Matt Hagan claims third seed in today’s Virginia Nationals

DINWIDDIE -- After checking on the cows, Matt Hagan sometimes putters around his 500-acre farm in Christiansburg on a 130-horsepower tractor.

Top speed through the rolling hills: 6 to 10 mph.

On the weekend, the 26-year-old Hagan does the extreme opposite. He pilots the 7,000-horsepower Shelor.com Motor Mile Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing.

"My wife says, 'Can you pick anything more dangerous between farming and drag racing?'" Hagan said.

"There are so many people who get hurt on the farm. And drag racing's not exactly what you'd call safe. They're making it safer every day. But anything that runs over 300 mph, you're asking for stuff to happen eventually."

What happened to Hagan yesterday was a career run in front of family and friends at his home-state track. He improved his credentials for the NHRA's rookie of the year with career-best passes of 4.051 seconds and 309.49 miles per hour on another day of fast times at Virginia Motorsports Park.

That was good enough to claim the third seed in today's Virginia Nationals. Hagan, who had the pole after the third qualifying session before being knocked out by Jack Beckman, will face 14th-seeded Del Worsham.

While he is not in the NHRA playoffs -- the Countdown to 1 -- and sits 12th in the standings, Hagan will be shooting for his first victory after twice being a runner-up.

When he's finished today, he will return to the Angus cattle farm he manages by himself to work and reflect.

"This is so adrenalin-driven, very focused, very fast-paced on the dragstrip," Hagan said. "I get home, and it's kind of at my pace. I'll pick a task I want to do that day. It's such a polar opposite.

"Don't get me wrong. You're on the tractor all day long planting crop, and you have time to reflect on that race or what I could have done differently to be a better driver to help our team win more races."

Hagan got into drag racing as a teenager by running four-wheelers. He owned a team in lower classes and had a shop conveniently across the street from the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford. The speedway, which has a dragstrip, is co-owned by his father, David, and Larry Shelor.

Hagan hooked up with Schumacher this year. His duties are limited to driving the car, which allows him to concentrate on the farm Monday through Wednesday. Friends look after his 200 cattle while he's gone.

As in racing, Hagan has learned quickly in farming. There was no family background when he got into the business. He works pretty much from dawn to dusk, tending to cows, repairing fences, planting crops and baling hay, among many things.

His wife, who just had their second child less than two weeks ago, has some horses. But Hagan doesn't ride them.

"I don't cowboy-up on a horse," he said. "I get the four-wheeler out to check on the cattle. . . . I'm not much on anything I can't turn off with an on-off switch. Anything that's got a mind of its own, I'm out when it comes to riding."