Event Recap for the NHRA Midwest Nationals – HAGAN WINS!

Leah Pruett & Matt Hagan

Top Fuel | Funny Car
NHRA Midwest Nationals
Sept. 29-Oct. 1 | St. Louis

Event Recap

Leah Pruett, driver of the Code 3 Associates Top Fuel Dragster:
• Earned No. 6 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.742 ET at 331.04 mph)
• Maintained No. 6 provisional qualifying position based off Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 5.788 ET at 114.60 mph.
• Secured No. 8 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run. In Q3 on Saturday, Pruett ran a 4.938 ET at 146.32 mph.
• Advanced to Finals on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.737 ET at 329.99 mph, defeated Shawn Langdon (3.765 ET at 329.02 mph)
• Round 2: 3.803 ET at 328.62 mph, defeated Doug Kalitta (4.833 ET at 162.92 mph)
• Semifinals: 3.772 ET at 331.77 mph, defeated Steve Torrence (3.825 ET at 322.81 mph)
• Finals: 3.775 ET at 327.66 mph, lost to Clay Millican (3.758 ET at 331.94 mph)
• Currently second in the Top Fuel championship standings, 47 points behind leader Doug Kalitta

Matt Hagan, driver of the American Rebel Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car:
• Earned No. 4 provisional qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (3.928 ET at 328.78 mph)
• Maintained No. 4 provisional qualifying position based off Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Saturday, Hagan ran a 5.841 ET at 119.76 mph.
• Secured No. 5 qualifying position in Q3 on Saturday (3.927 ET at 326.40 mph)
• Scored one bonus point for third-quickest run of the session
• Advanced to Finals on Sunday:
• Round 1: 3.961 ET at 322.04 mph, defeated Alexis DeJoria (5.104 ET at 147.99 mph)
• Round 2: 4.031 ET at 312.35 mph, defeated John Force (5.037 ET at 161.17 mph)
• Semifinals: 4.016 ET at 316.38 mph, defeated Bob Tasca III (5.037 ET at 165.27 mph)
• Finals: 3.991 ET at 324.90 mph, defeated Ron Capps (4.025 ET at 306.88 mph)
• Currently third in the Funny Car championship standings, 13 points behind leader Bob Tasca III

Notes of Interest

• Hagan earned his fifth win of the season and his 48th career victory. It marked the first win for American Rebel in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series.
• Hagan advanced to his 86th career final round. It marked his sixth final-round appearance at the Midwest Nationals (2012, 2014, 2015, 2020 and 2021).
• Pruett advanced to her 21st career final round. It marked her first final-round appearance at the Midwest Nationals. She previously advanced to the Semifinals at the Midwest Nationals in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
• Heading into Round 2, Pruett and opponent Doug Kalitta ran the exact same elapsed time (ET) and miles per hour in the previous round (3.737 ET at 329.99 mph). Pruett earned lane choice in Round 2 by getting the win first.
• Pruett and Millican faced each other for the third time in a final-round matchup, where Pruett is seeking her first Wally over Millican.

Leah Pruett, Driver of the Code 3 Associates Top Fuel Dragster

“What an incredible and solid weekend for the Code 3 Associates team, not only making points progress overall, but we’ve had the most reactive car to our tune-up changes we’ve had all season and it shows. It was a wild day starting off with round one and being the first pair out. Luckily, we had lane choice and got the win over (Shawn) Langdon. I’ve never matched ET and miles per hour to my second-round opponent, Doug Kalitta. That was a big round with him being the points leader. We were first car out to run our time and speed, so we were given lane choice and I feel that was extremely important. At that time, the lanes were a little unequal and there was a lot of trouble navigating that left lane, so we took the right lane. Going into the Semifinals, we did not have lane choice and Steve (Torrence) put us over there in the left and we said ‘Okay, we’re going to have to be on the inside of what I call the Grand Canyon’ that’s 150 feet out there and maneuver our way through it as well as the tune-up setup for it and it did. I’m extremely proud of this team. The crews work ethic has maintained throughout this whole season and that shows the attention to detail of the car and what it wants has been elevated. That shows my progress as a driver throughout the day continued to elevate and that showed going into the Final against Clay (Millican), who I adore as a person, but want to beat just as much as Steve Torrence, Doug Kalitta, or that other Toyota car. It was just a straight-up good drag race that we were unfortunately on the other side of. It’s great to take Code 3 Associates and Dodge to the final-round. I’m going to spend the next week and a half focusing on our performance and gaining those little points, as well as a driver getting in my groove a little earlier in the weekend and that’s going to be owed for an overall win.”

Matt Hagan, Driver of the American Rebel Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, all greatness comes from God. You have to believe in something and my faith gives me hope. I asked for something great today and that’s what we got. We knew we had to win this race to be in the hunt for the championship. It’s such a cool feeling to have American Rebel out here. It was great having their CEO, Andy Ross, here and to be able to give him the trophy. I just hope he could feel some of the excitement I felt by being the driver and turning win lights on. We have so many great sponsors like Dodge and Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage. It’s people you really get along with and it just feels like it’s all meant to be. I’m enjoying the ride. We sat down as a group and told each other ‘I’m going to dig for you, you dig for me.’ It comes down to having a core group of guys you want to work hard for. Today, all my guys showed up for me and I feel like I showed up for them. We did everything we needed to do on the starting line and that’s why we had four win lights on today.”

Next Up

The next event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule is the Texas NHRA FallNationals Oct. 13-15 at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas. It is the fourth event in the Countdown to the Championship and the third-to-last race of the season.

-TSR-

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