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Hagar Heading to Knoxville to Run Double Duty in Preparation for Nationals

(Photo by Jones Sports Media)

Inside Line Promotions – ELDON, Mo. (July 28, 2021) – Derek Hagar is bound for Iowa this weekend to get some laps prior to the upcoming Knoxville Nationals.

Hagar will compete in both the 410ci and 360ci winged sprint car divisions this Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, where he will make his season debut and race for the first time since August 2019.

“We want to try to get as much seat time as possible,” he said. “We will try to make as many laps as we can. We haven’t been to Knoxville very much and really only for the Knoxville Nationals. You really don’t get enough seat time during Nationals. This weekend will be a weekend everybody will try to do the same thing so it will be a full field. We need to make the best of the opportunity and try to stay on track as much as we can.”

Hagar plans to tackle both the 360 Knoxville Nationals, which runs Aug. 5-7, as well as the 410 version the following weekend.

His family team is coming off a solid finish to a wild weekend with the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions at Lake Ozark Speedway. It began last Friday with a vicious crash in a heat race that ended the night early for Hagar.

“We got upside down,” he said. “It was my fault trying to stay in a transfer spot. I tried to plug a hole I should have waited on. I got above the cushion, got hit and started flipping. And then I got hit in the roll cage. J&J builds us a great, safe car. It’s not very often you can flip like that and run the same car the next night.”

Hagar and the team repaired the car before returning to the track on Saturday. He qualified 18th quickest overall and sixth in his group, which started him on the outside of the third row in a heat race.

“We started out struggling,” he said. “I think the second lap of hot laps the motor started running flat. We thought we had a fuel issue and tried to address that, but it was doing the same thing in qualifying. Come to find out a rock got a spark plug so it was running on seven cylinders.

“In the heat race we got up to third fairly quick and ended up falling to fifth. We were good early in the heat, but started getting more free as the race went on.”

Hagar lined up on the inside of the eighth row in the A Main.

“We fell back a couple of spots, but once our car came in we had a fast race car,” he said. “I was having an issue with the brakes locking up from Lap 8 until I spun. With about 10 or 11 laps to go I was trying to get underneath Paul McMahan. He went to the bottom so I had to get on the brakes hard and it locked them up and I spun around. We were in the top 10 and I believe we had a top five. We went to the work area and came back out. I didn’t use the brakes the rest of the race and we climbed back to 11th. I was really frustrated because we had such a great car. If the brakes had worked there’s no doubt we’d have been in the top five.”

QUICK RESULTS –

July 23 – Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo. – Qualifying: 17; Heat race: DNF (6); B Main: DNS (-).

July 24 – Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo. – Qualifying: 18; Heat race: 5 (6); Feature: 11 (15).

SEASON STATS –

25 races, 3 wins, 8 top fives, 16 top 10s, 18 top 15s, 20 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, with the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.DerekHagarRacing.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HagarDerek

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – FK Rod Ends

From the wilds of Baja, Mexico, to the “Good Ole Boys” of NASCAR, from mowers to fitness equipment, FK Rod Ends is there with an evolving program designed to supply rod end products to users everywhere. For more information, visit http://www.FKRodEnds.com.

"Maria and the crew at FK Rod Ends are awesome to work with,” Hagar said. “They take pride in their products and that's why we choose to run FK Rod Ends."

Hagar would like to thank B&D Towing and Recovery, J&J Auto Racing, Dynotech Performance, Fragola Performance Systems, Summit Truck Group, Administrative Consulting Services, Killer Coatings, Xtreme Race Graphics, Southern Collision Centre, Jeff’s Heating and Cooling, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Weld Wheels, DHR Suspension, Hinchman Racewear, Wix Filters, Valvoline and Ti64 for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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