NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

After some early season struggles, Leah Pruett enjoyed her best day at the races so far in 2022 with a pair of solid runs in her Tony Stewart Racing Top Fuel dragster. After two runs on Friday, Pruett leads the field at the NHRA Four Wide Nationals. Pruett is joined at the top of the charts by John Force in Funny Car and Aaron Stanfield in Pro Stock.

Pruett got off to a rough start this season with a pair of round one losses and a difficult DNQ in Gainesville, but her performance on Friday in Las Vegas provided much hope for the future. Pruett opened with a competitive 3.772 and later topped the field with a 3.741.

Pruett’s lead over the rest of the pack is slim as Doug Kalitta is second-quickest with a 3.759 in his Mac Tools dragster while Steve Torrence (3.761) and Brittany Force (3.765) also adapted well to the warm conditions.

John Force is on pace for what could be his 164th low qualifier award thanks to a 3.887 on Friday in his Peak/Blu Def Camaro. Force qualified No. 16 at the Pomona season-opener and No. 15 in Gainesville, an event that feature just one qualifying session.

Coming off a runner-up in Gainesville, Blake Alexander continued his recent string of strong performances in Jim Head’s Mustang with a 3.913 that was the quickest run of Friday’s second session. Gainesville winner Matt Hagan is also comfortable in the show following a 3.920 in his Dodge Power Brokers Charger.

The top ten Funny Car drivers are in the threes including Bob Tasca III, Ron Capps, Robert Hight, Cruz Pedregon, J.R. Todd, Alexis DeJoria, and Tim Wilkerson.

Aaron Stanfield came into the Four Wide Nationals as the leader in Pro Stock and he’s helped himself with four bonus points on Friday including three for making the best run of the second session. Coming off a Top Dragster win at last week’s Division 4 event in Oklahoma, Stanfield earned the provisional pole with a 6.642.

Not surprisingly, the Pro Stock field is tightly bunched with the top eight qualifiers separated by less than four hundredths. Following Stanfield in the order are world champs Greg Anderson and Erica Enders, with Dallas Glenn, Troy Coughlin Jr., Kyle Koretsky, Matt Hartford, and Bo Butner.

Rodger Brogdon and Cristian Cuadra are currently not in the field and will have to run quicker than 6.790 in order to be a part of Sunday’s final eliminations.

You can catch the action all weekend on FOX Sports 1 and NHRA.tv.

You can follow NHRA on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to get a closer look at the action.

2021 EVENT WINNERS

Steve Torrence, Top Fuel; Bob Tasca III, Funny Car; Erica Enders, Pro Stock.

TRACK RECORDS:

TOP FUEL
3.652 seconds by Brittany Force, Nov. 2019; 338.17 mph by Brittany Force, Nov., 2019
FUNNY CAR
3.835 seconds by Jack Beckman, Nov. 2019; 335.90 mph by Jack Beckman, Nov. 2019
PRO STOCK
6.559 seconds by Erica Enders, Oct. 2015; 210.28 mph by Erica Enders, Oct. 201

SCHEDULE:

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, April 2 at 12:30 and 3 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for noon on Sunday, April 3.

TV SCHEDULE

SUNDAY April 3, FS1 will televise 90 minutes of qualifying highlights at 12:30 p.m. (ET)
SUNDAY, April 3, FS1 will televise 3 hours of finals coverage at 7 p.m.