As the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship enters the second of three back-to-back events, The series takes another visit to an unfamiliar track, Rockingham Dragway, for the NHRA Nationals at The Rock. The iconic North Carolina venue plays host to an NHRA national event for the very first time, serving as the critical second stop in the six-race playoff stretch.
In the Dodge Top Fuel Dragster, Leah Pruett is treating an early-round misstep at the Countdown opener as pure fuel. Pruett, a 13-time Top Fuel winner and 2026 NHRA New England Nationals champion, is hoping to draw on her familiarity with Rockingham Dragway and track operator Dan VanHorn to reset and reload.
“All of my memories and experience with Rockingham have been awesome, and it starts with Dan,” Pruett said. “I worked with him on the Hemi Shootouts and was able to race some real fast Dodge cars of different varieties. I love the facility and love Dan as a promoter and the man that he is. Really, that’s all I have to go off of heading into those gates. I always do like when you have some comfort level to a degree. What we’ve learned at the last race in Martin, we’ll be bringing to Rockingham and we’ll be back again with the Dodge Top Fuel dragster. We need to climb our way back up these points after being knocked down a couple spots. The moment we were out in Martin, I knew we were just winding up like a slingshot. Our team is arriving in Rockingham the with mindset we’re winding up big to slingshot our way back into the top of the points and in a serious hunt of this Countdown for the Championship.”
Anchoring the team’s effort in Funny Car, points leader Matt Hagan sees the trip to North Carolina as a homecoming of sorts. Coming off a runner-up performance at Martin, Hagan holds the category points lead as he seeks to extend an unmatched streak of winning at least one Countdown event to seven consecutive seasons. While this marks the NHRA’s debut national event at Rockingham, Hagan boasts a unique advantage: he was the last fuel Funny Car driver to park in victory lane at the facility, winning an IHRA national event there in 2008.
“We’re rolling into Rockingham with the points lead, feels good. We haven’t lost our consistency, going rounds, would have liked to seal the deal at the Dodge race in Michigan but three-in-a-row means we get another chance right away,” Hagan said. “Rockingham is a big race for me with friends and family, I think it’s my third or fourth home race on the schedule, kind of nice. I won there the last time I was there in an IHRA race way back in 2008; Paul Lee had to remind me it was the two of us in the final. I was the last fuel Funny Car to win down that track. So, I’m anxious to get there. We hope we can do that again this weekend. We want to put this Dodge in the winner’s circle, and I think we will.”
Qualifying will feature two rounds at 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, with the final two rounds scheduled for Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m. Final eliminations are set for 11 a.m. ET on Sunday. Television coverage includes qualifying on FS1 at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday and eliminations at 3 p.m.
The post Hagan Looks to Extend Points Lead, Pruett Hoping for Turnaround in Rockingham first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
