Left to right: Matt Hagan, Erica Enders and Mike Salinas celebrate their wins in New England. (NHRA photo)
EPPING, NH — For the first time this year, Funny Car championship leader Matt Hagan beat Robert Hight in the final round to earn an impressive third win of the season in a sold-out New England trek on Sunday at the NHRA New England Nationals.
Mike Salinas (Top Fuel) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) also claimed wins in the eighth of 22 races during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. For the second straight day, NHRA and New England Dragway officials announced a sell-out crowd at the facility.
Hagan, in his 11,000hp Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing, put in a run of 3.922 seconds at 327.98mph on the championship round against Hight as the two standouts met in the 2022 final for a third time . Hight won the first two, also in the final race, but Hagan earned his 42nd career win on Sunday. It is also his fourth New England Dragway win in the last five events as Hagan defeated Dale Creasy Jr. and JR Todd to reach the final round. It was his sixth championship round in eight races, followed by an impressive win over Hight.
“It was just a great weekend and I can’t praise Dickie Venables (Crew Chief) enough,” said Hagan. “Nothing needs to be said about that, because the racing car speaks for itself. All the guys working on the car are doing a great job and when I crawl into the car all I have to think about is leaving the starting line. I’m nothing without these guys and I’m so proud of them. They really deserve all the credit and I should give all my trophies to these guys.
“We’re in a great rhythm and Dickie is in great mental shape. I think we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. There will be some low points, but that’s drag racing. You just try to ride that wave for as long as you can. I have a lot of respect for Robert Hight and Jimmy Prock for showing up and showing up and I love that. It creates a great rivalry for the fans.”
Hight stayed second in points, advanced to the finals for the fifth time this year and finished 89th overall with wins over Cory Lee, Alexis DeJoria and defending champion Ron Capps.
In Top Fuel, Salinas rode to his third win of a stellar 2022 season, passing Justin Ashley on the final lap with a 3.729 at 330.80 in his 11,000hp Valley Services/Scrappers Racing dragster. A year after his fall in the finals at New England Dragway, Salinas made amends on Sunday to climb to second in points with his sixth career win. He made it to the last round thanks to wins over Joe Morrison, Leah Pruett and Austin Prock before passing Ashley and claiming his first win at the historic facility.
“I was happy to come back and redeem myself,” Salinas said. “I’ll honestly say I was lucky. This was a free week for me. I was everywhere and a mess. I would call this a lucky week for me. I did some stupid things in the car but we know we have a good car and we still managed to win. I love the people here and everyone here is so great. The fans and the people are incredible. They are good people and 90 percent of them have thanked us for coming. It’s a timeless place.”
Ashley reached the finals for the third time this year after round wins over Dan Mercier and Shawn Langdon. Brittany Force, who set the course speed record on Sunday with a run of 334.90, maintained the points lead, now 50 points ahead of Salinas.
With more than a month between Pro Stock races, Enders didn’t slow down one bit as the leader stayed red-hot at Epping, capping her weekend with a 6.547 win run at 211:00 in the finale in her Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. Enders beat the event’s defending champion Aaron Stanfield in the final round to claim her third straight win and fourth in a dominant 2022 season.
Enders made it to the final round with wins over Kenny Delco, defending champion Greg Anderson and Mason McGaha, then ran wire to wire against Stanfield to walk away with her 37th career win. It’s only the second time in the four-time world champion’s career that she has had a three-race winning streak, showing just how motivated she is to claim a fifth world title.
“We’ve gotten off to a great start and we’re going to enjoy the ride while it lasts and try to capitalize on it,” Enders said. “But this is a dream come true. Any weekend that we can get two Elite Motorsports cars through to the finals is great and to win here in 2017 turned the tide for us. This is a unique place to run and the cars usually do really well here. I love racing in this part of the country. It’s exciting to see the fans take on our class when somehow Nitro takes the lead because they explode and crash and run into things. But Pro Stock is so intricate and precise, and the fans here love it. This is Pro Stock country.
“This is our effort for our fifth title and losing fashion last year was pretty heartbreaking. But that gave us the motivation to get to work. We started the season well and I am blessed to be the girl to drive this race car.”
Stanfield reached the finals for the third time this year, beating Troy Coughlin Jr., Deric Kramer and Fernando Cuadra Jr. He also remained second in the points standings, although Ender’s lead grew to 92 points with the win.
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