With it being the start of the Countdown this weekend, we would have liked to have gone more rounds. It is extremely tough to lose in the first round, but losing in the second round is also tough. At least we went a couple of rounds and we made a lot of strides in the horsepower department. Dickie (Venables – crew chief) is doing a great job making some changes and our miles per hour were up like crazy. We ran a 336 and a 335, which shows how much horsepower we have and that we are really making some beans out there. All in all, I think it was a productive weekend. We were just on the backside of a good drag race. To lose by .0001 is just splitting frog hairs out there. We just weren’t on the right side of it. I enjoy running Robert (Hight) and that team always makes us bring out our best on the starting line and on the race track. You want Robert, you want J.R. (Todd), and you want (Ron) Capps. You want all of the guys that are heavy-hitters out here. At the end of the day, I am proud of my guys and they did a phenomenal job on the race car. We had a good weekend with Rinnai on the car and I’m glad their group was able to come out to the track and experience things firsthand. We aren’t leaving here the way we wanted to, but we just have to keep digging and working hard to get where we need to be.”
- Earned No. 12 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (5.934 ET at 116.73 mph)
- Earned No. 9 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.916 ET at 328.78 mph)
- Earned No. 5 provisional qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.898 ET at 335.23 mph)
- Scored two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session
- Secured No. 5 qualifying position in Q4 on Saturday (3.891 ET at 333.49 mph)
- Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
- Round 1: 3.871 ET at 336.15 mph, defeated J.R. Todd (3.930 ET at 332.75 mph)
- Round 2: 3.859 ET at 335.48 mph, lost to Robert Hight (3.852 ET at 327.66 mph)
- Currently fourth in the Funny Car championship standings, 51 points behind leader Robert Hight
- With Hagan’s Round 1 win, he is now just one round win shy of 500