Leah Pruett has many great memories at Firebird Motorsports Park, dating back to her Junior Dragster days and winning her first Top Fuel race in 2016. The new mother was seeking another one Sunday in the NHRA Arizona Nationals, reaching the final round in her Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Rayce Rudeen Foundation Dodge dragster. Pruett settled for an impressive runner-up finish in just her second race since returning to the cockpit, while TSR Dodge teammate Matt Hagan drove to the semifinals in the Funny Car class.
Pruett, who nearly won the 2023 NHRA Mission Top Fuel world championship before taking a two-year layoff to start a family with husband Tony Stewart, returned to action two weeks ago at the NHRA Gatornationals with a quarterfinal finish in her TSR Dodge Direct Connection dragster. This weekend at the Arizona Nationals, Pruett was set to fight for the race win after qualifying second Saturday at 3.788.
With air temperatures over 100 degrees and track surfaces over 140, all of the Nitro teams were studying their charts for the proper traction at the tricky track, and Pruett’s crew chiefs Neal Strasbaugh and Mike Domagala were no different. However, the TSR brain thrust was on its game Sunday with impressive round wins by Pruett over Cameron Ferre, Gatornationals winner Josh Hart and reigning NHRA Mission Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta.
After wins of 3.827, 3.887 and 3.887 in the early rounds, Pruett faced longtime rival Shawn Langdon, a fellow competitor in Junior Dragsters with Pruett. Langdon entered the final round with two consecutive Arizona Nationals titles (2024 and 2025), but Pruett had lane choice. Both drivers had nearly identical reaction times off the starting line, but Langdon’s 3.877 beat Pruett’s 3.930 for the California driver’s third straight Phoenix win.
Despite the final round loss, Pruett ranks fourth in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel points entering the next round on April 10-12 at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.
“The attitude and confidence in our program really showed throughout the entire weekend of having a good handle on our horsepower level,” said Pruett, who had son, Dominic, in tow when she wasn’t in the car and talking with the team. “So, besides the final round win, I couldn’t be more happy with my team, especially in these conditions. I am so grateful. This weekend was a great testament to my team and my crew chiefs (Strausbaugh and Domagala) who really carry the team. I feel ten times better than I did in Gainesville, and I didn’t think that that was possible.
“We’re competitive and we’re happy with our consistent runs and being quick given the hot conditions. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to take a moment and be a little bit bummed and upset about a final round that we all wanted really bad. It’s wild. Our crew chiefs were darn near perfect. And that’s what we build on. That is momentum.”
Four-time NHRA Funny Car champion Matt Hagan, Pruett’s TSR teammate, was seeking another Arizona Nationals race win after qualifying fourth in the 16-car field in the nitro-burning TSR Johnson Horsepowered Garage Dodge//SRT Hellcat.
Hagan, a past Arizona Nationals race winner in 2015, 2017 and 2019, took his 12,000-horsepower HEMI® engine-powered machine to round wins Sunday over former world champ Cruz Pedregon and new John Force driver Jordan Vandergriff.
Facing the No. 1 qualifier, Spencer Hyde, in the semifinals with a track surface of 144 degrees, Hagan jumped to a starting line advantage and held the lead until his mount lost traction at mid-track. Hagan regrouped and fought back to miss out at the finish line by a few feet with Hyde’s 4.185 to Matt’s 4.211.
“It was a super tricky weekend,” said Hagan, who heads to the NHRA Winternationals fifth in the Mission Funny Car points. “Obviously, the air temperature was super-hot, triple digits, as well as a hot track. I’m really proud of my TSR guys. They put a great racecar underneath me. There was a bad bump in the left lane and trying to navigate thatbump with the heat was tough. When the car goes over that bump, it wantsto spin the tires.
“With what we had in front of us, I was really proud that our guyswere able to get me down on the track. In the second round, the crew clickedoff the motor, and in third round, I clickedit off myself because I was over next to the wall due to some (cylinder) holes out. Butwe lost by less than half a car length. We’re not beating ourselves. We are giving ourselves an opportunity to win. I just will try to turn some more win lights onand take race wins before we get too far into this season.”
TSR team owner Tony Stewart, driving the Elite Racing Top Fuel dragster, actually ran against his wife in qualifying for the first time in Top Fuel competition in Friday’s first qualifying round. Pruett beat Stewart to the finish line. Stewart qualified fifth at Phoenix and advanced to the quarterfinals after a strong 3.823 run against Shawn Reed. But in the quarterfinals, Stewart lost to Maddi Gordon, 3.851 to 3.950.
“I don’t think Tony and I really got to enjoy our first head-to-head experience (in qualifying),” Pruett admitted. “With it being Q1 and the new schedules were printed, and we’re like, ‘oh, yeah,’ we’re gonna run each other. We actually had very similar performances as well. So, we have that first one out of the way, but I’m looking forward to when we get to absorb the moment more in the future.”
The NHRA Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., is the next NHRA Mission Drag Racing Series event scheduled for April 10-12 at Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Nitro qualifying will begin on Friday, April 10, at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. PDT, while Saturday’s action is set for at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. PDT. Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. PDT on Sunday, April 12. The Fox telecast will be viewed at 6:30 p.m. EDT/3:30 p.m. PDT on Fox Sports 1.
This story was originally published on March 23, 2026. 
