Event Recap for the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals

Tony Stewart & Matt Hagan

Top Fuel | Funny Car
DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals
presented by POWEREDGE
July 25-27 | Sonoma, California

Event Recap

Tony Stewart, driver of the Mobil 1 Dodge//SRT Fuel Dragster:
• Earned No. 5 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.759 ET at 328.62 mph)
• Maintained No. 5 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.727 ET at 325.06 mph)
• Maintained No. 5 provisional qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.700 ET at 331.28 mph)
• Scored two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session
• Secured No. 5 qualifying position based off of Saturday’s Q3 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Stewart ran a 6.668 ET at 97.81 mph.
• Got eliminated following Round 1 on Sunday:
• Round 1: 10.343 ET at 68.96 mph, lost to Josh Hart (3.746 ET at 329.26 mph)
• Currently second in the Top Fuel championship standings, 48 points behind Top Fuel leader Shawn Langdon

Matt Hagan, driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
• Earned No. 3 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.916 ET at 329.26 mph)
• Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session
• Earned No. 1 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.861 ET at 332.59 mph)
• Scored three bonus points for quickest run of the session
• Maintained No. 1 provisional qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q2 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 3.913 ET at 330.72 mph. Q3 also served as Round 1 of the NHRA’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where Hagan faced Alexis DeJoria. Hagan’s run defeated DeJoria’s 4.316 ET at 211.00 mph.
• Secured No. 1 qualifying position based off of Saturday’s Q3 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 3.926 ET at 330.07 mph. Q4 also served as the NHRA’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge Finals, where Hagan faced Ron Capps. Capps’ 3.904 ET at 324.20 mph defeated Hagan.
• Advanced to the Semifinals on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.884 ET at 333.91 mph, defeated Jeff Diehl (8.446 ET at 75.02 mph)
• Round 2: 3.937 ET at 331.36 mph, defeated Bob Tasca III (3.936 ET at 333.49 mph)
• Semifinals: 3.937 ET at 327.11 mph, lost to Austin Prock (3.927 ET at 333.91 mph)
• Currently second in the Funny Car championship standings, 201 points behind Funny Car leader Austin Prock

Notes of Interest

• Hagan earned his first No. 1 qualifier of the 2025 season and it marked the 51st No. 1 qualifier of his career. Hagan made his 16th start at Sonoma Raceway and 2025 was his third No. 1 qualifier at the track. His previous No. 1 starts came in 2009 (4.068 ET at 307.51 mph) and 2013 (3.986 ET at 320.51 mph). Hagan qualified No. 1 for the first time in his pro career at the 2009 DENSO Nationals.
• Hagan participated in his seventh Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season. His previous appearances in the specialty race came at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler, Arizona, the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, North Carolina, the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, Illinois, the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire, and the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Washington.
• By advancing to the Semifinals, Hagan secured his position in the NHRA’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where Hagan will face a rematch against Austin Prock at Brainerd International Raceway.
• Hagan represented Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage (JHG) on his Funny Car. JHG was formed in 2021 and brings a passion and flare to the automotive world. They aim to inspire, drive and celebrate progress. JHG spans across Jason Johnson’s car collection featuring more than 200 sought after vehicles from classics, to hot rods and supercars. Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage’s mission is to preserve and showcase the automotive industry. The vehicles are driven to and displayed at events by Johnson and his team with the goal of growing interest and keeping car culture thriving. Johnson’s history in the industry began with Mather Auto Dismantler, Mather Mini Trucks and U-Pull It in Northern California. He later held an instrumental role in the growth and success of Copart, Inc., a global provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services. JHG also serves as a primary sponsor of Elite Motorsports in the NHRA Pro Stock series.
• Stewart represented Mobil 1, the world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand. He has been with the brand for 14 years and debuted a new red, white and blue scheme for Mobil 1 at this year’s NHRA Sonoma Nationals.

Tony Stewart, Driver of the Mobil 1 Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster

“We definitely didn’t want to lose first round, but to go this far into the season and have a streak of first-round wins like we had is something to be proud of for our organization. I’m really proud of our guys and Neal (Strausbaugh – crew chief) and Mike (Domagala – co-crew chief). It’s always tough when you’re the first pair of the day out on the racetrack. You don’t get a read off of cars in front of you. We just stubbed our toe in the first round. It’s a hiccup, but I feel like our team still had a lot of gains internally. We had a lot of attrition in parts the last two events and this weekend got us back on the right side of that. I feel like we’ve been trying to address issues and get ahead of it and I think we’re in a better spot. Even though the results didn’t show this weekend, there’s still a lot of confidence for the crew chiefs moving forward. I feel like we’ve addressed some big issues that have been plaguing us the last couple events. We’ll go to one of my favorite tracks in Brainerd and then head to the U.S. Nationals. I’m excited about the next couple races.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“We had a great weekend overall. We obviously would have liked to have been able to pull the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Funny Car in the winner’s circle. We were on another backside of a good drag race by a hundredth out there. Those races are tough, but they have to fall our way eventually. I don’t know what we have to do to win a round against those guys (Austin Prock), but it’ll come. We can’t race them every weekend, so it’ll fall in our favor one way or another. I’ll probably get to shave the mustache now, so I’m kind of excited about that. We’ll flip a coin and see whether I’ll keep it or not. 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. We’ll look ahead to Brainerd and plan on doing some testing there on Monday also. We’re getting closer to Indianapolis and the Countdown, so hopefully we can be chasing a championship.”

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals August 14-17 at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota.

-TSR-

Contact Ashley Wilson
Tony Stewart Racing
(303) 594-8147 or [email protected]