DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals Event Recap

DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals

July 22-24 | Sonoma, California

Event Recap

Leah Pruett, driver of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation Top Fuel Dragster:

●  Earned No. 1 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.689 ET at 327.59 mph).

●  Scored three bonus points for quickest run of the session.

●  Maintained No. 1 qualifying position based off Q1 run on Friday. In Q2 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 5.753 ET. (Speed was unavailable due to a malfunction.) 

●  Secured No. 1 qualifying position based off Q1 run on Friday. In Q3 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 3.779 ET at 326.87 mph.  

●  Advanced to Round 2 on Sunday:

    ●  Round 1: 3.729 ET at 328.86 mph, defeated Jim Maroney (4.443 ET at 187.42 mph). 

    ●  Round 2: 3.758 ET at 323.97 mph, lost to Shawn Langdon (3.734 ET at 330.96 mph).

●  Currently tied with Langdon for sixth in the Top Fuel championship standings, 381 points behind leader Brittany Force.  

Matt Hagan, driver of the DieHard Batteries Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car:

●  Earned No. 7 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (4.018 ET at 314.02 mph).

●  Dropped to No. 8 qualifying position in Q2 on Saturday (4.023 ET at 315.12 mph). 

●  Secured No. 11 qualifying position based off Q1 run on Friday. In Q3 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 4.160 ET at 239.44 mph. 

●  Eliminated following Round 1 on Sunday:

    ●  Round 1: 3.939 ET at 330.23 mph, lost to Cruz Pedregon (3.911 ET at 328.70 mph). 

●  Currently second in the Funny Car championship standings, 144 points behind leader Robert Hight. 

Notes of Interest

●  Pruett earned her first No. 1 qualifier of the season and her second at Sonoma. Her other No. 1 start at Sonoma came in 2017.

●  Pruett’s No. 1 qualifier delivered Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) its first Top Fuel pole in its inaugural season in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. It was TSR’s fifth overall No. 1 qualifier, as Matt Hagan has secured the pole four times this season in Funny Car. 

●  Following Q1 on Friday, Pruett was the No. 1 provisional qualifier for the third time in 2022. 

Leah Pruett, Driver of the Rayce Rudeen Foundation Top Fuel Dragster

“I think our takeaway this weekend was that we were able to continue the momentum from Denver. We have a thorough understanding of our power level, and that started Friday night. We went up with a semi-conservative setup that actually ended up locking us into the No. 1 spot, so it shows we have more power, like we thought. As we moved into race day, you can’t take anyone lightly. I used to race Jim Maroney 10 to 15 years ago and I know how great of a racer he is. We put down a solid .72 and had a nice, clean run. Ultimately, we missed it for the second round. We went up to do the same thing. We were the first cars on track that session and the cars behind us were able to run a .66. We went up to run a .74 or .75 and it ran a .75, but it wasn’t good enough to get around Langdon’s .73. What that does for us is it gives us the confidence to start turning the wick back up. We’ve been racing on the shy side of power and we’ve been doing pretty well, but now we can turn back the knobs, and that’s something we haven’t been able to do. Our momentum will continue as our baseline grows and, most importantly, we were able to make a lot of connections with people about sharing the Rayce Rudeen Foundation’s mission of fighting the stigma of addiction and the support of the communities they’re building.” 

Matt Hagan, Driver of the DieHard Batteries Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“It was great to be able to run the DieHard Batteries car again this weekend and bring the scheme back. We struggled a bit this weekend and got behind the eight ball. I think Dickie (Venables, crew chief) really got a handle on the car in Round 1, but we had a tough run against Cruz (Pedregon). They’re a strong team over there and they qualified well. It was two good drag races but, unfortunately, it didn’t turn out in our favor. Sonoma is one of the only tracks I haven’t won at. I look forward to checking it off the list next year. It doesn’t mean we’ll keep our head down. For now, we’ll focus on Seattle and what we have coming up next week. We’ll take the information we learned here and transfer it over. The car is driving good and responding well, so we just have to be a bit more aggressive with it and we’ll be fine.” 

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals July 29-31 at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington. The event will serve as the third and final race of the NHRA’s Western Swing.