![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Leah-Rebel.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\u201cSouth Georgia Motorsports Park was the first place I ever went over 300 mph. The year was 2008, and I completed my Nitro Funny Car license in Jerry Toliver\u2019s Rockstar car. I remember it like it was yesterday,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cIn the left lane ripping though there, the car rattling at past half-track \u2013 it was the 5-disc clutch locking up \u2013 then steering hard right to stay off the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what all had happened, because my brain was still at the starting line when I turned off the track. That\u2019s how \u2018new\u2019 my processing speed was relative to going 308 mph for the first time,\u201d Pruett continued. \u201cA right-side cylinder went out and tried to push me to the wall, but I was able to react and square it back up. Wild memorable ride for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince then, I have tested there many times. Including a couple test sessions when the Dodge \/\/ SRT Demon was being developed, as well dialing in different Dodge Factory Stock Showdown cars in the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pruett also found success at the previous iteration of the Southern Nationals, winning at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia in 2018 and was runner-up in 2015.<\/p>\n
Like his Top Fuel teammate, Matt Hagan whose Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat Funny Car will feature the Shelor Motor Mile livery for the first time this season, has also made passes down South Georgia Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to head into South Georgia Motorsport Park here in Valdosta. Georgia, the peach state, it\u2019s going be good. Excited to see some new fans, excited to be back on this racetrack. I ran Pro Mod here and one of my first test sessions with Don Schumacher Racing. Gary Scelzi crawled out of his car and retired, and I crawled in his and was just lucky to even fit. We made some laps back there in the day with Tommy Delago and I kind of cut my teeth there for NHRA, so it\u2019s got some history for me. I\u2019m excited to be there. I\u2019m excited to see what\u2019s new.\u201d<\/p>\n Hagan, the four-time NHRA Funny Car Champion and one of NHRA\u2019s top 75 drivers of all-time, sits second in points, just 48 back, after driving his Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat to victory in NHRA\u2019s 1000th Funny Car event at the Winternationals in California earlier this month. He\u2019s coming off\u00a0a final quad appearance at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals just four days ago.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we have had a great start to the season. Confidence level is huge. Any time that you can start the season this good \u2013 get a win under your belt, go some rounds every weekend \u2013 it always builds confidence, but I think the biggest thing is the consistency. [Crew chief] Mike Knudson is not going to the guy who is only going to do well at a certain race or a certain time of the year. What I really, really like about him as far as his tuning abilities, he\u2019s a little conservative on some things, but the consistency across the board. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to run into any weather conditions where he\u2019s not going to have some sort of plan. Across the board, his knowledge and tuning ability is so diverse, he can adapt to whatever is thrown at him. Crew chiefs Mike and Phil [Shuler] and [car chief] Alex [Conaway] have a great baseline. These guys behind the scenes are what have kept us ahead all these years. They have a handle on what they want in different conditions and they can adapt. They put in the work, and it shows on track.\u201d<\/p>\n A win this weekend would be Hagan\u2019s 57th in Funny Car. One of those victories came at the Southern Nationals contested at Atlanta Dragway back in 2016. He also finished runner-up in 2013 and 2018. The Southern Nationals was last contested in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Competition at the NHRA Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park is scheduled to begin with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 11:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 and 3 p.m. The threat of weather may change those times. Eliminations are scheduled for Sunday at 11 a.m. Television coverage of the event will be on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) beginning with qualifying shows Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET and Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Eliminations will air on FS1 Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n The post Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan Ready to Take On South Georgia Motorsports Park<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tony Stewart Racing will take on a new race track on the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series schedule. The NHRA Southern Nationals, previously contested at Atlanta Dragway, returns to the NHRA national event schedule at South Georgia Motorsports Park, just outside of Valdosta, Georgia. Leah Pruett\u2019s Top Fuel dragster will show off the America […]<\/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-103503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103503","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=103503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Matt-Rebel.jpg\")
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