NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Brittany Force drove her Flav-R-Pac Top Fuel dragster to pole position for the second-straight race. The 2017 world champion notched a 3.670-second lap at 327.11-mph to grab pole at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, edging defending world champ Steve Torrence by a thousandth of a second. 

Force picked up a hundredth of a second from her run from the second qualifying session, allowing her to move around Torrence. She improved in each of the three qualifying sessions run and has earned pole position at every race during the 2020 Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing Series. The Californian booked a matchup against Terry Totten in the first round. 

“We were trying to run a little bit quicker than that," Force said. "That was barely around Torrence, but we stole the No. 1 spot. We got our second (green No. 1 qualifier) hat of the season. Really what our plan is, is to go out and win on race day. We’ve been consistent all weekend long with the three runs that we’ve had, but we need to do the same thing all day long tomorrow. It’s consistency. We made some mistakes carrying it over on race day a couple of weeks ago in Pomona. We’re ready for race day. We’re ready to go out and hopefully win the thing.”

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Torrence, who is racing for the first time in 2020 after missing the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com, qualified second with a 3.671. He will race Jim Maroney in the first round and chase his second win in Phoenix in the past three seasons. His father, Billy Torrence, qualified sixth and won the 2018 NHRA Arizona Nationals. 

Leah Pruett qualified third with a 3.680 and is seeking her first win in Phoenix since 2017. She won back-to-back NHRA Arizona Nationals in 2016 and 2017 and set a national elapsed time record at the track in 2017. She will race Doug Foley in the first round. Foley returned to Top Fuel action after a lengthy absence this weekend. 

Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals winner Doug Kalitta will go for his second-straight victory to continue an excellent start to the season by taking on Shawn Reed in the first round. Reed ran a 3.749 to Kalitta's 3.740. 

Justin Ashley ran a career-best 3.707 in his Aaron Brooks-tuned Strustmasters Top Fuel dragster and moved his way to the No. 5 position. That got him a meeting with Scott Palmer in the first round. Palmer is making his 2020 season debut and ran a 3.778 to qualify No. 12. 

The first round of Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Wild Horse Motorsports Park. You can get tickets here or catch all the action on NHRA.tv.