Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett recorded her strongest performance of the season to date aboard her Dodge Power Brokers dragster with a semifinal appearance at the 15th annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Summit Racing Equipment Nationals near Norwalk, Ohio, the tenth of 22 Camping World Drag Racing Series events this season.

After four qualifying runs put her 15th on the ladder, Pruett kicked off eliminations by upsetting No. 2 qualifier Justin Ashley with her quickest pass of the weekend. She lined up her Dodge Power Brokers dragster against Steve Torrence in the quarterfinals, was quicker on the launch, and put in another solid run to stay ahead of her competitor at the finish line with a 0.0172-second margin of victory to advance.

Pruett’s opponent for her first semifinal appearance of the season was No. 3 qualifier Mike Salinas who had the slight advantage off the start as she lost traction right at the hit of the throttle. While disappointed by the loss, her performance this weekend put her back into the top-ten in the Top Fuel standings and has her looking forward to getting her 11,000 horsepower Dodge//SRT^® HEMI^®-powered machine back on track in July for the first of three western swing events that begin with the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

In Funny Car action, the category points leader heading into the weekend, TSR driver Matt Hagan, qualified his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat among the top-five positions on the eliminations ladder for a ninth time this season. His lap of 3.917 seconds at 329.91 mph put him fifth on the qualifying timesheet and set up a first round match-up with No. 12 seed Tim Wilkerson.

Looking to repeat his 2018 winning performance at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, Hagan staged his HEMI-powered Funny Car next to No. 12 seed Tim Wilkerson for the opening round and made a solid pass to advance while his opponent lost traction at the start.

The Dodge Power Broker Funny Car moved on to the quarterfinals where Hagan faced off against No. 4 qualifier Bob Tasca III, but saw his ride lose traction early in the run which brought the day to an earlier end than has been the case after advancing to the final round six times in ten events this season to date. The quarterfinal result, combined with Hagan’s closest championship rival Robert Hight’s eventual event win at Norwalk, meant a drop to second place in the standings but just 21 points behind the new points leader.

Winner of last year’s Funny Car Wally trophy at Norwalk, Cruz Pedregon was looking to defend that performance as he qualified in the top-half of the Funny Car eliminations ladder for a tenth consecutive event this season by taking his Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for a 3.960 seconds lap to put him in the eighth spot. Pedregon also earned an extra bonus point in qualifying for recording the third quickest elapsed time lap in the first session of the weekend.

In his opening elimination round pairing with No. 9 seed Chad Green, Pedregon hit the throttle first and never looked back with a 3.972-second lap that wasn’t far off his qualifying time. That set up a quarterfinal battle against No. 1 qualifier Ron Capps in which Pedregon’s 3.982 sec./323.50 mph run wasn’t quite enough to beat his opponents 3.974/327.59 winning effort. The team’s eighth quarterfinal performance of the season keeps Pedregon fifth in the Funny Car standings. The NHRA returns to action July 15-18 near Denver, Colorado, where Dodge//SRT and Mopar_® will mark their 33rd season as title sponsors of the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, the longest continuous event sponsorship in motorsports history.

Tag: NHRA Tony Stewart Racing

Top Fuel Semifinal Appearance for Leah Pruett and Dodge Power Brokers Dragster at NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals

Tag:
NHRA Tony Stewart Racing