{"id":105027,"date":"2026-10-15T17:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/matt-hagan-aims-to-maintain-points-lead-leah-pruett-flying-mobil-1-colors-in-dallas\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T17:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:44:07","slug":"matt-hagan-aims-to-maintain-points-lead-leah-pruett-flying-mobil-1-colors-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/matt-hagan-aims-to-maintain-points-lead-leah-pruett-flying-mobil-1-colors-in-dallas\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Hagan Aims to Maintain Points Lead, Leah Pruett Flying Mobil 1 Colors in Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship rolls into Texas Motorplex for the 38th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals, and Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) enters the fourth event of the six-race playoff with strong momentum across both Nitro categories.<\/p>\n

Mobil 1 Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett and Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage Funny Car driver Matt Hagan head to Ennis, Texas, looking to solidify their championship bids during one of the most celebrated and high-stakes events on the NHRA calendar.<\/p>\n

The Texas NHRA FallNationals serves as the centerpiece of the 10-day Stampede of Speed festival \u2013 a premier celebration of motorsports featuring fan fests, concerts, and continuous drag racing excitement near Dallas. TSR will kick things off by attending the Pre-Stage FanFest Thursday evening at the Railyard in Waxahachie.<\/p>\n

Four-time NHRA Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan brings the JHG Funny Car into Ennis holding the championship points lead. Fresh off capturing the 2026 NHRA Regular Season Championship, Hagan is in the middle of a six-race streak where he\u2019s finished semi-finals or better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this JHG Dodge team is in a really good spot mentally. We\u2019ve been going rounds and the car is running well, and we just have to keep moving along. It\u2019s so easy to get knotted up in thinking and worrying about it, but things change so fast. We saw someone go from sixth to third in just one race \u2013 that can happen with any of us all stacked in here like we are,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWe just have to keep plugging away and it\u2019ll be just fine moving forward. I\u2019m excited about it. We have everything that it takes to be able to win this thing. We won the regular season championship and there\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t win the overall championship too.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a 72-point lead and four victories already this season, Hagan is returning to a venue at which he boasts an impressive resume. He\u2019s captured three FallNationals victories (2010, 2016, and 2019) along with six runner-up finishes and appeared in six straight final rounds from 2019 to 2024 at the facility. Already with four wins this season, Hagan hopes Despite holding the lead in the standings, Hagan approaches the final three races with a balanced perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Countdown is always nerve-racking, but we\u2019ve been doing this a long time and it\u2019s kind of business as usual,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWe have to look at it as we have three more races left to win. We already have four of the 75th Anniversary Diamond Wallys but I\u2019d like to add to it and there\u2019s only three opportunities left. It can be overwhelming and nerve-racking, and it\u2019s always harder to lead than it is to chase, but I\u2019d rather be 72 ahead than 72 behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leah Pruett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leah Pruett and her Mobil 1 dragster team enter Texas Motorplex sitting fourth in points after uncharacteristically early exits in the first three Countdown races. Pruett has maintained a strong presence in the top tier of the points standings all season, leveraging consistent round-wins \u2013 she has only had two first-round losses, and top-tier qualifying performances \u2013 the Mobil 1 team has qualified inside the top five 11 out of the 17 events so far this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team is many things, but resilience is the leading current value. Our Countdown hopes have been stressed and bent, but our ability to bounce back and end this season strong is the true form I look forward to showing this weekend,\u201d Pruett said. \u201cThe team\u2019s focus has been understanding and rectifying the mechanical issues we had in St. Louis, and finding our strong performance stride once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time Pruett competed at Texas Motorplex she ended the weekend sharing the winners circle with teammate Hagan in TSR\u2019s first double up in 2023. It was her first and, so far, only professional Countdown to the Championship victory, she\u2019s hoping to change that this weekend with her second win of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pruett also visited the winners circle racing Factory Stock Showdown in 2018, making the Motorplex the only track where she\u2019s won in multiple categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnnis always has a way of serving up incredible cowboy hat memories. All great things for me in Ennis have come in pairs, from winning this race in 2018 and locking up the Factory Stock championship, to the memorable TSR double up in 2023, to being fully pregnant at the Champions dinner in 2024,\u201d Pruett explained. \u201cAll of these things were ultimate goals that came to full actualization, which lends itself to confidence and momentum that everything is bigger in Texas. For me, getting a second diamond Wally of the season it\u2019s the premier goal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on October 15, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Matt Hagan Aims to Maintain Points Lead, Leah Pruett Flying Mobil 1 Colors in Dallas<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship rolls into Texas Motorplex for the 38th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals, and Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) enters the fourth event of the six-race playoff with strong momentum across both Nitro categories. Mobil 1 Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett and Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage Funny Car […]<\/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-105027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105027","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=105027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}