Matt Hagan and the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car team capped off the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip with Hagan’s 56th career victory, not only taking home an NHRA 75th Anniversary Wally but the 1,000th NHRA Funny Car event trophy.
Hagan took down three-time Funny Car world champion and most recent NHRA event winner Ron Capps in the final round. Hagan handled the JHG Dodge Hellcat to a 3.876-second pass at 330.39 mph to defeat Capps’ 3.893 at 334.32. It is Hagan’s eighth overall victory at In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip, fourth at the NHRA Winternationals.
“I’m trying to catch Capps on overall wins [Ron Capps has 78 career victories]. But he has 20 years of racing on me,” Hagan said. “One thing about Ron is he’s just a great driver. He took me under his wing when I was first out here,and we got into all kinds of trouble together too. So, when we race each other, even back in the DSR days, we really throw it down, especially in the final round. Pomona Dragstrip has shown me so much love over the years. It’s a magical place, because champions are crowned hereat the end of the year. There’s just so many great memories made here. It felt like the championship, because the lights were on just like the World Finals in the fall. When you pull up to the starting your adrenaline’s going, and you’re trying to control your breathing. I was too pumped up in the final, and I almost double stepped the car up there off the line.
“It was just our day. I was telling [team owner] Tony [Stewart] that sometimes you wake up and you’re just like, ‘All right, today’s good. Like, I can tie my shoes today. It’s going to be a good day.’ But to win with Bossman (Tony won in Top Fuel) and double up is special and Leah [Pruett] was No. 1 qualifier and we won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday. Plus having the JHGfolks here, the only thing we didn’t leave with was the change under the bleachers. So, it’s been a great weekend,” Hagan continued. “History was made here with the 1,000thFunny Car race. That is super, super special. And I’m just very, very blessed to be a part of that. It just hasn’t really set in yet. To drive for Tony, be a teammate to Leah, to have this group of people. We’ve surrounded ourselves with great people from the media folks down to the guy that puts the oil in the car. We’ve been blessed to have an elite group of folks here. It’s a family within a family. I’m proud to be a part of it and we’re gonna hopefully do a lot more of this in the future.”
Hagan started the day as the No. 4 qualifier defeating 2025 Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde and en route to the finals also picked off Jason Rupert and JR Todd.
In Top Fuel, Leah Pruett and the Rinnai Tankless Water Heater team earned a bye first round with their No. 1 qualifying position and had a solid 3.703-second pass at 334.73 mph with a .064 reaction time that came up short on a holeshot by .0222-seconds to Justin Ashley’s .025 reaction time and 3.720 pass at 336.07.
“Overall, a phenomenal weekend. Starting with the very first day. Having a provisional No. 1 spot, and I think the entire paddock was thinking that won’t hold, everybody should go quicker and move around that,” Pruett said. “Everyone had the same challenges throughout the weekend. And for that 3.72 to hold, really maximized the value of what this Pomona race was. Not only did we get the points that go with being No. 1 qualifier, but you get that bye run in the first round and then the opportunity to dial in the car. We took every opportunity there. Pushed hard. And it was a little too much, and that’s okay. We were able to properly prepare for our second round against Justin Ashley who keeps doing what they do.
“This entire Top Fuel field is insane. Cars are running within a couple hundredths of each other,” Pruett continued. “In eliminations, drivers are just diving those reaction times down, and it would be incorrect for me to say that it hasn’t taken me a couple races to get to where I’m at. And that’s okay. I knew that I wasn’t gonna give up. We had a lot of momentum in Phoenix. We continued that momentum here and just because we didn’t get past the second round does not mean that momentum has stopped in any way. Actually, I feel like, coming out of E2, on all fronts, pushes us right to where we want to be for Charlotte in a few weeks.”
Tony Stewart Racing continues the 2026 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series season with the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway just outside of Charlotte April 24-26.
The post Matt Hagan Wins NHRA’s 1,000th Funny Car Race; Leah Pruett Advances to Quarterfinals first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
There are no reviews to display.