Chicago Event Recap for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals

Leah Pruett & Matt Hagan

Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel & Funny Car Drivers
Route 66 NHRA Nationals
May 19-21 | Joliet, Illinois

Event Recap

Leah Pruett, driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster:
• Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.756 ET at 318.62 mph)
• Fell to No. 8 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Saturday (3.979 ET at 234.98 mph)
• Secured No. 9 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.736 ET at 331.94 mph)
• Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.742 ET at 33.02 mph, defeated Steve Torrence (8.456 ET at 100.72 mph)
• Round 2: 4.411 ET at 252.61 mph, lost to TJ Zizzo (3.804 ET at 316.08 mph)
• Currently fifth in the championship standings, 34 points behind Top Fuel leader Steve Torrence.

Matt Hagan, driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
• Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (7.133 ET at 91.63 mph)
• Fell to No. 10 provisional qualifying position in Q2 on Saturday (4.565 ET at 184.40 mph). Q2 was also part of the NHRA’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where Hagan faced Terry Haddock. Haddock defeated Hagan with a 4.044 ET, 311.56 mph run.
• Secured No. 4 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.938 ET at 329.42 mph)
• Round 1: 4.179 ET at 283.373 mph, lost to Alex Laughlin (4.093 ET at 304.87 mph)
• Currently leads the Funny Car championship standings with a 13-point advantage over Ron Capps.

Notes of Interest

● The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series made its first visit to Route 66 Raceway since 2019.
● Hagan participated in his second Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season, with his previous challenge taking place at the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
● Despite losing in the first round, Hagan has a 12-3 overall round record this season, having lost in the second round at the NHRA Arizona Nationals and in the first round at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.
● In six starts this season, Pruett has finished runner-up once (Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals), as well as advanced to the semifinals in two other events (NHRA Gatornationals and NHRA Four-Wide Nationals).

Leah Pruett, Driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Top Fuel Dragster

“If there was one word to describe this Dodge Direct Connection team and our experience at Route 66 Raceway, it’s adaptability. Coming into this race, it’s a lot different having 21 hard-hitting cars on a new racetrack with new conditions. It accelerates the competition before you even get into competition. By qualifying ninth, on the other side of the field for the first time this season, it disrupted our qualifying average. We committed to a new tune-up program going into Charlotte last race. We have very few runs with it and are continuing to learn in these various conditions. It’s very science and math-based developed by our crew chiefs. When your calculations are off just a little bit, you’ll get results that don’t go down the racetrack. Leaving here strong in points has everything to do with being consistent and making it down the race track when other cars have not. That is what has propelled us moving forward into the rounds. That’s due to our resilience, which is different than being relentless. Resilience is how we move forward and not just the will power to move forward. I’m very proud of my team and their continued development of our ‘how.’ Ultimately, we’re setting ourselves up for consistency and success for when it counts in the countdown. We’re preparing for that now, as well as Epping around the corner.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the Dodge Direct Connection Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“We’ve had two tough races in a row with first-round losses. It is not a representation of what I feel like this team is or the level we’re at. It didn’t help that I put the car in the sand in Charlotte and we had to put a new front half on it. At the end of the day, I know what we are capable of isn’t a reflection of what today was. Hats off to Alex Laughlin getting his second round win in a Funny Car. I know how good those feel to get when you are a driver in a new category. We didn’t have a good showing on our end this weekend for Dodge and Direct Connection. Sorry doesn’t really make up for it, so we have to go back and fix it and that’s what we’ll do. Epping is where the mustache is at and where we’ve won four races, so I better start growing my mustache. It’s tough because my guys have put in a lot of work the last couple weeks with the new front half of the car. They rewired the car and we did some testing. It would be nice to see them get a little break. We’ll hit the reset button and go from there. I know what we’re capable of and we’ll do better.”

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA New England Nationals June 2-4 at New England Dragway.

-TSR-

Contact Ashley Wilson
Tony Stewart Racing
(303) 594-8147 or [email protected]