Dodge\/\/SRT racers Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan are on a roll right now in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series following impressive Top Fuel and Funny Car victories at the recent Texas NHRA FallNationals race. The pair will look for some \u201cSin City\u201d luck this weekend (Oct. 27-29) at the NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas, the penultimate event in the 21-race NHRA national drag racing tour, as the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) teammates currently lead the Top Fuel and Funny Car points standings with their Sublime Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT nitro machines.<\/p>\n
Pruett holds a four-point lead in the Top Fuel points with her TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT dragster, while running mate Hagan jumped to the No. 1 spot in Funny Car by 36 markers in his TSR Direct Connection Dodge\/\/SRT Hellcat as they seek to repeat their Texas \u201cdouble-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagan also looks for his third consecutive NHRA race win this weekend following victories at St. Louis and Texas, while Pruett is seeking a third-straight final round appearance and second consecutive win. In addition, Hagan goes after his 50th NHRA career win and second straight Las Vegas triumph, having won the Funny Car category at the Four-Wide Nationals event in Vegas in April.<\/p>\n
Enjoying a stellar season with eight NHRA national event victories combined, Pruett (two wins) and Hagan (six wins) have both credited their team owner, Tony Stewart, for his leadership in guiding their respective teams to the top of the standings. The duo is hoping to add to the legacy of Hall of Fame racer Stewart, who has captured multiple motorsports championships during his prestigious racing career, including in NASCAR and a wide range of racing series, by bringing home NHRA championships in their respective classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony has been a great leader with this TSR team,\u201d said Hagan, who chases his fourth NHRA World Funny Car championship. \u201cWe are growing as a team and Tony puts a \u2018family unit\u2019 feel around his entire organization. Our two nitro teams are really working well together despite being different classes. The enjoyment at the track holds true for my crew guys and Leah\u2019s crew. Now, we are in a fight for the championships, and we\u2019ll use Tony\u2019s experience in chasing a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
That team camaraderie couldn\u2019t have shown through better than at the last NHRA event in Texas, when Hagan and Pruett scored TSR\u2019s first \u201cdouble-up\u201d with the twin wins in the nitro classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the \u2018double-up\u2019 we have been looking for,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cWe have been trying to win both classes in a race for the past two seasons and we were close with Leah winning at Norwalk and Matt winning at St. Louis. I\u2019m so excited for our drivers, crews and partners like Dodge and Direct Connection for this double class win. You could see both teams yelling and cheering at the starting line after the wins. And we have the points leads with two races to go. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pruett acknowledges that the TSR team\u2019s \u201cdouble win\u201d ranks at the top of her drag racing career moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dallas race has become my greatest racing memory overall,\u201d said Pruett. \u201cThat\u2019s how monumental this win was for me and being a part of the TSR team, and with Matt winning as well and how important that race was for us in the NHRA \u2018Countdown.\u2019 Our teams worked so well together. Matt\u2019s car needed some equipment, so my team jumped in to help the Funny Car guys. That\u2019s a great team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Hagan and Pruett emphasize Stewart\u2019s excitement after the Texas double win, but Stewart has won many championships as a driver and team owner and is preparing his TSR team for another title run.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so happy as a team that Sunday night, but the next day were back in our race mode preparing for the Las Vegas event,\u201d said Pruett, Stewart\u2019s wife and a 12-time NHRA Top Fuel race winner. \u201cI think Tony\u2019s overall team atmosphere helps everyone here. The highest virtue that Tony has is treating people well. He helps me and our team with a racer\u2019s mentally because he has been there and won in everything. It\u2019s a huge help for everyone on the TSR team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagan uses Stewart and his experience as a driver to help him with his racing situations on and off the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving Tony as a team owner takes pressure off of me because he understands what it\u2019s like behind the wheel,\u201d said Hagan, a five-time winner at Las Vegas. \u201cHe understands the pressure of being a driver. But he\u2019s also a team and track owner and manages a lot of people. For me, it\u2019s important to have a guy I can go to. I can relate to Tony because he knows how to handle the pressure (of the racing). He is tremendous person and great mentor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
While leading the TSR Nitro team at the Nevada Nationals, Stewart will also be in action, driving in the Top Alcohol Dragster category in the NHRA Nevada Nationals. Stewart won his first NHRA national event in the division earlier this year at the Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
The NHRA Nevada Nationals event schedule will include two nitro qualifying sessions on Friday, Oct. 27, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. PDT and two nitro qualifying rounds on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. PDT. The final eliminations will begin on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 11 a.m. PDT.<\/p>\n
The Fox Sports 1 telecasts for the NHRA Nevada Nationals will air on Friday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. EDT with qualifying round one and qualifying round two on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m. EDT.\u00a0 The final eliminations will be televised on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 5 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n
The post Dodge\/\/SRT Drivers Pruett, Hagan Head to Las Vegas After Texas Wins, Look to Extend NHRA Top Fuel, Funny Car Points Leads<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dodge\/\/SRT racers Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan are on a roll right now in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series following impressive Top Fuel and Funny Car victories at the recent Texas NHRA FallNationals race. The pair will look for some \u201cSin City\u201d luck this weekend (Oct. 27-29) at the NHRA Nevada Nationals in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90110","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}