Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals
Presented by Pennzoil
Event No. 5 of 21
Houston Raceway Park
Baytown, Texas
May 21-23, 2021
Note:
Friday qualifying was canceled due to persistent rain. On Saturday, after only four pairs of Funny Cars motored down the track during Q2, Mother Nature unleashed with more rain, forcing NHRA to cancel the remainder of qualifying. Any Funny Car driver who hadn’t yet run during Q2 had their Q1 times carry over. Top Fuel and Factory Stock Showdown Series fields have been set based on one session.
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Pennzoil Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 2 (lane choice)
The Competition: No. 13 Justin Ashley
The Results:
Q1: 3.733 E.T. at 312.86 MPH (Two bonus points for second-quickest run of the session)
Bonus Points: Two
From Leah:
Our first hit out of the box was great, instead of like before where we had so many gremlins attacking our Mopar/Dodge/Pennzoil team. It’s been random mechanical errors and we have been focused on getting rid of those. We want great, shiny, fast E.T. slips, and today, we got that. Was it perfect? No. Perfect would have qualified us No. 1. We did have a cylinder go out and if we were to have gotten another run, that’s what we would have worked on. We’re very happy with that No. 2 position and we’re looking forward to a great race day. We can’t thank the NHRA and Houston Raceway Park staff enough for providing us with a great track surface that was well-prepped and safe.
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
2020 Houston Recap:
Qualified 11th; First round exit (defeated by John Cerbone in E1)
Qualified: No. 10
The Competition: No. 7 Arthur Kohn
The Results:
Q1: 7.959 E.T. at 174.73 MPH
From Leah:
I feel most comfortable and at home when I’m putting double-duty and am able to drive both of my Mopar cars on the same day. We did make a lot of changes since the last time our new Drag Pak competed at Gainesville. We weren’t really able to tell how the car would react without that first run. We had a converter swap, some suspension changes, and we wanted to go out there and be solidly in the field and pick away at it. We’re currently No. 10 and we will adjust. We look forward to getting back on the track.
Source: Don Schumacher Racing
