In Friday’s opening Top Fuel qualifying session at the NHRA’s Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, early leader Leah Pritchett was one-thousandth of a second shy of equaling Doug Kalitta’s year-old track elapsed-time record. She led the Norwalk, Ohio, field with a 3.720-second pass on the 1,000-foot course.

The two Alan Johnson-tuned dragsters of Brittany Force (who jumped from 15th after the first session to second) and Steve Torrence came back in the evening session to topple Kalitta’s record at 3.714 and 3.715 seconds, respectively.

But Kalitta powered his Mac Tools Dragster to the top of the list in the day’s final pairing and reclaimed his record with a 3.709-second pass for the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot at Summit Motorsports Park.

"My record was taking a beating!” Kalitta said.

“But I was just hopeful that we could go up there and run strong. Fortunately, Jim and the Mac Tools Toyota guys had a great tune-up for the track tonight. The Mac Tools machine got to about half-track and was really pulling. I knew it was on a good run. Great night. It is great to keep our record and see if we can keep it tomorrow."

If he can, he would rack up his fourth No. 1 qualifier in the past five seasons and his third in a row here at this track that’s less than 100 miles from Kalitta Motorsports' headquarters at Ypsilanti, Mich.

It also would be the first time this year that he would lead the field into Sunday eliminations.

Pritchett’s Q1 speed in the Papa John’s Pizza Dragster was 322.27 mph, more than 10 mph slower than Larry Dixon’s 332.51 that has stood since 2015. Antron Brown, although he finished the day as No. 5 in the order, came close to breaking the track speed mark. He posted a 332.26-mph speed in the Matco Tools / Toyota Dragster.

Pritchett is No. 4 overnight. Brown is fifth so far, most recent winner Clay Millican is sixth, with Terry McMillen seventh and Tony Schumacher rounding out the top half of the tentative grid.