Leah Pruett, Driver of the Sparkling Ice +Caffeine Top Fuel Dragster Heads to Seattle

Kent, WA – The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington, marks the culmination of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series’ three-week long Western Swing and the series’ return to the Seattle area after a two-year absence. The two previous events of the Western Swing were the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals July 15-17 at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado, and the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals last weekend at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals is the 13th event on the NHRA’s 22-race calendar.

Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) will be represented in Top Fuel by 10-time event winner Leah Pruett. Pruett Seattle representing Sparkling Ice +Caffeine.

Sparkling Ice +Caffeine is a zero sugar, full-flavored sparkling water containing 70 milligrams of caffeine, along with vitamins and antioxidants. Sparkling Ice +Caffeine comes in six refreshing flavors: Black Raspberry, Blue Raspberry, Cherry Vanilla, Orange Passion Fruit, Strawberry and Citrus Twist. Pruett has served as an ambassador for Sparkling Ice since 2014 and the brand has been a part of all 10 of her Top Fuel victories.

Leah talks about Seattle and the western swing.

Seattle marks the culmination of the NHRA’s three-week Western Swing. Having completed all the rounds in Denver and following it up with a strong weekend in Sonoma, what are your expectations as you and the team head into Pacific Raceways?

“I believe our performance over the Western Swing is extremely important to the quality of performance we’re going to be able to show in Seattle. We don’t have an extraordinary amount of mechanical work to do on our parts like you would expect going into the last race. We still have our highest performing superchargers and all of our blocks. We probably have the least amount of damage compared to other teams. That means we get to end the swing like we began it, with quality parts. We’re more educated on what our raceday routine is like and have been improving upon that. It’ll be nice to have Seattle be the culmination of our Western Swing and end it solidly. From an energy perspective, it’s a long couple of weeks, but we’re more excited than ever. You go into the Swing with some big question marks and it looks like such a big mountain to climb, but we actually looked forward to it because we know how great we’re capable of running.”

What similarities are there between racing at Sonoma and Seattle?

“It’ll be very similar. If we were able to re-run our raceday in Sonoma, we would throw a lot more power to the car. We didn’t know it was needed, that the conditions would make that power and that the track could hold. With Seattle being so similar, it’s almost like it’s going to be our vindication, a second chance if you will. Having two comparable tracks back-to-back means everything is fresh in our minds from a tuning perspective. We already know where we missed the mark in Sonoma if we could redo our second round, so that just catapults us into the mindset of being set up for Seattle, as opposed to recreating a baseline. Seattle will be Sonoma 2.0 for us and, hopefully, with the results of Denver.”

The headquarters for the Sparkling Ice brand is located 30 miles northeast of Kent in Preston, Washington. Talk about the significance of competing in a home race for Sparkling Ice +Caffeine.

“I couldn’t think of a better race to have Sparkling Ice +Caffeine on the car, with it being their home race. For us, with it being the conclusion of the Western Swing and, hopefully, really good results to show from Seattle, we have yet to celebrate any of our momentum and our win from Denver. We’ve had a couple Sparkling Ice Cocktails here and there, but there is going to be a sigh of relief after the swing and congratulations that are well deserved for the team. We’ve saved that up to experience that with our liveliest bunch of people that really make racing a fun atmosphere. I’m looking forward to all of the colors and all of the win lights.”