Matt Hagan Loses the Indy Final but Banks NHRA's $150,000 Regular Season Title
A runner-up finish at the U.S. Nationals was all Hagan needed: he beat Ron Capps in a semifinal that doubled as a title decider and enters the Countdown as the No. 1 seed.
Matt Hagan left the NHRA U.S. Nationals without the trophy he came for — and with the check that arguably matters more. A runner-up finish at Indianapolis on Monday was enough to hand the Tony Stewart Racing Dodge driver the Funny Car regular season championship, a $150,000 bonus, and the No. 1 seed for the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
The title effectively came down to a single semifinal. Ron Capps had led the Funny Car standings after nine of the first 13 races, and he snatched the points lead back on Sunday by qualifying No. 1 — the 40th pole of his career. That turned Monday's semifinal between the two rivals into a de facto title decider. Hagan left the line with a .040-second reaction, Capps smoked the tires almost immediately, and Hagan's 4.020-second pass settled the regular season.
The final was a different story. Jack Beckman was in the middle of a weekend nobody was going to interrupt: driving John Force Racing's throwback to Force's 1996 championship livery, he posted the quickest Funny Car run of every elimination round and completed a rare Indy sweep, having already beaten Hagan in Sunday's All-Star Callout. His 3.965 topped Hagan's 4.030 for the U.S. Nationals win.
"It wasn't the result that we wanted, but, at the end of the day, we came away with the regular season championship and the $150,000 that goes with it," Hagan said. "This TSR Dodge team is very capable of winning the world title now too."
The rest of the Dodge camp
Hagan's teammate Leah Pruett had a strong Monday of her own in Top Fuel. She beat Gatornationals winner Josh Hart with a 3.713 and rookie standout Maddi Gordon before her dragster lost traction in the semifinals against Shawn Langdon, who went on to win the event. Pruett enters the playoffs third in points — the highest Countdown starting position of her career, according to the team.
She also picked up hardware on Saturday, beating reigning world champion Doug Kalitta in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge final, 3.873 to 4.502 — her first win in the bonus series since 2023.
Team owner Tony Stewart reached his second consecutive U.S. Nationals Top Fuel final, but his 3.904 fell to Langdon's 3.804 — the Kalitta Motorsports driver's third Indy title. Stewart heads into the playoffs fourth in points, while Kalitta took the Top Fuel regular season crown by just eight points over Langdon.
The Countdown opens September 18-20 with the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan — a race carrying the brand's own name, which is about as convenient a stage as Hagan could ask for to start a run at a fifth world championship. Final eliminations air September 20 on FS1.
