CHARITY CHALLENGE ROUND 2: LEAH VS. PAPA JOHN

Papa John’s International Inc, the Official Pizza Partner of the NHRA, will have two gold cars on the racetrack this weekend at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals for the second round of the Charity Challenge to benefit the Infinite Hero Foundation.

“Papa John” Schnatter, chairman and CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, will try to even the score against Leah Pritchett, winner of three NHRA Top Fuel titles this year with her points-leading Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel dragster.

“Papa John” will race his prized 1971 Camaro Z28, the same car he bought for $1,600 when he was 15 years old from money he made washing dishes at Rocky’s Sub Pub in his hometown of Jeffersonville, Indiana. He eventually sold it to keep his dad out of bankruptcy and start the very first Papa John’s pizzeria. In 2009, he was reunited with his cherished Camaro.

Pritchett, who won the first round of the Charity Challenge last month at Gainesville, Fla., will be running a supercharged Gen III HEMI in a 2017 Dodge Challenger configured for drag racing.

Papa John and DSR owner Don Schumacher each will donate $10,000 to Infinite Hero Foundation after each Challenge Round.

Additional Charity Challenge races are tentatively scheduled for NHRA national events at Chicago (July 8), Indianapolis (Sept. 2) and Dallas (Oct. 14).