NHRA Gatornationals Advance

53^rd NHRA Gatornationals

March 11-13 | Gainesville, Florida

Event Overview

Friday, March 11 (Nitro Qualifying, streamed live on NHRA.TV)

• Nitro qualifying session (Q1): 5:30 p.m. EST 

Saturday, March 12 (Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout and Nitro Qualifying, streamed live on NHRA.TV)

• Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout – Round 1: 11:45 a.m. EST 
• Nitro qualifying session (All Top Fuel cars not in the Callout, plus Funny Car): 12 p.m. EST
• Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout – Semifinals: 1:30 p.m. EST  
• Nitro qualifying session (Top Fuel): 2:45 p.m. EST
• Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout – Finals: 3:15 p.m. EST 
• Nitro qualifying session (Funny Car): 3:20 p.m. EST  

Sunday, March 13 (Nitro Eliminations, streamed live on NHRA.TV)

• Round 1: 11 a.m. EDT
• Round 2: 1:35 p.m. EDT
• Semifinals: 3:10 p.m. EDT
• Finals: 4:55 p.m. EDT

TV coverage on FS1 and FOX

• Saturday, March 12: Qualifying show, recapping all of Friday’s action (10 a.m. EST on FS1)
• Saturday, March 12: Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout  (2 p.m. ET on FOX) 
• Saturday, March 12: Qualifying show, recapping all of Saturday’s action (7 p.m. EST on FS1)
• Sunday, March 13: Finals show, recapping all of Sunday’s final-round action (7 p.m. EDT on FS1) 

Notes of Interest

• The 53^rd NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway is the third event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series’ 22-race calendar in 2022. Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) brings its two fulltime entries – one in Top Fuel for nine-time event winner Leah Pruett and one in Funny Car for 39-time event winner and three-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan – to the north-central Florida track eyeing continued progress in its debut season. The team scored its first No. 1 qualifying position via Hagan on Feb. 26 during the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler. Hagan set a new track record (3.823 ET at 333.41 mph), surpassing Courtney Force for the quickest run ever at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. It was also the quickest Funny Car run in four years. It was Hagan’s first No. 1 spot of the season and the 44^th of his career. 

• Dodge Power Brokers and Direct Connection are the primary partners of Pruett and Hagan this weekend in Gainesville. The new Dodge Power Brokers program serves as the exclusive source for Direct Connection, Dodge’s factory-backed performance parts program, which is equipped with staff trained to deliver a performance-focused customer service experience. 

• The Gatornationals will mark Pruett’s 175^th career Top Fuel start and her 10^th at Gainesville. For Hagan, the Gatornationals will be his 296^th career Funny Car start and his 14^th at Gainesville.

• Pruett and seven of her Top Fuel counterparts have a race within the race at Gainesville. On Saturday, the inaugural Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout pits the top-eight Top Fuel drivers against one another in a winner-take-all event worth $80,000 and televised live on FOX. Pruett earned the sixth seed in the specialty race by way of her seventh-place finish in the 2021 championship combined with her qualifying positions in the first two events of the 2022 season – the NHRA Winternationals Feb. 17-20 in Pomona, California, and the NHRA Arizona Nationals Feb. 25-27. Pruett is joined in the Callout by reigning Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence and fellow Top Fuel drivers Brittany Force, Mike Salinas, Justin Ashley, Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon. The Callout is exactly what it sounds like. Prior to the first round of qualifying on Friday, drivers will “call out” who they want to go up against on Saturday. The first to make a call out is Torrence, who earned the No. 1 seed by virtue of his championship in 2021. He gets to pick from the seven drivers who he wants as his opening-round opponent. Force would get the next pick, provided she is not called out by Torrence. Salinas would follow until all the first-round matchups are set. The first round of the Callout will take place at 11:45 a.m. ET on Saturday with the semifinals set to follow at 1:30 p.m. FOX comes on the air at 2 p.m. to recap the action from the first round and semifinals before showing the final round live at 3:15 p.m. where the last two drivers standing in the bracket-style elimination go head-to-head for bragging rights and the $80,000 payday.

• The Callout used to be known as the Shootout, and Pruett was a two-time qualifier in its previous incarnation. She was the seventh seed in 2016 and advanced all the way to the finals, beating Kalitta in Round 1 and Langdon in Round 2. In the final round, Pruett raced her then teammate, Tony Schumacher, who won with a time of 3.17 ET at 328.85 mph, eclipsing her mark of 3.738 ET at 317.05 mph. In 2017, Pruett was the No. 3 seed and lost to Kalitta in Round 1. 

• Hagan is a 39-time event winner in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, but a Gatornationals win has so far eluded the three-time series champion (2011, 2014 and 2020). However, Hagan has proven to be quick at Gainesville. He has earned the No. 1 qualifying spot three times – 2010, 4.060 ET at 313.58 mph; 2011 – 4.030 ET at 309.84 mph; and 2020 – 3.975 ET at 321.35 mph.

• Hagan has made one final-round appearance at Gainesville – 2018 when he lost to Jack Beckman. Beckman’s winning time was 4.035 ET at 323.58 mph, which was quite literally just a tick better than Hagan’s time of 4.034 ET at 322.04 mph.

• DYK? Gainesville opened in 1968 and the track hosted the first Gatornationals in 1970. The historic track is known as one of the fastest in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, a fact punctuated by 2022 marking the 30^th anniversary of when Kenny Bernstein broke the 300 mph barrier in the 1992 Gatornationals. At 4:44 p.m. on March 20, Bernstein became the first driver to eclipse 300 mph when rocketed down the strip at 301.70 mph in his Top Fuel dragster. Today, runs in excess of 330 mph are commonplace.   

Leah Pruett, Driver of the Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster 

After spending three weeks on the West Coast, what are the biggest adjustments the crew will have to make to your Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster to prepare for the atmospheric change in Florida? 

“Typically, the Friday night session sets the low standard of qualifying, but the forecast calls for much cooler temperatures on Saturday, which is an advantage for everyone. Being able to chip away at powering our performance down is the key to our next steps of a deep mid-60s run with our Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster.”

With you participating in the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout on Saturday, does your strategy change for this weekend’s Gatornationals? 

“I’m probably more excited about the Callout for various reasons than all of my other competitors. I personally have been having trouble on the tree when it comes to Sunday eliminations. Therefore, us having ‘eliminations’ on Saturday will give me the opportunity for redemption I’ve been chewing on for weeks. That will subsequently make for the most extreme competition this team has yet to offer. I most likely will not have the opportunity to call anyone out, but it will be interesting to see who in line is wanting to pair up next to us. The money is big. I honestly don’t know of another team that’s done what we did this offseason. Our crew deserves the bonus that’s on the line.”

What are the characteristics of Gainesville Raceway and what allows you to make a successful run there? 

“Gainesville Raceway is one of the most historic tracks in the country. It’s relatively low sea level and high barometer make for recipes of fast passes, but the humidity factor really tries to smother that extra horsepower. Given our unique weather forecast, this weekend is definitely shaping up to be the ultimate horsepower war.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car 

After spending three weeks on the West Coast, what are the biggest adjustments the crew will have to make to your Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to prepare for the atmospheric change in Florida? 

“After spending three weeks on the West Coast, we compiled a lot of data out there between one week of testing and two races. There is a fair amount of altitude in Phoenix, so we’ll have to transition to sea level in Florida. It looks like it may be a bit of a rainy weekend, so it will be fast and cool. I’m looking forward to it. Crew chiefs will have some big changes to make as far as compression and other things they do to make our cars run better at sea level. Gainesville is a track that has always eluded me a little bit because I’ve never won there. It’s one of the few tracks I haven’t won at, so I would like to be able to check it off. Every time I get a chance at Gainesville, I really want to try and make it happen. I’ve been to the finals before, so we have a lot of data compiled over the years. There are a lot of things going our way to look forward to this weekend in Gainesville.” 

Since you set a new track record and advanced to the finals in Phoenix, does that give you and your team added confidence heading into Gainesville? 

“After setting the track record at Phoenix, looking at the data and talking to Dickie Venables (crew chief), I think there’s still more left there. Very rarely do you have a crew chief that says, ‘That’s all we have left in the car.’ It’s exciting to know we can set a track record at Phoenix and then come to Gainesville and run even harder. Gainesville is a great track. If the conditions are right with the weather and the track, I know Dickie will throw down. We’ll probably see some more records in the near future. It’s exciting as a driver to strap into a car that you know is going to perform and has the opportunity to break records. I know the wins are coming. I see it in the crew and I see it in myself. The confidence is there and we’ll continue to build upon it every weekend. Robert Hight will be tough, but there are a lot of other cars out there that will be tough all year. As the season goes on and temperatures change, people adapt. Dickie Venables is a great racer on Sunday and we adapt very quickly. I know he’ll put a great Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car below me. Bring on the low ETs (elapsed time) and records because I know we’re capable of it.”

What are the characteristics of Gainesville Raceway and what allows you to make a successful run there? 

“There’s plenty of shutdown at Gainesville and the tracks are pretty even. I’ve never had much of a one-lane racetrack there. We’re able to set track records if the temperatures and conditions are there, so I feel like we’re going into a racetrack where we can really lay down the performance that TSR is making with my Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car. I’m expecting us to run up front all season and I know Tony, Leah and the rest of the crew expect the same. Everyone has worked really hard over the winter to create more power. It’s really about playing to the racetrack with clutch application. NHRA does a great job with Safety Safari by putting enough glue down and getting a great racetrack underneath of us to put on a great show for the fans.”