Pep Boys NHRA Nationals
Maple Grove Raceway
Reading, Pennsylvania
September 16 - 18, 2022
Leah Pruett, driver of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation Top Fuel Dragster:
● Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.764 ET at 326.24 mph).
● Earned No. 8 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Saturday (3.736 ET at 328.62 mph).
● Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session.
● Secured No. 10 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.734 ET at 328.38 mph).
● Ran a 4.458 ET at 224.51 mph in Round 1 of eliminations on Sunday, lost to Doug Kalitta (3.720 ET at 329.58 mph).
● Currently tied with Kalitta for eighth in the Top Fuel championship standings, 107 points behind leader Justin Ashley.
● Pruett has faced Kalitta 29 times throughout her career and four times this season. Kalitta leads 3-1 this season. Kalitta won at Houston in Round 1, Richmond, Virginia, in Round 1 and Sunday at Reading in Round 1. Pruett won in Round 2 at Seattle.
From Leah:
We definitely had a very promising racecar and I would consider it one of the most promising cars considering we were the only one to make three clean, full passes in qualifying. Unfortunately, when you have the first round in a matchup with a championship contender close to you in points and qualifying, you’re going to have a close race, and that’s what we were prepared for. We moved in a way to improve our short times. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while – to try and get better 60-foot times and our increments to 330, which means we have to push harder. We tried to push a little bit harder and the Rayce Rudeen Foundation dragster didn’t like it and we smoked the tires. The most frustrating part about it is we have been on this plan for three races or so and keep throwing a lot of power to different places on the car. It hasn’t been reacting the way we want and at the most important time so far in the season, the car says, ‘Oh, I recognize that and it’s a little too much now.’ For us to find that threshold in the first round of eliminations in the first race of the Countdown is slightly frustrating. We will be testing between now and Charlotte to further our progress because in order for us to have a better ET, we have to start at the starting line to the 60-foot mark and improve our acceleration gain. We won’t stop and that’s the name of the game. There are five races remaining in the Countdown and anything can happen.
Contact: Ashley Wilson, (303) 594-8147, Ashley.Wilson@TrueSpeedCommunication.com
