Matt Hagan clinched the 2026 Funny Car regular-season championship at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on September 8, driving Tony Stewart Racing’s Direct Connection Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat funny car, according to NHRA’s own recap of the event. The title, worth a $150,000 bonus and the No. 1 seed heading into the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs, came down to a semifinal matchup against points leader Ron Capps, whom Hagan beat when Capps smoked the tires off the line.

How the Title Came Down to Indy

Hagan and Capps entered the 72nd running of the U.S. Nationals as two of four drivers, all past world champions, still mathematically alive for the regular-season crown, per Drag Illustrated’s race coverage. Capps had led the points standings for most of the season. Hagan’s semifinal pass of 4.04 seconds was enough to advance and lock up the title once Capps’ Toyota Supra lost traction. “This was a tough championship battle,” Hagan said in comments included in NHRA’s official recap. “Capps and those guys killed it. They led the points all year long, and you know we kind of came in here at the end. They made a few mistakes, and we scooped up some points and made it happen.”

The championship clinch gave Hagan lane choice for the final round against Jack Beckman, which he lost, finishing runner-up at 4.030 seconds to Beckman’s 3.965, according to Drag Illustrated. Hagan had already made history at the season-opening Winternationals, winning the 1,000th Funny Car race in NHRA history in a Tony Stewart Racing double-up with team owner Stewart’s Top Fuel win the same day, a result NHRA also documented directly.

Key Points

• Hagan clinched the regular-season Funny Car title at the 2026 U.S. Nationals by beating Ron Capps in the semifinals.
• The win is worth a $150,000 bonus and the No. 1 playoff seed, per NHRA’s own reporting.
• Hagan drives the Tony Stewart Racing Direct Connection Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat funny car.
• He finished runner-up in the U.S. Nationals final to Jack Beckman.

What’s Affected

The regular-season title reshuffles the field heading into the Countdown to the Championship, NHRA’s six-race playoff format that resets points among the top ten drivers. As the No. 1 seed, Hagan enters the playoffs with the largest points cushion of any Funny Car driver, giving Tony Stewart Racing a structural advantage over Capps, Beckman, and the rest of the playoff field as the series heads to Martin, Michigan for the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals on September 25-27.

What Fans Should Watch For

With the regular season now decided, the storyline shifts entirely to the Countdown. Hagan has already shown in Indianapolis that a strong holeshot or a mistake from a rival, like the tire smoke that ended Capps’ bid, can swing a title fight in a single run. Funny cars covering a quarter-mile in under four seconds leave essentially no room for a driver to recover from a mistake, which is part of why NHRA resets the points gap for the playoffs rather than letting a regular-season lead simply carry through to November.