Cool Heartland Park produces hot day for Hagan, Mopar/Rocky Dodge with national record time, fastest speed ever recorded by a Funny Car
TOPEKA, KS – Every NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series crew chief and driver acknowledges that Heartland Park 
Topeka has one of the best – if not THE best – racing surface on the circuit.
When that was coupled Friday with unseasonably cool weather at 68 degrees with a record-inducing track temperature of 91 degrees for the first qualifying session at around 5 p.m. (CT), it created a day of drag racing to remember in the Kansas Nationals.
Almost two hours later, the temperature dropped to 66 and the track was an even cooler 78 for the last session and Don Schumacher Racing’s Matt Hagan with the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen clocked a time of 3.862 seconds that set a national record with a speed of 335.57 mph, which is the fastest any Funny Car or Top Fuel dragster has gone on the current 1,000-foot track or and the fastest a Funny Car has ever gone at the end of a quarter-mile.
It almost made Kansas fans forget about the earlier session in which Jack Beckman topped the track record and national speed mark with a run of 3.891 at 332.59.
“The conditions here at Topeka are tremendous, and it’s one of those deals you just give it everything you think it will take safely,” Venables said. “Sometime it runs a little better than you expect.”
Hagan was paired with Alexis DeJoria of Kalitta Motorsports and her time of 3.875 (332.18) combined with the Mopar/Rocky performance to produce the quickest pair ever by Funny Cars.
“That was diggin’. We’ve got us a hot rod,” said Hagan, the 2011 and 2014 Funny Car world champion who won the title a week ago at Atlanta Dragway when he qualified second behind pole-winning Beckman and the duo met in the final round.
“This Mopar/Rocky Dodge is running strong, and Dickie Venables is doing a great job. I’m just trying to hang on to it, man. These cars are so fast, and you’re trying to make decisions by the seat of your pants. It was just digging. I just had to keep it in groove.
“Anytime you have weather like this and a track out there like that, you pull your seatbelts down tight, put in your mouth piece and hope for the best.”
The other two DSR Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars were among 10 that eclipsed what had been the track E.T. record (3.967) at the start of the day. Ron Capps (NAPA AUTO PARTS) was 3.908 and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Make-A-Wish sponsored by Chandler) was 3.889.
In all, 10 Funny Cars were quicker than the previous track record and six reached 330 mph.
“This is a great facility,” Prock said after the first run. “The racetrack is awesome and always has been since I started coming here almost 30 years ago. You always see great performances.”
Beckman, who won at Topeka a year ago for DSR’s 250th title, is seeking his first event title of the year in the eighth Mello Yello event of the 24-race season. He came back for the night session with a 3.866 at 332.10.
“It’s pretty jaw-breaking to think what these cars are capable of doing,” said Beckman, who won a series-best seven titles and seven poles last year.
“That’s why (fans) should come out on Friday. We’ve all been talking about getting our hot-weather tune-ups because we’re coming into the summertime. But at Houston and Atlanta we had unseasonably cool racetracks, and here it’s just circus atmosphere conditions for these nitro cars. It’s candy land out there.”
The unprecedented Funny Car performances were not matched by Top Fuel dragsters in the first session. But in the second session, Brittany Force took the national E.T. record from DSR’s Antron Brown and Matco Tools/U.S. Army team when she complete her run in 3.676.
Tony Schumacher’s U.S. Army team leads DSR three dragsters with a best run of 3.724 (324.05) and holds the provisional No. 5 seed for Sunday eliminations. Shawn Langdon (Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant is sixth at 3.726 (330.15) and Brown is eighth at 3.743.
