- After a winning weekend at Bristol for Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan, Sunday’s Summit Racing Nationals was an early exit for the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Dodge nitro competitors
- Pruett, with a Top Fuel victory in the New England Nationals, and Hagan, a Funny Car winner of the Thunder Valley Nationals, suffered first round defeats at the Norwalk, Ohio, NHRA event
- Pruett, looking for another Top Fuel win at Norwalk after taking the title in her last appearance in 2023, qualified third but had to face a recent Top Fuel winner Antron Brown in the first round
- In a close first-round battle, Pruett ran 3.781 to Brown’s 3.763 for her only first-round defeat of the 2026 NHRA Mission Drag Racing Series in the TSR Dodge Top Fueler in the 10th event
- Despite the early loss, Pruett remains third in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel points, as the Dodge racer now takes her 12,000-horsepower dragster to Sonoma Raceway on July 17-19
- Hagan, the four-time NHRA world champion, already scored two NHRA national wins this year in his TSR Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car and qualified sixth for Sunday’s final eliminations
- Matched up with Bristol final round rival Daniel Wilkerson, Hagan had a tough first round opponent and his car lost traction at half-track with Wilkerson advancing to round two
- Hagan, in his 19th season at the controls of a Dodge Funny Car, stays in the second position in the NHRA Mission Funny Car points standings at the halfway point of the 20-race series
- TSR team owner Stewart advanced to the quarterfinals in the R+L Carriers/Elite Motorsports Top Fueler before losing to eventual Summit Racing Nationals Top Fuel winner Maddi Gordon
Pruett, ranked third in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel points, looked strong in qualifying at the popular Norwalk, Ohio, racing facility with a 3.731 run to take the No. 3 position in the field entering Sunday’s final eliminations with her TSR Dodge Top Fuel dragster. But the first-round race was the most difficult of the Top Fuel field as the Arizona racer took on the Bristol winner and four-time world champion Antron Brown.
In the closest race of the round, Pruett’s 3.781 was not enough to defeat Brown’s 3.763, and the Dodge driver took her only first-round loss in the first 10 races of the NHRA Mission national drag racing tour. Brown went on to make the final round at the Summit Racing Nationals Sunday.
Pruett, despite the early defeat, remains third in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel points as the series makes the annual West Coast swing with events at Sonoma Raceway on July 17-19 and Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash., on July 24-26.
“We got a bad draw in the first round after qualifying third this weekend,” said Pruett. “We had to go against the guy (Antron Brown) who won the last race at Bristol. You always know if they have a tough qualifying that they can pick up their momentum for the first round. Our team isn’t down and the car ran within reason. It’s our first time losing in the first round this year. It was bound to happen as the season continues on. Our goal is that this is the one and only first-round loss. I’d rather do it now than in the Countdown.
“It stings a bit with so many family and friends and being so close to Dodge’s headquarters in Detroit. But we still have our big Dodge race in Martin, Michigan, in September. We did win here the last time I raced in 2023, and we had one of our most troubling weekends then. We ran well in qualifying here, and I’m anxious for the West Coast swing now.”
Hagan returned to the popular Ohio track after taking the Summit Racing Nationals in 2018 and placing runner-up in 2023 with his TSR Dodge//SRT Hellcat, and the Virginia racer was confident after taking
the car to sixth in qualifying. But, like Pruett, Hagan had a difficult first-round race, matched with Daniel Wilkerson, who finished runner-up to the Dodge driver at Bristol two weeks ago.
Hagan’s mount lost traction at half-track with Wilkerson advancing to round two at Norwalk. Hagan, in
his 19th season at the controls of a Dodge Funny Car, stays in the second position in the NHRA Funny
Car points standings after 10 races of the 20-event NHRA Mission national series.
“You have to take the good with the bad sometimes,” said Hagan, who captured the always-entertaining “Ice Cream Eating Contest” between fellow drag racers on Friday. “In the last race, we had Daniel (Wilkerson) in the final and we got the win. It’s like you flip a coin sometimes. Sometimes it lands on your side and sometimes on their side. That’s the way it was for the ‘marque matchup’ today. That’s the toughest pairing of the first round. Obviously, Dan and his guys didn’t do the best job in qualifying, but they did a great job in the first round. For us, it was some stuff that was going on in the bellhousing. It’s nice that Knud (Mike Knudsen, crew chief) was able to figure out what was going on with the car.
“It was uncharacteristic to smoke the tires that far down the track. Usually, when we get past the tree, we go on to a solid run. All in all, we learned a lot this weekend coming off the Bristol win. But it just wasn’t our day. He had me covered up on the tree too. The kid was up for me at the start. He came over to me after the round and said, ‘remember that!’ But we are going to regroup for the West Coast swing with Sonoma and Seattle next month. We won Seattle last year, and I have never won at Sonoma. That’s the only track I haven’t won at on the current tour. So, I know we will be ready for that one.”
Tony Stewart, TSR Dodge team owner, drove the R+L Carriers/Elite Motorsports Top Fueler to the quarterfinals with a win in the opening round over Justin Ashley. But eventual race winner Maddi Gordon bested Stewart in the quarterfinals when his dragster smoked the tires just off the starting line. Stewart remains fourth in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel standings as the NHRA Mission campaign heads to Sonoma Raceway on July 17-19. The Indiana driver is a three-time NASCAR winner at the Sonoma road course during his career.
Two-time Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown champion Mark Pawuk of Akron, Ohio, continued his development of the all-new Dodge Charger Hustle Stuff Drag Pak by qualifying eighth in the 17-car field and advancing to the quarterfinals at his home track.
The TSR Dodge duo, Pruett and Hagan, will return to nitro action at Sonoma Raceway when qualifying opens on Friday (July 17) at 5:30 p.m. and 8:10 p.m. PDT, with Saturday’s qualifying sessions set for 11:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. PDT. Final eliminations will begin at 11 a.m. PDT on Sunday (July 19). The Fox Sports 1 telecast will be shown Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. PDT.
For more information on NHRA, visit NHRA.com.
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The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar® drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Mission Drag Racing Series and NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers, competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series.
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The post Early Exits for Pruett and Hagan at Summit Racing NHRA Nationals, TSR Team Owner Stewart Goes to Quarterfinals in Top Fuel appeared first on Matt Hagan Racing.
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