By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Every drag racer wants to win the prestigious U.S. Nationals. Matt Hartford finally gets to check this event off of his bucket list.
The Total Seal driver went 6.624 at 206.57 mph to get the win. Corral Boots driver Fernando Cuadra Jr. went 7.099 at 178.87 mph in the losing effort.
“I let the clutch out, I pulled second gear and never saw him, put it in fifth gear and I’m still deaf from my crew chief screaming in my ear,” Hartford said. “When I got to the other end and realized I’d just won Indy, I just sat in the car for a few moments to take it all in. We came in here Friday night and our goal was to qualify No. 1 Friday night. If we could do that, we felt it could stick and we would have four really good test runs.
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“What we ran in the final was what we tested in one of the qualifying runs. The track conditions became basically what that was, so being able to be on the pole and have that test data played a huge role in the final.”
This was Cuadra Jr.’s first final-round appearance. Hartford picked up his seventh Wally in his career, including his second this year.
Prior to this event, Hartford held a 4-1 advantage over Cuadra Jr. However, this was the first time that these two drivers faced off in the final round.
Cuadra Jr. had the starting line advantage. Yet, shortly thereafter, he began to rattle the tires.
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Hartford made a perfect pass. He went down the groove for the win.
The Arizona native won by 0.4608 seconds, or approximately more than 100 feet.
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