Matt Hagan rolls into Las Vegas this week sitting 98 points clear of Jordan Vandergriff in the Funny Car standings, one win away from what would be a fifth world title, at a track where he has already won six times. The penultimate race of the 2026 NHRA season does not get more consequential than this.
The Mopar NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge runs October 29 through November 1 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fifth of six Countdown to the Championship playoff rounds. Pro qualifying opens Friday at 2 p.m. PDT with a second session at 4:30 p.m., followed by two more rounds Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m. Final eliminations go Sunday at 11 a.m. PST, with Fox Sports 1 airing the broadcast at 5 p.m. EST.
Hagan’s path to that fifth crown has been methodical. He seized the Funny Car lead at Brainerd in August and won at Rockingham for the fourth time in 2026 to build an 84-point cushion, then stretched the lead to 98 with a runner-up at the Texas FallNationals two weeks ago. A seventh win at The Strip, where he is the defending champion, would make closing the gap in Pomona nearly impossible for Vandergriff.
Leah Pruett and Tony Stewart, the married TSR co-drivers, bring their own subplot. The two have not raced head-to-head this season and could meet in Top Fuel eliminations at Las Vegas. Both cars will carry Mopar’s 90th anniversary logo this weekend, a preview of what the brand is formally celebrating in 2027.
Off the track, Mopar is using the Las Vegas weekend as the public premiere for the Mopar ’27 Dodge Charger, a limited-edition package built around carbon-fiber details, unique styling, and performance enhancements for the all-wheel-drive Charger platform. The car moves to the 2026 SEMA Show the following week, November 3–6, also in Las Vegas, for its full industry reveal. Race fans get first look in the Nitro Alley Midway at The Strip alongside the Direct Connection display.
Also on display: the 2027 Dodge Charger Super Bee Launch Edition, which Dodge rates at 600 hp from the SIXPACK twin-turbo engine, making it the highest-output SIXPACK Charger in the lineup. The base Charger R/T makes 420 hp on the same basic architecture; the Scat Pack pushes that to 550 hp with the high-output version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo. The Super Bee Launch Edition sits above both. Dodge is also calling it the most powerful Super Bee ever, a claim that lands with some weight given what the nameplate has historically represented.
The weekend’s on-track sidebar is the Dodge Direct Connection Grudge Match finale. Four competitors, all driving race-modified SIXPACK Charger Scat Pack cars, will settle the bracket that started at Roadkill Nights in August. The Grudge Match runs between pro qualifying sessions on Saturday.
Former Funny Car champions Cruz and Tony Pedregon serve as NHRA Legends honorees for the event. TV host Chris Jacobs, long associated with Mopar and Dodge and currently hosting Mecum Collector Car Auctions on ESPN, will serve as Grand Marshal when pro qualifying opens Friday. Doug Habegger, a service technician at Tom Kelley Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Decatur, Indiana, earned the honorary starter role through Mopar’s Top Tech program metrics, which track certified training, repair performance, and volume.
The only race after this one is the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, November 12–15. Hagan has won four times in 2026 and has lost only ground at events where he didn’t take the trophy. With 98 points in hand and seven wins at The Strip already in his career, the math is working in his favor. Vegas rarely cooperates with the obvious outcome, but Hagan has given himself enough margin that even an early exit this weekend may not cost him the championship.
Source: Stellantis. Images courtesy of Stellantis.
