Matt Hagan Wins NHRA Funny Car’s 1,000th Race, Boss Tony Stewart Shares Winners Circle

Matt Hagan Wins NHRA Funny Car’s 1,000th RaceMARC GEWERTZ

It was only fitting that the two leading active NHRA Funny Car drivers would line up against each other for the distinction of winning the class’ historic 1,000th race.

Matt Hagan grabbed his 56th victory and by seven-thousandths of a second denied Ron Capps his 78th Sunday at the rain-plagued Lucas Oil Winternationals at Southern California’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

The four-time champion from Tony Stewart Racing/TSR Nitro won Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. He grabbed the diamond Wally trophy for Sunday’s victory. And he handed boss Tony Stewart a double of his own as the Top Fuel Winternationals winner and owner of the team that dominated in Funny Car’s milestone 1,000th event.

One saying that’s popular with Hagan’s Horsepowered Garage people is “We're leaving with something.” And Hagan said late Sunday, “Well, we definitely are leaving with something. The only thing we didn't leave with was the change under the bleachers.

“So it’s been a great weekend. History was made here with the 1,000th Funny Car deal—super, super special. And I’m just very, very blessed to be a part of that,” he said.

Stewart indicated he felt the same way about his Top Fuel victory over Justin Ashley and sharing in Hagan’s achievement.

“I literally told [Elite Motorsports owner Richard Freeman and Royce Freeman [Richard Freeman’s brother] on Friday, ‘I know I’m relatively new to drag racing, but I’ve been racing for 47 years. I’ve been a part of a lot of different programs and worked with a lot of different people***.*** But I promise you, all the ingredients are here to win. I don’t know when it’s going to kick in and when it’s all going to come together, but the stuff that you need to be successful is right here.’

“I had no idea just 48 hours later that it was going to come together,” Stewart said. “We had a great day, and I felt great on the racetrack. I felt great on the lights.

Tony Stewart.MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images - Getty Images

“This is three Top Fuel wins now for me,” Stewart said, “and the one person I’ve never mentioned in the media and in the interviews is my wife Leah [Pruett]. And if it wasn’t for her and everything that she and Matt [Hagan] (Funny Car driver) taught me. Leah has probably been 95% of it, people don’t realize how integral of a part she’s been in my career in drag racing. I’ve had a thousand questions and every time there’s an answer, it leads to three more questions. Everything that I’ve done in the sport has been because of her. And to be a part of NHRA’s 75th Anniversary, to win with Matt Hagan in the 1000th Funny Car race is huge.”

Hagan used his 99th final-round appearance to record his first victory among the season’s three completed races, his 56th overall, and his fifth at the Winternationals and eighth at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. The victory improved his cumulative elimination-round record to 586-318. So that puts him just 14 round-wins away from reaching the 600 plateau.

It was Stewart’s seventh final-round appearance and his first victory at Pomona.

In the Pro Stock class, Greg Anderson extended his NHRA-record for active drivers across all classes to 113, beating tough teammate and reigning class champion Dallas Glenn in the final round by six-thousandths of a second.

JERRY FOSS NHRA/NATIONAL DRAGSTER

“The kid is out of control. He’s a handful,” Anderson said of Glenn. ““I felt good all day. I knew I had the race car if I did my job. I did my job.”

Anderson, the No. 1 qualifier this weekend and runner-up at Gainesville in the 2026 opener, ran his Pomona record victories to 17 and seven in the Winternationals. He also won here in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2025.

Déjà-eeeuh: Tony Schumacher’s dragster causes lengthy clean-up again

Doug Kalitta didn’t waste a minute. He popped from the cockpit of his Mac Tools Dragster immediately after seeing Tony Schumacher lose the rear end of his American Communications Construction/Aloha Beauty Lounge entry—in almost a carbon-copy repeat of his Saturday mess that took two hours to mop up.

Doug Kalitta.Kalitta Motorsports

Kalitta was set to go in the next pair, and Antron Brown’s Matco Tools team, poised to close Round 1, was right behind Kalitta in the parade to the pits. Within five or six minutes, they all were back at their respective haulers. In the opposite lane, Shawn Langdon’s engine let go with a fiery pop, as well, but any clean-up was minimal. Clean-up and track re-prep took about half the time as Saturday’s task.

Kalitta returned to the track and reeled off a track-record speed of 339.74 mph. That eclipsed Brittany Force’s 338.94-mph mark from November 2022. (Clay Millican’s track elapsed-time record of 3.628 seconds from February 2018 remains intact.)

In the semifinal round, Kalitta reset his own track speed mark at 340.56 mph. It was the first Top Fuel class 340-mph clocking on this racetrack—and he lost by nine-thousandths of a second to Justin Ashley.