Del Worsham and Matt Hagan raced to their first NHRA season championships and won Sunday in the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals.
Worsham took the Top Fuel season crown, while Hagan avenged last season’s runner-up performance by taking the Funny Car title. Eddie Krawiec claimed his second Pro Stock Motorcycle championship. Pro Stock champ Jason Line secured his title two weeks ago in Las Vegas.
Greg Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the event at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Longtime Funny Car racer Worsham claimed the Top Fuel championship in dramatic fashion by edging series challenger Spencer Massey at the finish line in a winner-take-all semifinal round.
Worsham went on to claim his eighth victory of the season and 33rd of his career by outrunning Tony Schumacher in the final round. Worsham powered his dragster to a 3.796 at 318.02 to finish in front of Schumacher’s machine, which posted a 3.799 at 321.50. Washington Post
After establishing himself as a solid favorite during the final day of qualifying on Saturday, Worsham had said, “If it is really going to be a dream season, we need to finish it off like we want to.”
“Calling it a dream season doesn’t come close to describing it,” Worsham said. “I’m just coming down from racing and can’t find the words right now. It’s been unreal.”
In funny car, Matt Hagan made up for last year’s disappointment at the NHRA Finals by winning a Full Throttle national championship in only his third full season of drag racing. Hagan, driving his DieHard Dodge Charger, edged his closest rival, Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman, in the second round of the eliminations.
Then Hagan, who lost his shot at winning a national title last year when he was upset in the first round of the eliminations, erased that memory Sunday by beating Cruz Pedregon in the third round. It was another thrilling title-clinching race. Hagan had the quicker start and faster time, 4.096 seconds to Pedregon’s 4.113, and Pedregon had the better top speed, 311.77 mph to 309.34.
Worsham and Hagan, who both won $500,000 for their national championships, followed the same script. Hagan also capped off his year with an event championship. Hagan’s final-round victory was over Robert Hight in a rematch of the Winternationals finals at Pomona in February. Hight won that one but couldn’t catch Hagan in Sunday’s event final. Los Angeles Times
“You come in expecting the worst and hoping for the best,” Hagan said. “It really is truly amazing this weekend to win the championship and win the race. It’s a testimony to all of my guys who have worked so hard on this DieHard team. They were so relaxed today. Being in that situation last year with John Force really helped us. I hate the phrase you’ve gotta lose one to win one, but in this case, it’s sort of true. Last year, we were trying so hard to make everything happen that we kind of chased it away I think, and this year, we just let it all come to us.”
Hines earned his second win of the season in Pro Stock Motorcycle, outrunning newly crowned champ Krawiec in the final. Hines took his 25th career victory with a 6.814 at 196.39 on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson, while Krawiec fouled at the start on his Harley-Davidson.
“Pomona has always been on my list, and it’s been a thorn in my side,” Hines said. “I’ve been racing here for 10 years, and it’s been a long road. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs at this track. Today, our guys did an outstanding job. Communication doesn’t need to happen in our pit area because everyone knows what to do. It’s amazing to see our whole team perform. We put both of our V-Rods in the final at the last two races this year and luckily, I was able to get the last win of the year. It’ doesn’t get any better than that.”
In Pro Stock, Stanfield scored his first win of the season and fifth of his career when he defeated Kurt Johnson in the final round. Stanfield finished in 6.597 at 209.59 in his Nitro Fish Pontiac GXP, while Johnson’s GXP broke on the starting line.
“Any time that you win the last race of the season, it makes the winter time a lot better,” Stanfield said. “We’ve been a bit behind in this game for a while, we’re a little bit off, the car has got a lot of runs, and we’ll be hoping to get a new car for next year. It takes a lot of people to put a program like this together. And I have to thank J.D. Coffman of Coffman Trucking and Kenny Koretsky of Nitro Fish for their help. We’re a small team, so we try to run everything really tight. We use our equipment probably longer than we need to. But for them guys, it’s special to give them a win.” NHRA.com
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