{"id":71677,"date":"2023-07-24T08:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=71677"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:46","slug":"short-day-for-hagan-pruett-sunday-at-nhra-northwest-nationals-hagan-keeps-funny-car-points-lead-pruett-stays-3rd-in-top-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/07\/short-day-for-hagan-pruett-sunday-at-nhra-northwest-nationals-hagan-keeps-funny-car-points-lead-pruett-stays-3rd-in-top-fuel.html","title":{"rendered":"Short Day for Hagan, Pruett Sunday at NHRA Northwest Nationals; Hagan Keeps Funny Car Points Lead, Pruett Stays 3rd in Top Fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coming off the excitement of\nwinning last week\u2019s Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals, Matt Hagan\nwas on an \u201cemotional high\u201d entering this weekend\u2019s Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest\nNationals with his Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup>\nHellcat Funny Car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unfortunately, Hagan\u2019s\nwinning streak the previous week at Denver ended quickly Sunday when the\nthree-time NHRA World Funny Car champion smoked the tires in the first round of\neliminations at Pacific Raceways. Hagan, a four-time 2023 NHRA national event\nwinner, lost to eventual race winner Tim Wilkerson, 3.928 to 5.068. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the early round\ndefeat, Hagan remains the Funny Car points leader with a 17-point advantage as\nthe NHRA Camping World drag racing series travels to Sonoma Raceway in Northern\nCalifornia next weekend,July 28-30, for the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are some weekends\nwhere things are just off, and this was one of them,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cIt makes you\nappreciate when things go well. I hate that we didn\u2019t have a great weekend for\nDodge between Leah and myself. It was a tricky race track out there. One thing\nI do know is that I have one of the smartest crew chiefs out there in Dickie\nVenables. He\u2019ll figure out whatever is wrong, and it won\u2019t be long before we\u2019re\nback on top having a good run at it. We usually do pretty well in Seattle, so\nit was surprising a little bit. I\u2019m excited about going to Sonoma now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hagan\u2019s TSR teammate, Leah\nPruett, the recent Summit Nationals Top Fuel champion in the TSR Dodge\/\/SRT\nDirect Connection dragster, also lost in the first round in a very close race\nwith Mile-High National winner Clay Millican, 3.763 to 3.765.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pruett, an 11-time NHRA\nnational event winner in Top Fuel, held her third position in the NHRA Camping\nWorld Top Fuel points with one race remaining in the three-event \u201cWestern\nSwing.\u201d . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cComing up on the short side\nof another extremely close race first round is where our patience and work\nethic get tested,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cThe sting is sharp and the frustration of how\nto get better as a driver is thick, but the perseverance of this team to keep\ndigging together out of this hole is the prevailing attitude and direction we\nhave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualifying at Sonoma Raceway\nwill be Friday, July 28, at 8 p.m. and 11:10 p.m. EDT and Saturday, July 29, at\n4 p.m. and 7 p.m. EDT. Sunday\u2019s eliminations will begin at 1:30 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coverage of next week\u2019s action at Sonoma Raceway is set for Friday, July 28, with qualifying at 4:30 p.m. EDT on FS2 and Saturday, July 29, at 2:30 p.m. EDT on FS1. Final eliminations are scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT Sunday on the FOX Network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n