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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPruett drove her TSR Direct Connection dragster\npast current NHRA Top Fuel point leader Justin Ashley in the final round with a\n3.761-second pass at 326.79 miles per hour to score her first 2023 NHRA win and\njump into the top-three in the Top Fuel current standings entering the next\nevent on July 14-16 at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals in\nMorrison, Colorado. Pruett is the defending champion at her primary sponsor\u2019s\nupcoming event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Arizona driver opened the Ohio racing\nweekend by qualifying her Top Fueler in the No. 1 position for the second\nstraight event and advanced past Kyle Wurtzel in the first round. She then\ndefeated Mike Salinas in round two and young Austin Prock in the semifinals.\nAshley had lane choice in the final against Pruett, but he smoked the tires at\nhalf-track as Pruett drove to the win light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The win for Pruett is her second with TSR\n(Denver in 2022) and 11th<\/sup> career victory in Top Fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pruett\u2019s TSR teammate, Matt Hagan, winner of\nthree 2023 NHRA national events in Funny Car, advanced to the final Sunday in\nhis TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat after defeating Dale Creasy Jr.,\nRobert Hight and J.R. Todd in the opening three rounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, Hagan couldn\u2019t complete the TSR\ndouble-win weekend when he was beaten by Blake Alexander with a 3.935 run to\nHagan\u2019s 3.991. Despite the loss in the final round, the Virginia racer regained\nthe NHRA Camping World Funny Car point lead, 679 to Ron Capps\u2019 675. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou always love coming into race day from the\nNo. 1 qualifying position,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cGoing into the final round we thought\nwe had all of the systems going well. However, we had new issues that we hadn\u2019t\nseen before. And we had 30 minutes to address the problem. Neal (Strausbaugh,\ncrew chief) and the guys kinda rolled the dice and it worked great. It was a\nfull team effort going against Justin Ashley. My favorite thing about racing is\ncelebrating with the crew after a win. They worked so hard to give us a great\nrace car. I had a good feeling about today\u2019s race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s great to have Matt (Hagan) get to the\nfinal today too. As a team, we work together, and we actually get emotional as\nwe win rounds. You get emotional because there are so many ups and downs in\nthis sport. It\u2019s a great camaraderie with both teams (TSR top Fuel and Funny\nCar) and Tony (Stewart, team owner) has been a very consistent leader. He\ndoesn\u2019t play favorites. There is no A team or B team. We have the same mindset\nwith the team and that is what we enjoy. It\u2019s so great to win here and then we\nmove to the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals where I\u2019m the defending\nchampion. Bandimere Speedway is my favorite track dating back to my start in\nJunior Dragsters at age eight. We are anxious to go to Denver for Dodge, Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>,\nBandimere Speedway and the Bandimere family. That place means so much to me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stewart was very\nemotional after Sunday\u2019s win for Pruett and Hagan\u2019s final round appearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m excited about the whole\nweekend,\u201d said Stewart, whose TSR team recorded its TBD 2023 NHRA win on\nSunday. \u201cBoth teams performed really well. For Leah to be low ET in qualifying\nand finish it off with the win today is spectacular. I\u2019m super proud of the\nfact that both of our teams made the final. It shows the depth of our program\nand how hard everyone works. We were really close to a double-up and something\nhistoric for our organization, but for Matt (Hagan) to make the final, you\ncan\u2019t ask for much more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strausbaugh explained how the hot\nand humid conditions were difficult for his TSR Top Fuel squad and the work\nthat was involved for Sunday\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the outside going into the final, it\nlooked like we were taking a knife to a gun fight with (Justin) Ashley,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cWe have had a good race car all weekend and it hasn\u2019t been the quickest\ncar. We fought a few things on Saturday in qualifying. We knew we could step up\nour setup if we needed to. But the track temperature jumped up to 122 (degrees)\nfor the final. It was 111 to 113 in the semi-finals, so we felt pretty\nconfident about the changes we made going to the final round. We ran the same\nengine all day. It is just a tune-up each round. So, overall, it\u2019s just\nextremely hard to win one of these NHRA national events, especially in Top Fuel\nright now. It\u2019s very difficult to put four runs together on a weekend. I\u2019m very\nhappy for our TSR team and Matt to the final as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hagan was pleased\nwith his TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car\u2019s performance\nthroughout the weekend and excited to retain the NHRA Funny Car point lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was good day for us in the points,\u201d Hagan\nsaid. \u201cWe made seven solid runs here in hot and humid conditions. Overall, we\nare moving in the right direction in the Direct Connection Dodge Hellcat. Wow,\nBlake (Alexander) cut .028 light and we would have had to run a 3.88 there.\nIt\u2019s one of those days and you can\u2019t win them all. I\u2019m happy for Blake. He has\nbeen a friend for a long time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe car and crew did a great job this weekend with Dickie and guys. I\u2019m super excited for Leah to win today in Top Fuel. It\u2019s a great feeling here with TSR with what Tony, Leah, Dodge and both teams have put together. She is doing a great job behind the wheel. TSR walks away with a huge win in Top Fuel and the points lead in Funny Car. We will keep digging and we go to Denver for the last race of the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals. It\u2019s emotion because Dodge has been there for over 30 years and now it\u2019s the last one. I think this is our first time with both cars to the final with TSR. We hoping to do a double win event for TSR very soon.\u201d The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing series heads to the Western tour with the upcoming Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals on July 14-16 followed by the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals on July 21-23 and the DENSO Sonoma Nationals on July 28-30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/LeahPruettNorwalkWin_IMG002.jpg\")
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