2011 NHRA Nationals at zMax Dragway

Celebrating the Victories from the 2011 NHRA Nationals at zMax Dragway

This past weekend at Charlotte’s zMax Dragway was unlike any other.

Funny Car driver Matt Hagan drove to his first win of the season and backed up his national record-setting run in the process at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationalse. On Friday, Hagan became the first Funny Car driver to break the 4 second barrier by taking the number one qualifying spot with a 3.995-second pass. And by winning on Sunday in a final over Mike Neff, his fourth career Wally, Matt moved up to second in the points standings, just 22 points behind Neff.

Hagan's teammate Jack Beckman, in the Pennzoil Funny Car, also set a national speed record with a pass at 318.99 mph, but lost to Hagan in the semifinals. It was clearly “all for one and one for himself” at this point in the race for the Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship.

In Top Fuel, Mac Tools U.S. Nationals winner Antron Brown continued his streak of success when he held off teammate Spencer Massey, driving the FRAM dragster, in the final round to lock in his third consecutive win. Brown ran a 3.784 at 325.14 to secure his fifth win of the season and take over the points lead for the first time this season.

In Pro Stock Car and Pro Stock Bike, Kurt Johnson and Eddie Krawiec were also winners.

As Krawiec kept his Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson at the top of the pack all weekend - amongst all the trash talking that has been going on for the past two weeks - he picked up the No. 1 qualifying spot on Saturday and raced to his third win of the season Sunday. Krawiec rode to a 6.870 at 196.42 to defeat Karen Stoffer, who lit the red light. The win strengthened Eddie’s points lead over the rest of the field. Kurt Johnson’s sponsors graced him with a new car this weekend, and that decision paid off in the finals as Johnson took the win over Jason Line.

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing action returns next week with the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals, September 22-25 at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas. It is all coming down to the wire as these racing teams push their cars harder and harder to the limit, all to get to the greatest win of them all - the NHRA Full Throttle Championship.

You are not going to want to miss one moment of the action. Who do you think is going to win it all?

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