Pritchett guides DSR’s Demon dragster to third pole of season; Capps jumps to 3rd from 14th in NAPA Dodge, goes for fifth straight
EPPING, NH – Don Schumacher Racing’s Dodge Demon/Pennzoil dragster driven by Top Fuel points leader Leah 
Pritchett earned its third No. 1 qualifying spot Saturday in the NHRA New England Nationals at Epping, N.H.
It is the third pole of the season for Pritchett and as in the other two times when she earned the No. 1 seed, it resulted in a bye run to open Sunday in the 15-car field. She went on to win the titles from the pole at this year’s first two events of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season with DSR’s newest team.
The Funny Car leader at New England Dragway for DSR once again is the NAPA AUTO PARTS 2017 Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil driven by reigning world champion and points leader Ron Capps, who will go for his fifth straight event title when racing begins at 11 a.m. (EDT).
Following Capps for DSR is Matt Hagan (Mopa r Express Lane) in fourth, Jack Beckman (Terry Chandler’s Infinite Hero Dodge) in fifth and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Dodge) in ninth.
Capps, who won the New England title a year ago, started the fourth qualifying session seeded 14th but jumped to the third spot with a time of 3.863 (328.30).
Pritchett traded the track time record on Friday with Brittney Force, and then reclaimed it to start Saturday with a time of 3.673 seconds at 328.86 mph that held up to earn her team its third No. 1 seed of the season through nine Mello Yello events.
What made this pole more special to Pritchett was that it was with a unique paint scheme that is a collaboration between DSR and Pennzoil to promote the new Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, which will be released to the public later this year.
“A lot of fans love it, we love it,” she said.
“It’s bringing out our inner Demon, so to speak, even though we’re still gold-blooded and gold-hearted,” she added in reference to her normal gold Papa John’s Pizza dragster.
“The guys back at home (at DSR are) making us look so good, and our lack of parts failures is due to our machine and fabrication shops. We wouldn’t to have a Dodge Demon dragster if it wasn’t for Pennzoil and Mopar. This whole entire weekend has been about teamwork.
“I want to say that I am above and beyond grateful and blessed to be able to be in this car. Don Schumacher has had the vision for it and has been able to put the right people in the right places and I’m honored to be here. We just want to keep going No. 1 as much as possible for everybody.”
The New England Nationals is the race Capps looks to as a turning point the past season when it started a run of three titles in four races over four weeks that helped propel his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge to his first world championship.
“We weren’t testing, we weren’t doing anything weird,” Capps said of not finishing his first three qualifying runs under power. “You know we put the new fuel pump on at Topeka, we won the race on Sunday. It’s just a different animal. We got here and (crew chief Rahn) Tobler was just kind of chasing it.
“That’s what’s great about Tobler, (assistant Eric Lane) and all the NAPA AutoCare guys. You know, we might have issues in the pit area but it’s so fun to watch them get through it and go up there and finally have a plan come together.”
