{"id":103358,"date":"2026-04-11T16:44:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/pruett-vandergriff-and-anderson-take-provisional-no-1-spots-at-lucas-oil-nhra-winternationals\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:44:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:44:06","slug":"pruett-vandergriff-and-anderson-take-provisional-no-1-spots-at-lucas-oil-nhra-winternationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/pruett-vandergriff-and-anderson-take-provisional-no-1-spots-at-lucas-oil-nhra-winternationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruett, Vandergriff, and Anderson Take Provisional No. 1 Spots at Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Fuel\u2019s Leah Pruett jumped to the top spot on the final pass of Friday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, taking the provisional No. 1 spot for Tony Stewart Racing at the 66th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.<\/p>\n

Jordan Vandergriff (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the third of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.<\/p>\n

Pruett returned to the driver\u2019s seat to start the season and has been outstanding thus far, including Friday\u2019s top run of 3.724 at 329.75-mph in her 12,000-horsepower Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters dragster. It comes a race after Pruett advanced to the final round in Phoenix as she continues to build momentum early in the year.<\/p>\n

If Friday\u2019s run holds at her home track, Pruett would pick up her 16th career No. 1 spot and first of the season during what she hopes is a big weekend in Pomona.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing today is the cohesiveness of our whole team, the collaboration that has happened over the last year and a half,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cTony\u2019s [Stewart] competitiveness last year shows how this team has gelled so well and worked really, really hard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTemperatures will be cool tomorrow and my opinion is 3.72 is not going to hold, not by any means. But that doesn\u2019t mean that we still can\u2019t come out hopefully up on top, as we work our way into having a solid 3.66-.67 foundation. That\u2019s where our focus is right now, and I think you see that in the overall qualifying position that we\u2019ve been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Hart, who won in Gainesville, is currently second with a run of 3.733 at 336.15, and Phoenix winner Shawn Langdon sits third after going 3.745 at 338.51.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jordan Vandergriff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the 1,000th Funny Car race in NHRA history, Jordan Vandergriff continues to impress early in his Funny Car career for John Force Racing, vaulting to the No. 1 spot with a strong pass of 3.951 at 327.90 in his 12,000-horsepower Cornwell Quality Tools Chevrolet SS.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just Vandergriff\u2019s third career start in Funny Car and 15th in his career and he\u2019s on track to earn his first career No. 1 qualifier. That would continue his rapid climb in the loaded Funny Car ranks, coming after a semifinal appearance at the season-opening Gatornationals. There\u2019s added incentive for Vandergriff, too, racing at his home track as he eyes his first career No. 1 spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitely a new experience for me,\u201d Vandergriff said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been in this position before, but I\u2019m happy to be here. Coming into this race, I just had a feeling we were going to do well. The first two races were so hot, but we knew what we had, especially in testing before the season started. So coming here, we knew that we had a good race car. That second run felt pretty perfect, and now we\u2019re No. 1. I\u2019m really proud of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacing at my home track is very motivating. I have my entire family here, and this is the home track for John Force Racing, too. Pomona has always meant something special. This is where drag racing was introduced to me, and now that I\u2019m here on the same track, it\u2019s pretty surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vandergriff\u2019s JFR teammate, Alexis DeJoria, is second with a 3.989 at 328.30 and Phoenix winner Ron Capps is third after a pass of 4.007 at 314.17.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Greg Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pro Stock\u2019s Greg Anderson put on a show at a track where he\u2019s won 16 times in his standout career, making the quickest run in both qualifying sessions on Friday, including a 6.544 at 209.39 to close out the day in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro that puts him in the provisional spot in Pomona.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the defending event winner at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals and Anderson always seems to run well at the historic facility. The six-time world champion hopes that continues this weekend, especially after stubbing his toe in Phoenix, losing in a first-round upset to Chris McGaha after qualifying No. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come here and we got a decent racetrack that we\u2019re all used to. The grip numbers are back up where we\u2019re used to, and you can run fast,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cQuite honestly, we all missed in the first session. We all should have run better, but that\u2019s because we were too shy. After the first run, everybody learned, so everybody stepped up and it\u2019ll continue to get better tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe field is nowhere near set. It\u2019s going to reset, probably from top to bottom again. This is a great Pro Stock track. You\u2019re going to see this Pro Stock field probably end up being three-hundredths [of a second] from top to bottom, from No. 1 to No. 16.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reigning world champion and Phoenix event winner Dallas Glenn is currently second with a 6.553 at 209.17 and Greg Stanfield sits third after his 6.568 at 209.07.<\/p>\n

Qualifying continues at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday at the 66th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on April 11, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Pruett, Vandergriff, and Anderson Take Provisional No. 1 Spots at Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top Fuel\u2019s Leah Pruett jumped to the top spot on the final pass of Friday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, taking the provisional No. 1 spot for Tony Stewart Racing at the 66th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. Jordan Vandergriff (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}