Hagan on a string, qualifies No. 13 in Concord

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 1 of Countdown to 1 Playoffs (six in total)
Round 19 of 24 for season
NHRA CAROLINA NATIONALS
zMAX Dragway
Concord, N.C.
Sept. 18-20, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

HAGAN ON A STRING, QUALIFIES NO. 13 IN CONCORD

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 19, 2009) - Matt Hagan, a contender for the 2009
Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award as an NHRA
rookie-of-the-year frontrunner, put together a string of mostly consistent
laps to qualify the Valvoline Engine Guarantee/shelor.com Dodge Funny Car in
No. 13 for the NHRA Carolina Nationals.

He pulled out his quickest lap of 4.145 seconds at 292.14 mph right out of
the box in the opening qualifying round, which placed him No. 4, then
followed that with a 4.159/292.77 (No. 8), a 5.316/135.82 (No. 13) and
finally a 4.150/300.33.

"We know how to run 4.15s, that's for sure," he said. "Obviously, we
definitely wanted to qualify better than we did, but we went out there and
it shook the tires the last lap. It probably would've run a little better
than that.²

Hagan will face points leader Tony Pedregon in the opening round of
eliminations on Sunday. "He's always a tough draw. We have a lot of work
ahead of us. Were gong to get up in the morning and hope that things will
come together for us.

"We definitely have running 4.15 down pat. I think that will be an advantage
tomorrow going into the heat of the day on race day. It's probably gong to
take a .10 to a .15 to win some races tomorrow."

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