IHRA Spring Nationals a Bittersweet Weekend for Dale Creasy Jr.

Defending Nitro Funny Car World Champion falls to Matt Hagan in the first round at Rockingham Dragway

ROCKINGHAM, NC (April 22, 2008) - Dale Creasy Jr. is never happy about a first-round loss at any IHRA national event. But when you consider how the weekend unfolded, the fact that his Torco teammate Matt Hagan went on to win his first career Ironman, losing to him in the first round (of eliminations was a little easier to take for Creasy, the two-time defending Nitro Funny Car champion.

"I'm thrilled for Matt, thrilled for his father David, thrilled for (Hagan's Crew Chief) Jay Lewis and thrilled for that entire team," Creasy said. "You never can be happy or accept losing in the first round, but seeing that team in the Winner's Circle made this weekend a whole bunch easier to take. They've worked very hard to put themselves in this position and this weekend that hard work paid off."

Creasy qualified #4, leading to the first-round match-up with Hagan, who landed #8 on the qualifying sheet. Creasy clocked a 5.123 et at 265.53 mph, narrowly falling to Hagan's 5.023 at 285.29.

"He got me," Creasy explained. "There are no excuses, no complaints or anything like that. He drove past me. It happens in this sport."

Hagan credits Creasy for a slight correction that enabled him to win the event.

"In qualifying I kept going to the right, Dale told me I had to cock my hand a little bit to compensate for me taking my hand off the brake handle," Hagan explained. "I had no idea I had to do that but when he told me that it made sense to me. Just having a veteran driver like that watching your car go down the track, to see the problem and make comments on it helps. You can't replace the seat time that man has, especially being a two-time champion. He knows how to make a car go down the race track. I hate that we had to line up against him at the last two races."

Creasy defeated Hagan in the first round of eliminations at the season opener in San Antonio. Creasy and his team have a month to get ready for the next Nitro Jam event, the Motor City Nationals at Milan Dragway May 23-25.

"We're getting right back to work," he said. "We have to figure a few things out and make some corrections. We have some time to try a few things before heading to Milan."

To learn more about Dale Creasy, Jr. and the Torco Race Fuels Nitro Funny Car visit Dale Creasy Jr.

Photo used with permission (c) Roger Richards