NHRA Arizona Nationals
Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park
Chandler, AZ
March 24-26, 2023
Pruett Takes Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster to Semi Finals at NHRA Arizona Nationals, Now Moves to Home Track in Pomona
MARCH 26, 2023, CHANDLER, AZ – Coming off an outstanding performance at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals two weeks ago, the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Direct Connection crews of drivers Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan battled a tricky track this weekend in the Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.
The Arizona Nationals welcomed a sellout crowd and sunny skies in the final NHRA national event at the popular racing facility.
On track, Pruett, who won her first NHRA Top Fuel national event back in 2016 at the Arizona dragstrip, recorded her second consecutive semi-final finish Sunday after impressive 3.72-second runs in defeating Buddy Hull (round one) and reigning Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force (round two) in the TSR Direct Connection Top Fuel dragster. Leah lost to former World Champion Shawn Langdon in the semi-finals with a 3.761 to Langdon’s 3.719.
The back-to-back semi-final finishes for Pruett moved her into the top-three in the current NHRA Camping World Top Fuel point standings, heading to the third event this weekend at Pomona, CA, in the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.
From Leah:
When you look at the results sheet from the weekend, we did not come home with the Wally win, but there are many wins that we experienced throughout the whole weekend,” said Pruett. We were the lowest qualifier in the third session of qualifying, which allowed us to gather points. It shows our momentum is continuing. It is a product of having both magnitude and direction. All last year, we were finding our direction and now we are moving that forward.
Another semifinal finish gives us four round wins in two races. You feel like you are racing more than you are qualifying and that’s what we love to do. We’re testing on Monday and that circles me back to that consistency. We’re happy with the weekend. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get that last win at the last pass for Arizona. For right now, we are gaining a ton of ground and look forward to Pomona.
