Leah Pruett collected her first win of the season and the first in Top Fuel for the newly-formed Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Sunday at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals at the Bandimere Sopeedway in Morrison, Colorado. Perhaps more importantly, she turned around what had been a challenging first half of the season at the most opportune of times: in front of the Dodge brass at their long-running marquee race.
“This is absolutely everything. This being the Dodge Power Brokers (Mile-High) Nationals we brokered that Dodge power all week long. My crew has been flawless all weekend long and couldn’t be more proud to do this in front of these Denver Fans. I’ll say two things; this view never gets old. Also, this is the first Top Fuel win for Tony Stewart Racing and that will also never get old.”
“For those that don’t know, Tony won his Camping World SRX Series race last night. We wanted to keep the wins in the family and get another win, so that was great. What you guys are seeing here is pure gratitude for my team and the belief that Tony has had in us. We’ve had a tough season so far, but the team is optimistic and this is deserved long-term goals and you’re seeing the short-term results of it.”
Through the season’s first 10 races, Pruett had appeared in just 14 total elimination rounds, with a 5-9 raceday record and five first-round losses. She failed to qualify at the Gatornationals, but rebounded to make the semifinals at the Las Vegas four-wides. She then provided a glimpse of things to come with a semifinal appearance at the last race on tour at Norwalk, Ohio.
At Denver, she opened qualifying with a provisional-pole-winning lap of 3.788-seconds at 326.79 mph, but was later bumped to third, despite improving to a 3.771 at 322.50 mph. On raceday, she defeated former DSR teammate Antron Brown in round one (3.910), Clay Millican in the quarter-finals (4.059), and Justin Ashley in the semis (3.879) to set up a final round match with Shawn Langdon. Langdon, however, was shut off with a leak on the starting line in the money-round, allowing Pruett to solo to a 3.884-second victory lap.
“We have the best fans in the entire nation. This is my favorite track. I’ve been trying to be emotionless all day just to do my job, but this is for Neal Strausbaugh (crew chief), Mike Domagala (co-crew chief), Ryan McGilvry (car chief), and my entire Dodge Power Brokers crew that has been flawless all weekend. I told you guys a long…
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