season at Pomona’s In-N-Out World Finals mid-November. Hagan’s hunting glory; Stewart’s gunning for a mic-drop finish. Buckle up.
Via Stellantis
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