Leah Pruett & Matt Hagan
Mopar 85th Anniversary Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
NHRA Nationals
Aug. 19-21 | Brainerd, Minnesota
Event Recap
Leah Pruett, driver of the Mopar 85th Anniversary Top Fuel Dragster:
● Earned No. 10 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (4.907 ET at 146.10 mph).
● Earned No. 3 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.702 ET at 330.47 mph).
● Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session.
● Dropped to No. 5 provisional qualifying position after Q3 on Saturday (3.706 ET at 332.51 mph).
● Secured No. 6 qualifying position based off Friday’s Q2 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Pruett ran 4.439 ET at 178.28 mph.
● Ran a 3.822 ET at 279.85 mph in Round 1 of eliminations on Sunday, lost to Shawn Langdon (3.760 ET at 329.34 mph).
● Currently tied with Langdon for sixth in the Top Fuel championship standings, 445 points behind leader Brittany Force.
Matt Hagan, driver of the Mopar 85th Anniversary Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
● Earned No. 3 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.912 ET at 330.23 mph).
● Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session.
● Earned No. 4 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.893 ET at 327.74 mph).
● Maintained No. 4 provisional qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.893 ET at 332.26 mph).
● Secured No. 1 qualifying position in Q4 on Saturday (3.843 ET at 331.36 mph).
● Scored three bonus points for quickest run of the session.
● Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
● Round 1: 9.940 ET at 71.63 mph in a bye.
● Round 2: 6.187 ET at 259.81 mph, lost to Alexis DeJoria (5.712 ET at 229.31 mph).● Currently second in the Funny Car championship standings, 250 points behind leader Robert Hight.
Notes of Interest
● Hagan’s No. 1 qualifier in the NHRA Nationals marked his fifth of the season and the 48th of his career.
● Pruett’s track record time of 3.640 ET set in 2017, remains intact after the 40th annual NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.
Leah Pruett, Driver of the Mopar 85th Anniversary Top Fuel Dragster
“As we’ve gotten further into the season, we’ve gotten further into our pool of knowledge. First round, we joined the rest of the field of having traction problems. It seemed to be difficult for all the teams. Going into Q2, we had a nice and spicy 3.70, which was something we felt was right inside our target for getting down the track, especially during a night session. The next day, we felt like we could improve upon that and our avenue was new. We tried a new theory of accelerating the car. At the end of the day, it’s an acceleration game when we break it into multiple parts down the track. It was either going to throw down or throw up, and what did it do? We ran almost the exact same time with a 3.70. That opened up a Pandora’s Box with theories about how we can apply power. We went back to our raceday tune-up for the final session to get ready for Sunday. We didn’t quite make it down the track. Going into raceday, sometimes you’ve got mountains and sometimes you’ve got valleys. Raceday was not our most shining moment. We dropped a cylinder and I did not have my most impressive self against somebody we continue to race throughout this entire season, I think more than anyone else. We will peak again and there’s not going to be a better time to do it than at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals. We’re still in a healthy spot in the championship and now we’ve learned more and we’ll gain more.”
Matt Hagan, Driver of the Mopar 85th Anniversary Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
“What a tough weekend in Brainerd. We had canceled flights and we were down a couple crew guys that were sick. Our Mopar 85th Anniversary Funny Car ended up No. 1 qualifier, but blew up a lot of parts doing it. Things got hot and greasy in the second round and no one seemed to be going down the racetrack. We were one of the cars that couldn’t get down the track, so it ended up being a pedalfest. Alexis (DeJoria) smoked it a little further out there and got it to recover. It was just a tough round. As a veteran driver, you feel like you should win because of pedaling the car, letting it relax and getting it hooked back up. It’s tough when you smoke it at the hit like that and don’t get any momentum to move forward. We’ll pack everything up to head to Indy and get ready for the Countdown after that.”
Next Up
The next event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals Sept. 2-5 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. It is the regular-season finale before the Countdown to the Championship begins Sept. 15-18 with the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
The top-10 drivers in the standings in each of the four professional categories – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle – qualify for the Countdown to the Championship. With an insurmountable 641-point advantage over 11th-place Jim Campbell, Hagan has already clinched his spot in the six-race Countdown. Pruett, meanwhile, has a 122-point margin over 11th-place Clay Millican and will look to secure her place in the Countdown at Indianapolis.
