Matt Hagan lit up the scoreboards at Sonoma Raceway with his first No. 1 qualifier of the 2025 season, and while he came up just short of a final-round appearance, the four-time Funny Car world champ proved once again that his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat is a serious contender heading into the Countdown.
Hagan was locked in from the jump, opening Friday qualifying with a 3.916 at 329.26 mph to take the No. 3 spot. He followed that up under the lights with a blistering 3.861-second pass at 332.59 mph to grab the top spot and three bonus points. The performance carried into Saturday where he defeated Alexis DeJoria in the opening round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and held on to the No. 1 spot after Q3.
In Sunday eliminations, Hagan powered past Jeff Diehl with a 3.884 at 333.91 in Round One, then won a side-by-side battle against Bob Tasca III with a 3.937 to Tasca’s 3.936. His day ended in the semifinals against points leader Austin Prock in a matchup that has become one of the most compelling rivalries of the season. Prock edged Hagan by .01 with a 3.927 to Hagan’s 3.937.
“We had a great weekend overall,” said Hagan. “We were on the backside of another good drag race by a hundredth out there. Those races are tough, but they have to fall our way eventually.”
The mustache-powered media buzz around Hagan continued to grow throughout the weekend, with Hagan joking about possibly shaving it off after the loss.
“I loved all the media getting behind it and JHG got behind it. It was a lot of fun being in wine country and making some good memories,” Hagan said. “We’ll look ahead to Brainerd and plan on doing some testing there on Monday. We’re getting closer to Indy and the Countdown, so hopefully we can be chasing a championship.”
The Sonoma performance marked Hagan’s 51st career No. 1 qualifier and his third at the California track. He now sits second in the Funny Car standings, 201 points behind Prock with two regular-season races remaining.
This story was originally published on July 27, 2025. 
