Leah Pruett drove her Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Top Fuel dragster to the final round Sunday at the NHRA New England Nationals before rain hit the track and postponed the race. Pruett will face current points leader Shawn Langdon on Friday at Bristol, Tennessee, with the New England final moved to the Thunder Valley Nationals weekend.
Pruett qualified second with a 3.712-second run, three-thousandths behind Langdon. In eliminations she posted runs of 3.776, 3.764, and 3.770 to eliminate Scott Farley, Maddie Gordon, and Billy Torrence. The Arizona driver ranks third in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel standings after nine events.
The consistency is the headline for a driver who sat out two seasons to start a family with husband Tony Stewart. Pruett nearly won the 2023 NHRA Top Fuel championship before stepping away, and her return has picked up where the 2023 season left off. She tuned and crew chief Neal Strausbaugh and Mike Domagala have posted runs within hundredths of each other all weekend, the kind of tight variance that keeps you in contention when the track conditions shift.
Pruett acknowledged the rhythm after the semifinal win over Torrence. “The motto of our team is ‘One Team, All Team,’ and consistency is key. That’s how we got to the final today. Watching the weather, tuning towards this final round, for the crew chiefs was a little bit exhausting. The weather front is coming in and out. So, we get to refresh our brains.”
Matt Hagan, Pruett’s TSR Dodge teammate, qualified seventh in Funny Car and advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Jack Beckman. Hagan beat Del Worsham in the opening round when Worsham left early and posted a red light. Against Beckman, Hagan had the starting line advantage but ran a 4.020 to Beckman’s 3.942 and was eliminated.
Hagan cited the pollen on the racing surface as a complicating factor. “I’ve never seen so much pollen in one place. It was unreal on the race track. You could see the layer of it. Kind of made you scratch your head a bit and think, is it going to be slick or sandy or something else. We went up there first round and just had a little bit more HEMI horsepower than we expected.”
Tony Stewart, driving the R+L Carriers/Elite Motorsports Top Fuel dragster, lost traction at mid-track in the opening round against Gordon and did not advance. Stewart remains in the top five in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel standings heading into Bristol.
The postponed final creates an unusual weekend at Bristol. Pruett and Langdon will run the New England Nationals final on Friday at 6 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. during the Thunder Valley Nationals qualifying sessions, then return Saturday and Sunday for Bristol eliminations. Pruett is chasing two wins in three days if she takes the New England final and advances deep into the Bristol bracket.
Source: Dodge. Images courtesy of Dodge.
