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Beckman had been working up to this moment over the past handful of races, advancing to his second straight final round. He fell in the Maryland finals to Austin Prock, but has continued to run well, making a clean run on Friday in the Bristol heat. It gives the past world champion his 38th career victory and he becomes the sixth different winner this year in the loaded Funny Car category.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore you can be quick, you have to be consistent and to be consistent, you have to be predictable. I think we\u2019re back in that window right now,\u201d Beckman said. \u201cTo get a win like this, it was very gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have cared if we ran this final round Friday night or next Tuesday. Our PEAK team left with the trophy and that\u2019s all that matters. We hadn\u2019t won in over a year. We had some struggles, but now we\u2019ve made it down the track on 14 of our last 17 runs. That\u2019s the kind of consistency that wins races. I\u2019ve never raced a final round at a completely different venue a week later. I\u2019ve raced late Sundays and Mondays, but never this. It was definitely unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagan took the top spot on Friday with a run of 4.009 at 319.60 in his 12,000-horsepower Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage Dodge Funny Car. The four-time champion is after his first top qualifier of the season and the 55th in his career. Beckman is currently second, while Spencer Hyde is third after going 4.030 at 319.07.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe racing surface itself is a massive improvement from what we\u2019ve had in the past. I couldn\u2019t even feel the bumps for the tunnel or anything like that,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cHats off to the whole group that put a really good racetrack under us. I think it will only get better as we go. As the rubber comes around and we\u2019re able to apply more power to it, you can really see those lanes starting to fill in. This track is a really good track now and as these crew chiefs get more runs under their belt with it, you\u2019ll see faster numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the new track surface, it was the same result in Pro Stock for Greg Anderson, as the six-time champ rolled to the provisional No. 1 spot with a run of 6.673 at 204.11 in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro.<\/p>\n
It puts Anderson in line for his sixth No. 1 qualifier in nine races this season, as he continues to perform at a high level in Bristol. Anderson is the defending event winner and the track has been home to a number of special memories, including his first career win in 2001 and his 1,000th round win, which came last year during his victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care how much we did it by, we squeaked by, but we did it,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was a perfect day and you can chalk it up to Bristol. You really don\u2019t feel anything going down the racetrack anymore. We asked for a smooth racetrack, we begged for a smooth racetrack, and now we\u2019ve got it. We\u2019re going to run well all weekend here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Latino is second with a 6.676 at 205.04 and points leader Dallas Glenn is third after going 6.687 at 203.83.<\/p>\n
Following a rare first-round loss at the most recent Pro Stock Motorcycle, Gaige Herrera bounced back quickly on Friday, making the quickest run of both sessions at Bristol Dragway, including a 6.667 at 196.59 on his RevZilla\/Motul\/Vance & Hines Suzuki.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, it would be just the first No. 1 qualifier of the season for the two-time world champion and the 32nd in his career. Herrera won in Charlotte but dropped to fourth in points following a first-round loss last month in Maryland. That was only the second time that\u2019s happened since the start of 2023 and Herrera was eager to rectify that upon arriving in Bristol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole season, I would say luck has not been on my side for a lot of things,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a rough go this season for us, as far as me, with parts-wise and just failures, little mishaps. I\u2019m glad to be on the pole at the moment, but it could change at any minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first run for me was picture perfect, really. I had to make very little corrections. I kind of adjusted the bike too much in Q2 and had to ride it quite a bit. I didn\u2019t think it was going to run an .88 or .80 anything, so I was happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Oehler is currently second after going 6.898 at 198.52 and Angie Smith, who won in Maryland, is third with a 6.899 at 197.54.<\/p>\n
Qualifying continues at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on June 13, 2026. ![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
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The post Pruett and Beckman Win NHRA New England Nationals on Friday in Bristol; Pruett, Hagan, Anderson, and Herrera Take Provisional No. 1 Spots at Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leah Pruett picked up her first victory since 2023, defeating points leader Shawn Langdon in the final round of the NHRA New England Nationals presented by bproauto, which were completed Friday at Bristol Dragway. Jack Beckman also won on Friday in the Epping Funny Car final round, while Pruett, Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Greg Anderson […]<\/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-103934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103934","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=103934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}