Leah Pruett & Matt Hagan Ready for NHRA Four-Wide Nationals

Published March 31, 2022

Las Vegas – Notes of Interest: – The NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the fourth event on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series’ 22-race calendar in 2022. Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) brings its two fulltime entries – one in Top Fuel for nine-time event winner Leah Pruett and one in Funny Car for three-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan – to the track that is 2,030 feet above sea level. Hagan delivered TSR’s first victory in the series’ prior event at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway, driving his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to his 40th career victory in the 53rd NHRA Gatornationals. It was his first Gatornationals win in 14 attempts.

– Dodge Power Brokers and Direct Connection return to Hagan’s Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car this weekend in Las Vegas. The Dodge Power Brokers program serves as the exclusive source for Direct Connection, Dodge’s factory-backed performance parts program, which is equipped with staff trained to deliver a performance-focused customer service experience.

– Code 3 Associates, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization specializing in animal rescue and recovery in disaster areas, adorns Pruett’s Top Fuel dragster at Las Vegas. Code 3 Associates has gained notoriety among the NASCAR community for its association with Stewart and his NASCAR team, Stewart-Haas Racing. The successful partnership has led the Colorado-based organization to deepen its motorsports involvement by partnering with TSR in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Formed in 1985, Code 3 Associates has evolved from one unpaid volunteer to at least 75 professional responders around the country, which includes animal welfare, law enforcement, fire, EMS and veterinary specialists from the United States and Canada. While its focus is animals and their owners, Code 3 Associates trains its responders to the standards of human rescue, and Code 3 Associates also provides training to conduct thorough investigations into animal welfare, all of which is accredited by Colorado State University (CSU) and the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

– The Four-Wide Nationals will mark Pruett’s 175th career Top Fuel start. It’ll be her 14th overall start at Las Vegas and her fourth in the Four-Wide Nationals. For Hagan, the Four-Wide Nationals will be his 297th career Funny Car start. It’ll be his 26th overall start at Las Vegas and his fourth in the Four-Wide Nationals.

– Pruett is looking for her first victory at the Four-Wide Nationals. She was the runner-up to Steve Torrence in the 2018 fall event. Pruett earned one No. 1 qualifier at Las Vegas on Nov. 2, 2019 with an ET of 3.654 seconds at 330.47 mph, which set a new track record.

– Hagan has one career Four-Wide win – at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina, in 2013 when he defeated Blake Alexander, Tim Wilkerson and Chad Head.

Coming off his victory at Gainesville, Hagan is seeking back-to-back wins as he rolls into the Four-Wide Nationals. He has three wins at Last Vegas prior to the track’s four-wide expansion, and they all came in the fall – 2017 when he defeated Courtney Force, 2019 when he defeated Jonnie Lindberg, and 2020 when he defeated Ron Capps. Hagan finished runner-up to Bob Tasca III in the 2021 Four-Wide Nationals.

Hagan will look to earn his fourth No. 1 start at Las Vegas, but his first since the track was reconfigured to four lanes. He scored his first No. 1 qualifier in October 2009 (4.030 ET at 313.88 mph), his second in November 2014 (3.983 ET at 322.42 mph) and his third in April 2015 (4.007 ET at 318.02 mph).

DYK The Strip at Last Vegas Motor Speedway opened in 2000 and is home to two NHRA national events, in addition to more than 50 other events annually. The four-wide expansion was completed in 2018, where the entire racing surface was removed and only the walls remained. The track brought in 10,000 tons of gravel, 8,000 tons of asphalt and 4,400 cubic yards of concrete to complete the project and make the track just one of two drag strips in the nation to feature four-wide racing, with zMAX Dragway being the other.

The Four-Wide Nationals have been around for a while now, both at Las Vegas and Charlotte. But for the novice fan, how are the Four-Wide Nationals different from a regular, straight-up, car-to-car battle down the strip?

“The Four-Wide Nationals is an amplifier of the nitro sensory experience. It requires paying additional attention to each quad on track in order to process all of the action that is happening. If you’re just staring at lane one and watching that car, you will not even realize what happened in lane four. You need the ultimate earmuffs, so this is a close-your-ears-and-open-your-eyes kind of a race.”

How much do you pay attention to the other three drivers, or do you just focus on you, your car and your light?

“While in my race, I am zoned in on my lane and my tree. Traditionally in a two-wide, the second lane would be ‘right’ and you would look at your stage bulbs on the right side of the tree. Not the case here. In lane two you feel you are in the right, but you have to be ultra-conscious that your stage bulb is on the left side of the tree. It seems simple, but many mess-ups happen from drivers thinking about their staging, but looking at the wrong bulb. I pay a considerable amount of attention by watching as many quads as possible throughout the weekend and getting the visual cadence down.”

Does the level of gamesmanship at the line ratchet up at the Four-Wide Nationals, or is it just double what a regular race would be?

“I would say doubled is the right amount. It could seem like more, but it is difficult to tell if someone is staging early or late to be strategic, or just hyper focused on getting their own car properly staged in time. As a driver, you have to expect it all at once.”

TSR is still in the early stages of its inaugural season – does it help that Las Vegas is akin to the conditions you already experienced when you tested at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix and then again when you raced there for the second event of the season?

“Vegas might bring some of the most challenging conditions thus far because of its altitude. Neal (Strausbaugh, crew chief) and Mike (Domagala, co-crew chief) have done a great job honing in on what our power band and window looks like, especially since testing last week in Indianapolis. I believe the progress we made last week has accelerated our preparation for Vegas.”

What do you want to get out of this race weekend?

“We want to get some glowed-up win lights! A Wally is not impossible and out of reach because we have the people and parts do it, but some solid confidence-building momentum through good, quality, clean runs and quick reactions would be a winning hand for us.”

“You just never know what will happen at Las Vegas with it being the four-wides and having to pay extra attention to what’s going on. It’s more of a dangerous track for us drivers because we have to go to the end no matter what on race day.”

How much do you pay attention to the other three drivers, or do you just focus on you, your car and your light?

“You can never see over to the two additional cars on track. No matter what on Sunday, it is going to the end. As a driver, you have to have the mindset of take it down the track, no matter what, even if it’s on fire. It’s a little different mentality of rolling into Vegas or Charlotte with a four-wide race.”

Does the level of gamesmanship at the line ratchet up at the Four-Wide Nationals, or is it just double what a regular race would be?

“I’ve done a little bit of everything at Vegas from red lights to win the race, and it’s a bit of a chaotic event. There’s a lot going on with staging and trying to remember which lane you’re in. Sometimes, it’s tough with two cars, much less four.”

“Las Vegas is always a great race to go to. It has a bit of altitude and is actually half the altitude of Denver. The tune-up is a little different there, but we seem to do really well at Vegas.”

What do you want to get out of this race weekend?

“I’m excited about it because our car has been running great. I’m really happy with my lights so far. The car has been reacting really well to what Dickie (Venables, crew chief) has been doing with the tune-up. I think we’re going to have a great weekend in Vegas. We have a lot of momentum coming out of Gainesville and we’re going to carry that momentum into this weekend.

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