NHRA Midwest Nationals
World Wide Technology Raceway
Madison, IL
September 30 - October 2, 2022
Leah Pruett, driver of the Sparkling Ice +Caffeine Top Fuel Dragster:
● Earned No. 4 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.743 ET at 325.45 mph).
● Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position based off Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 3.931 ET at 244.87 mph.
● Secured No. 11 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.729 ET at 329.18 mph).
● Ran a 3.716 ET at 327.03 mph in Round 1 of eliminations on Sunday, lost to Tony Schumacher (3.701 ET at 332.02 mph).
● Currently 11th in the Top Fuel championship standings, 179 points behind leader Justin Ashley.
From Leah:
“Gaining momentum in the Countdown has got to be one of the most challenging times of our season, so far. Last week, we pushed our machine harder than we ever had from a mechanical tune-up aspect and believed coming into St. Louis that we would find the edge. During our three rounds of qualifying, our Sparkling Ice +Caffeine machine was starting to become more reactive to our pushes and gaining improved, incremental times. We ultimately have not found a combination that works to qualify us lower in the field, which required .60s. We felt confident going into raceday that we had a reliable racecar that we could push a lot harder with, so we did. Our big moves did make our car deliver big ET improvements, as we improved our time to 3.71, but it wasn’t enough to beat out the Sarge’s (Tony Schumacher) 3.70. Our team’s package would have beat all but one other car in the first round. We ultimately were on the non-winning side of a very tight drag race. We are living in real-time the strength of this team’s commitment to delivering a highly competitive car and we have each other’s back while doing it. I’m so very proud of the quality of work my men put into this team, and we’re closer than we have been since Seattle to showing out. You can see that by the caliber of runs our competition puts up against us, knowing we’re right there.”
Contact: Ashley Wilson, (303) 594-8147, Ashley.Wilson@TrueSpeedCommunication.com
