Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals
Presented by Pennzoil
Event 14 of 20
Countdown Event 1 of 7
Maple Grove Raceway
Reading, Penn.
Sept. 10 - 12, 2021
LEAH PRUETT
Driver of the Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 8 (3.733 E.T. at 323.89 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.930 E.T. at 279.44 MPH defeated Antron Brown 5.755 E.T. at 121.47 MPH
E2: 4.025 E.T. at 227.23 MPH defeated by Brittany Force 3.704 E.T. at 334.48 MPH
Race Recap:
Leah Pruett began her fifth NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff run ranked fourth in the standings, and qualified her Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel dragster in the eighth position to start race day at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil. Round one of eliminations featured an intramural battle between Pruett and teammate Antron Brown. While Brown had the jump on the starting line, he started smoking the tires near the 330-foot mark and Pruett was able to take advantage of her teammate’s troubles to pull ahead into the lead. Her 11,000-horsepower rail started to haze the tires shortly after, but Pruett kept her foot on the throttle and maneuvered her Mopar machine across the finish line first. In the quarterfinals against Brittany Force, Pruett again encountered issues and started hazing the tires just before halftrack. She slowed to a 4.025 E.T. while her opponent made a clean run for the win.
Pruett departs Maple Grove Raceway ranked fifth in the Top Fuel standings.
From Leah:
The thing about momentum is, you want it to last as long as possible and we felt like we had it coming into race day. Matching up against our teammate, we expected a great race from starting line to finish line, and we smoked the tires way far out and did a great job pedaling to get the win light. We made some adjustments on the tire spin going into E2 against the No. 1 qualifier and we thought we had it tuned up the right way, but we ended up smoking the tires down track. At this very moment, we feel like we have a gremlin in this system but we have a few days to figure it out. We’ll work hard to fine-tune things for Charlotte. The points will stay tight as we’re early in this Countdown and we’re ready to make up for this weekend in Charlotte.
Source: Don Schumacher Racing
