Gainesville Event Recap for the 56th NHRA Gatornationals

Tony Stewart & Matt Hagan

Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
56th NHRA Gatornationals
March 7-9 | Gainesville, Florida

Event Recap

Tony Stewart, driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster:
• Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.760 ET at 326.79 mph)
• Fell to No. 11 provisional qualifying position based off of Q1 run. In Q2 on Friday, Stewart ran a 3.872 ET at 313.88 mph.
• Saturday’s Q3 and Q4 runs were canceled due to rain
• Secured No. 11 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run
• Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.722 ET at 329.91 mph, defeated Brittany Force (8.643 ET at 74.73 mph)
• Round 2: 3.742 ET at 331.53 mph, lost to Shawn Langdon (3.739 ET at 333.82 mph)
• Currently seventh in the Top Fuel championship standings, 69 points behind leader Antron Brown

Matt Hagan, driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
• Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.953 ET at 328.06 mph)
• Fell to No. 9 provisional qualifying position based off of Q1 run. In Q2 on Friday, Hagan ran a 4.290 ET at 207.75 mph.
• Saturday’s Q3 and Q4 runs were canceled due to rain
• Secured No. 9 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run
• Advanced to Semifinal on Sunday:
• Round 1: 4.275 ET at 221.20 mph, defeated Cruz Pedregon (10.461 ET at 77.23 mph)
• Round 2: 3.987 ET at 327.74 mph, defeated Jack Beckman (4.678 ET at 214.48 mph)
• Semifinal: 3.988 ET at 324.20 mph, lost to Chad Green (3.922 ET at 330.88 mph)
• Currently fourth in the Funny Car championship standings, 39 points behind leader Chad Green

Notes of Interest

• By advancing to the Semifinals, Hagan has secured his position in the NHRA’s #2Fast2Tasty Mission NHRA Challenge, where he will face off against Chad Green at Phoenix. The semifinalists from Gainesville will rematch during qualifying on Saturday, with bonus money and points on the line.
• Tony Stewart Racing and Dodge announced a multi-year partnership extension on Friday at the Gatornationals. Dodge and TSR’s partnership began in 2022 and together, they have recorded 16 NHRA national event victories. Stewart’s ties to Mopar date back 25 years to his sprint car program, so the extension comes full-circle. 2025 marks Hagan’s 18th season driving for Dodge.
• Dodge launched the Dodge Livery Shootout, where fans get the chance to vote between three schemes that TSR will run at the U.S. Nationals. Fans can visit DodgeGarage.com to vote for their favorite.
• Due to weather, the All-Star Top Fuel Callout has been moved to the NHRA Winternationals March 27-30 at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Stewart was called-out by Steve Torrence, so they are two of eight drivers that will participate in the specialty event with bonus money, bragging rights and a special Callout trophy on the line.
• The Gatornationals marked the first event that Converge Technology Solutions activated with TSR. Converge is a services-led, software-enabled, IT & Cloud Solutions provider focused on delivering industry-leading solutions.

Tony Stewart, Driver of the TSR Dodge//SRT Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster

“We were all thrown a curveball today with an early start time, weather and tough track conditions. I was super, super proud of Neal (Strausbaugh – crew chief), Mike (Domagala – co-crew chief), Ryan (McGilvry – car chief) and the team. We were the only car to make it down the race track in Round 1 this morning. After the rain, the track was in better shape and we were still low (ET) of the round. I’m really proud of that. We lost in a good drag race to (Shawn) Langdon. My reaction times have been consistent, I just need to work on improving from being the fifth-best guy on the tree to beating these top-three guys. I have some work to do, but at least they are consistent and that is the first step on making them better. We made six runs in testing and the car made it down four of those. It made it down the track all four runs of the event. I’m very encouraged after Bradenton. The team went back and yard-sale’d our entire program and came here with a new approach. It’s showing a lot of promise. We have room for improvement performance wise, but we have a car that is consistent. The car is a lot happier, so we can take what we learned this week and go to Phoenix to keep building the program. Last year was bad and Bradenton was even worse, but I truly believe we are in a way better spot going into Phoenix. I’m proud of the team. They had tough turnaround times with the weather and they’re doing flawless work. My crew chiefs are gaining confidence, so we’re all in a lot better spot. We’re finally in a position where we can start racing, rather than just hoping the car makes it down the racetrack.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“All in all, we had a pretty good weekend. We have new crew chiefs with Mike Knudsen and Phil Shuler and some guys in new positions. We were able to go rounds, which was nice. The weather was tough, which made qualifying tricky. We had some heavy hitters, but Jack (Beckman) was a big one to get around. We’ll move onto Phoenix, where hopefully it’ll be dry with no humidity. I’m really happy with my guys making the calls and doing what they need to do. We had a crew member get hurt at the start of the weekend, but everyone adapted. It speaks volumes to having a group of guys that are trained in different positions. Alex (Conaway – car chief) really stepped up and was doing two jobs this week. Mike has been great all week and in Bradenton. It seems like the blower we put on the car was down on power and never recovered in the Semifinal, but we’ll put a new one on and look forward to the next race.”

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Arizona Nationals March 21-23 at Firebird Motorsports Park.

-TSR-

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