Hagan settles for fourth at Inaugural Four-Wide Nationals

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
Inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
zMAX Dragway
Concord, N.C.
March 26-28, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

HAGAN SETTLES FOR FOURTH AT INAUGURAL FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS

CONCORD, N.C. (March 29, 2010) - Matt Hagan was a fourth-place finisher in
the final round of the Inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway
today, losing to winner John Force, his daughter Ashley Force Hood and his
Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

Driving the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car, Hagan came back from a
spectacular explosion he experienced on Saturday during the third qualifying
round to advance to the final round. En route, he defeated Robert Hight,
Jeff Arend, Paul Lee and Cruz Pedregon, but entered the money round without
lane choice.

He launched with an excellent reaction time of .082 (.000 is perfect), but
tire shake ended his day, as he crossed the line with a 6.736-second elapsed
time at 105.27 mph to Force's winning 4.036/316.23. He moved into fourth in
the point standings. (His other opponentsą numbers were 4.042/316.38 for
Force Hood and 4.088/306.33 for Capps.)

"I think we had a good race car this weekend," said the 27-year-old Angus
Cattle farmer from Christiansburg, Va. "We had a few mishaps out there in
qualifying, but that was behind us. We really wanted to go out there and
finish strong. I know anybody could have won it out of those four, and when
you have that opportunity you just hate to pass it up.

"This DieHard car is going to get some wins this year, I can feel it. It's
going to happen soon enough. As long as we're patient enough and persistent
enough it's going to happen for us.

"The DieHard guys did an awesome job this weekend putting that car back
together. It looked like someone took a grenade and threw it in that car.
I'm just really excited to have these guys working on the race car; I feel
very comfortable with them. They're just a great group of guys. We're all
growing together.

"There was so much glue out there on the race track that I didn't hardly get
any smoke from my burnout. I can understand why it shook the tires out
there. It's too glued in. I think we make just as much horsepower as anybody
out there and when it sticks the tire that hard it's hard to go down.

"That No. 2 lane has always been the lane of choice for us and we only got
over there a couple of times this weekend. So, I think if we had had our
druthers we'd definitely wanted to be in the No. 2 lane. It just seems to be
a little better.

"I'm glad this four-wide racing is over. I'm not looking forward to doing it
again. But we'll race wherever they let us race. So that's what we're gong
to do."

Next up is the 23rd annual NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, April 9-11.

UNOFFICIAL POINT STANDINGS, after four events:
1. John Force, 397 (winner today)
2. Ron Capps, 308 (third place today)
3. Jack Beckman, 278
4. Matt Hagan, 255 (fourth place today)
5. Ashley Force Hood, 247 (runner-up today)
6. Bob Tasca III, 236
7. Tim Wilkerson, 230
8. Robert Hight, 223
9. Tony Pedregon, 212
10. Del Worsham, 166

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