Hagan Goes to Sixth Straight Semifinals and Maintains Points Lead in TSR Dodge NHRA Funny Car, Pruett Advances to Top Fuel Quarterfinals at St. Louis

“The pressure is huge out here,” said Hagan, the 2025 Midwest Nationals winner. “Fortunately, I'm kind of old and I've been through it. I’ve experienced a lot, won some championships along the way, so you always feel like you can rise to the occasion and try to give your guys the best you can. It’s intense, but that's how we love it. I absolutely just dig in deep and try to work hard for these TSR Dodge guys, and they're doing the same thing giving me a great car.

“We had a great weekend in this American Rebel Light Beer Dodge//SRT Hellcat, nothing to hang our heads about. We did well in qualifying, picking up points, the ‘Last Dog Standing’ low qualifier on Friday night. Mike Knudsen, Phil Shuler and Alex Conaway have this car dialed in. We had to make some changes before that semifinal. We did stick a new supercharger on there, and maybe it had a little bit more meat than we needed and it smoked the tires. But we’re still leaving here with the points lead. This is absolutely one of the toughest championship fights in a long time. It’s going to come down to the last race in Pomona, a dog fight to the end. We're here for it.”

TSR Dodge Top Fuel racer Leah Pruett, Hagan’s teammate, was sharp on the starting line lights Sunday in the Midwest Nationals with her blue Pellera Dodge dragster by scoring a “holeshot” first-round victory over Kyle Wurtzel at a close 3.735 to Wurtzel’s 3.733. Pruett, fourth in the current NHRA Mission Top Fuel points, had the tough position to oppose current points leader Shawn Langdon, winner of three straight NHRA national events, in the quarterfinals.

But Pruett and her crew, led by Neal Strausbaugh and Mike Domagala, were up for the challenge as she battled Langdon right to the finish line before Langdon’s 3.714 topped Pruett’s 3.770. Langdon went on to capture his fourth consecutive win in the final round.

“On race day, we backed the tune-up off again for the first round,” said Pruett. “It was a good run, but it wasn’t clean. We were fighting new mechanical gremlins, definitely not what you want on race day. We had valvetrain issues in the warmup and, ultimately, we ended up backing the tune-up off too much. Both rounds, our competition came out swinging against us, which shows that our Pellera Dodge team is never to be taken lightly.

“In the second round, we were seeded against the best car on the property, the No. 1 qualifier, the points leader, and ultimately the race winner in that round. The opportunity was there, to take out the points leader in the same round that all of our close points company just got eliminated. But we were unable to seize it. Our power just wasn’t there. We are deep diving into these issues and have no other intentions besides swinging hard in Dallas.”

Stewart, the NASCAR Hall of Famer and former series champion also in IndyCar and USAC, drove his R+L Carriers/Elite Motorsports Top Fuel dragster to the quarterfinals after a competitive battle with veteran Josh Hart in the first round of eliminations. In that round, Stewart’s 3.762 wasn’t enough to defeat Will Smith’s 3.721 as Smith went to the Top Fuel final round.

Stewart remains third in the NHRA Mission Top Fuel standings, just ten points in front of his wife, who has yet to race her husband in the eliminations after 17 races. That matchup could still happen in Texas at the NHRA FallNationals on Oct. 16–18.

In the Factory Stock Showdown final round from the postponed Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals two weeks ago, Lee Hartman took the win in his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak over David Janac with a strong 7.511 pass at 176.67 mph.

The popular Texas NHRA FallNationals will see Hagan, Pruett and Stewart back in action beginning on Friday, Oct. 16, with two rounds of qualifying at 5:15 and 8 p.m. CDT. Saturday's qualifying rounds are scheduled for noon and 2:30 p.m. CDT. Final eliminations are set for Sunday, Oct. 18, at 12 p.m. CDT. The final eliminations will be televised Sunday on Fox Sports 1 at 4 p.m. EDT.

For more information on NHRA, visit NHRA.com

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