Leah Pruett & Matt Hagan
Top Fuel | Funny Car
Texas NHRA FallNationals
Oct. 14-16 | Dallas
Event Recap
Leah Pruett, driver of the Rush Truck Centers Top Fuel Dragster:
● Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.906 ET at 290.06 mph).
● Earned No. 8 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.731 ET at 304.18 mph) when her car experienced a mechanical failure during the run.
● Maintained No. 8 provisional qualifying position based off Friday’s Q2 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 3.802 ET at 321.08 mph.
● Secured No. 8 qualifying position based off Friday’s Q2 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 3.776 ET at 325.71 mph.
● Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
● Round 1: 3.888 ET at 229.84 mph, defeated Josh Hart (red light – 3.707 ET at 330.03 mph).
● Round 2: 3.764 ET at 275.72 mph, lost to Austin Prock (3.737 ET at 324.18 mph).
● Currently 11th in the Top Fuel championship standings, 243 points behind leader Justin Ashley.
Matt Hagan, driver of the Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
● Earned No. 3 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.938 ET at 327.01 mph).
● Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session.
● Earned No. 1 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Friday (3.825 ET at 334.85 mph).
● Scored three bonus points for quickest run of the session.
● Maintained No. 1 qualifying position based off Friday’s Q2 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 3.900 ET at 335.87 mph.
● Scored three bonus points for quickest run of the session.
● Secured No. 1 qualifying position based off Friday’s Q2 run. In Q4 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 3.893 ET at 322.77 mph.
● Scored two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session.
● Advanced to Finals on Sunday:
● Round 1: 3.875 ET at 326.56 mph, defeated Terry Haddock (4.051 ET at 305.98 mph).
● Round 2: 3.883 ET at 335.12 mph, defeated Tim Wilkerson (3.938 ET at 329.26 mph). ● Semifinals: 3.891 ET at 338.02 mph, defeated Bob Tasca III (3.891 ET at 329.21 mph).
● Finals: 3.923 ET at 331.32 mph, lost to Ron Capps (3.911 ET at 327.18 mph).
● Currently third in the Funny Car championship standings, 78 points behind leader Robert Hight.
Notes of Interest
● Hagan has advanced to the final round each of the last four years at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas. He has appeared in more final rounds in the Texas NHRA FallNationals than in any other event in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series (seven times in 14 appearances).
● Hagan’s No. 1 qualifier marked his sixth this season and his second at Dallas. His previous No. 1 start in the event came in 2020.
● Hagan’s Q2 run set a new track record at the Texas Motorplex, breaking the previous track record of 3.828 seconds, set by Robert Hight in 2017. The run earned Hagan and Tony Stewart Racing a $15,000 bonus established by the track. The time marked the second-fastest Funny car run of the season, just behind Hagan’s Q3 run at Phoenix in February (3.823 ET at 333.41 mph).
Leah Pruett, Driver of the Rush Truck Centers Top Fuel Dragster
“It was great to debut our Rush Truck Centers scheme at Dallas. Their slogan is to expect more when you go to their service centers and we expected to have more this weekend. We’ve delivered to ourselves because we’ve been trying very hard to run 2.10 to the 1/8 mile and we were able to do it a couple times. We’ve been trying to improve our incremental times. The better incremental times you have, overall you’ll have a quicker ET. We had a setback Friday night when a valve train part malfunctioned and caused colossal damage. It was not an over-tuning situation or over-driving, so we had to be a bit more conservative on Saturday to make sure all our system checks were right. There’s nothing like being the first pair out on Sunday with the national anthem in the great state of Texas. You can feel all that goes into this race. You can either feel it and be afraid of it, or feel it and encompass that, which I feel I did and we all did. I’m very impressed with shallow staging and cutting one of my best lights in eliminations. I was so focused on going straight down the track because the left lane is tricky and it wants to pull you to the left toward the wall. I saw my blue win light and knew we were on a good run. Talk about processing a lot of information at a high rate of speed. All of a sudden, it was over. We had an electronic issue that made the burst panel electric communication deploy the chutes and shut off the car. We got lucky on Sunday and got to the second round. We tuned the car up a bit more and had a solid race. We went up against Austin Prock, who also did a great job on the tree. We blew a blower belt that broke and we’re still dissecting the cause of that. It aborted our run sooner and would’ve been an even closer race than it was. I definitely don’t feel defeated because we’ve made extreme improvements. We finally feel like we have a racecar and are racing and competing. We’re a force to be reckoned with. We’re focused on Vegas and testing after Vegas and keeping forward momentum.”
Matt Hagan, Driver of the Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
“It was a very strong weekend. We ran a .82 out there on Friday and were No. 1 qualifier. Dickie Venables, Mike Knudsen and Alex Conaway put a great Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car underneath me all weekend. We had everything it takes to win the race, we were just on the back side of it a little bit. It’s so competitive out there right now and it’s kind of like splitting frog hairs. It was a great job and my crew did a phenomenal job. They serviced the car in 30 minutes to get ready for the final, which was exceptional. We were pressed with rain all day and we knew the turnarounds would be quick. The guys didn’t let that phase them and we had a great car. We’re still in the hunt and I know we have the capability and means to do it, we just have to have a little luck fall our way.”
Next Up
The next event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Nevada Nationals Oct. 28-30 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the fifth event in the Countdown to the Championship and the penultimate race of the season.
