{"id":72453,"date":"2023-08-21T08:18:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T12:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=72453"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:27","slug":"leah-pruett-takes-tsr-dodge-srt-direct-connection-top-fueler-to-final-round-at-brainerd-hagans-funny-car-out-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2023\/08\/leah-pruett-takes-tsr-dodge-srt-direct-connection-top-fueler-to-final-round-at-brainerd-hagans-funny-car-out-in-first-round.html","title":{"rendered":"Leah Pruett Takes TSR Dodge\/\/SRT®<\/sup> Direct Connection Top Fueler To Final Round at Brainerd; Hagan\u2019s Funny Car Out in First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leah\nPruett, driving the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Direct Connection\ndragster in her 200th<\/sup> NHRA Top Fuel start, fought her way through a\ntough Top Fuel field to take the runner-up finish in Sunday\u2019s Lucas Oil NHRA\nNationals at Brainerd International Raceway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruett,\nwinner of this year\u2019s Summit Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, was seeking her 12th<\/sup>\ncareer Top Fuel national victory as she defeated former NHRA World Champions\nTony Schumacher, Brittany Force and current Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley\nin reaching the coveted final round against Antron Brown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nqualifying fifth with a 3.777, Pruett clocked consistent runs Sunday with a\n3.820 against Schumacher, 3.750 against Force and 3.733 opposite Ashley. In the\nfinal round, it was a close race with Brown\u2019s 3.715 to Leah\u2019s 3.757. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pruett\u2019s\nthird final round appearance of the year moved her closer to clinching a\nposition in the \u201cCountdown to the Championship\u201d which features the top-ten Top\nFuel drivers in points battling for the NHRA title in the final six events of\nthe 2023 campaign. Leah currently holds the fifth spot in Top Fuel points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a\nrace day for this Dodge\/\/SRT Direct Connection team starting from the fifth\nspot,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cWe competed against three world champions and the current\npoints leader, so we had our work cut out for us today. We were able to execute\nand turn on three \u2018win\u2019 lights, but unfortunately just didn’t have enough from\nthe starting line to the finish line to beat Antron (Brown). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m stoked\nthat we get to be in the final Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season in Indy,\nwhich allows us to capitalize on race mode while qualifying. We definitely do\nnot have our heads down, even though we could taste this Brainerd win. Our\noriginal plan no matter what was to test here in Brainerd on Monday in\npreparation for the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals and that’s exactly what\nwe’re going to do. We\u2019ll service our HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>\u2019s and parts, analyze today\u2019s wins and\nshortcomings. We\u2019ll be ready for Indy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the NHRA\nFunny Car division, Matt Hagan, seeking his fourth NHRA Camping World championship\nin the TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat, suffered a rare first-round\nloss Sunday to David Richards when Hagan\u2019s nitro-burning machine lost traction.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hagan now\nranks second in the NHRA Funny Car points standings, just 21 points behind\nleader Ron Capps, and he is now headed to the 68th<\/sup> Dodge Power\nBrokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, the \u2018Super Bowl of Drag Racing\u201d established in\n1955.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Brainerd qualifying, Hagan ranked third at\na 3.910 pass on Friday and advanced to the final round in Saturday\u2019s Mission\n#2Fast2Tasty Challenge for top Funny Car qualifiers where he finished runner-up\nand picked up two additional points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was\nobviously a very tough weekend,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cThe points will not be great for\nus this weekend, having not gotten out of first round. We\u2019ve got to move\nforward. We are better than that. You are going to have a couple of hiccups\nalong the way and, unfortunately, this is one of them. We are going to dig deep\nand figure out what we did wrong. It stops with us as a team, and we are going\nto work harder. We want to be prepared for Indy now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dodge\nPower Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park\nwill feature five nitro qualifying sessions on Friday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. CDT\nfollowed by two qualifying rounds on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.\nCDT and Sunday, Sept. 3, at 1:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. CDT. The final eliminations\nwill begin Monday, Sept. 4, at 10 a.m. CDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals will be televised on Fox Sports 1 with qualifying round 1 on Sunday, Sept. 3, at 11:30 a.m. EDT and qualifying round 2 on Sunday, Sept. 3, at 5:30 p.m. EDT. The Funny Car All-Star Callout will be shown on FOX Network on Sunday, Sept. 3, at 4 p.m. EDT. The final eliminations for the 68th<\/sup> edition of the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals are scheduled to be televised on Fox Sports 1 on Monday, Sept. 4, at 12 p.m. EDT and 2 p.m. EDT on the FOX Network.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram<\/a><\/strong>
The @DodgeMoparMotorsports<\/a> Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge\/\/SRT Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers, competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leah Pruett, driving the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Dodge\/\/SRT\u00ae Direct Connection dragster in her 200th NHRA Top Fuel start, fought her way through a tough Top Fuel field to take the runner-up finish in Sunday\u2019s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. Pruett, winner of this year\u2019s Summit Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, was seeking her 12th career Top Fuel national victory as she defeated former NHRA World Champions Tony Schumacher, Brittany Force and current Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley in reaching the coveted final round against Antron Brown. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":72456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[528,615,2992],"class_list":["post-72453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra","tag-tony-stewart-racing"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/LeahBrainerd_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/LeahBrainerd_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72453"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72462,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72453\/revisions\/72462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}