Results From The NHRA 4-Wide Nationals At zMax Dragway

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway was a monstrous event. From Bob Tasca III overcoming the intake manifold controversy to win the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, to Matt Hagan picking up his 50th NHRA victory, this race had it all.

Hagan went 3.946-seconds at 332.34 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Tony Stewart Racing Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat in the final quad to power to his first win this season, defeating Wilkerson on a holeshot to pick up his milestone victory. Hagan was .029 on the starting line, holding off Wilkerson’s 3.923 at 327.50 at the finish line for the win.

Hagan won his opening-round quad with a 3.918 at 331.61 and then made the second-quickest run of eliminations with a 3.879 at 334.24 to advance to the final round. That led to his fourth victory at zMAX Dragway, which is less than two hours from home for Hagan.

“This is obviously a massive achievement to win 50 races and to have Dodge sponsoring us for so many years,” Hagan said. “To see so many people come and go out here, you just don’t realize that it’s you, you know, you’re like ‘Wow, I’ve been out here little bit over 15 years now and it’s just a huge accomplishment in my book to be able to be around a group of guys that have been nothing but the best out here, and I think that’s why we won four championships.

“To put us in a elite group of drivers with John Force and [Don] Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein is pretty crazy. I’m very blessed to still be out here, surrounded by a great group of guys. They gave me a great race car and now we’re going to celebrate.”

It was the first career runner-up for Wilkerson, while Todd took third, going 3.978 at 320.36. Austin Prock retained the points lead in the category.

Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley capped off his stellar weekend with his first career four-wide win, holding off Clay Millican, Doug Kalitta and Antron Brown with a run of 3.710 at 328.06 in his 11,000-horsepower Scag Power Equipment/Toyota dragster. It’s the second victory this season for Ashley, who swept the weekend by also winning the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Saturday. He’s been dynamic with double-up wins – Sunday marked his third in the last two seasons – and Ashley did it again on Sunday, winning the first two quads to get to the final round, going 3.711 at…