After struggling for nearly the entire first half of the 2022 NHRA season, Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett finally seems to be finding her groove.
After winning the Mile-High Nationals in Denver Sunday, Pruett responded  Friday night by taking the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot at the Denso Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals.

Pruett, driving for her husband’s Tony Stewart Racing team, clocked a 3.689-second time at 327.59 mph.

“I was extremely excited,” Pruett said. “We had two good cars behind us, and we figured the track could hold a little bit more. What was most important for this team this weekend was starting off Q1 in a different fashion than we have the last handful of races. We considered it a little bit conservative and what that did is give a really solid look at our tuning window, our power band and exactly how big that is and where to go from there.

“I don’t know if TV caught it or not, but it pulled what is probably the biggest wheelie I ever had on the track. I felt a little jittery from it because when I left things were going fine and I had a little bit of shake and it went through that. Then at halftrack all of sudden it makes two big moves, and I was like this isn’t a power situation or a cylinder out. I was hunkering down and I don’t exactly know if there was any more particular work to do. It was nothing like Tony Schumacher (had in Denver).“

If Pruett’s time holds it would be her first No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 12th of her career.

“We all talk about how great our teams are,” Pruett said. “This is a perfect example of showing it. Even through the beginning of the season with not a lot of win lights, our crew members still continued to repair and service our parts and giving it their all time and time again. That way when the opportunity came about, and our tuning window was there that we still had the high performance of crew members as well as our parts. We went through Denver which is probably one of the most catastrophic races for a lot of teams and for us it wasn’t. That just has to go with reliable parts and people and here (Friday night) we get to see it again.

“We had a lot of people ask, how did you guys celebrate, or party (after the Denver win) and we just had a normal week. This is the middle of the (Western) Swing, nothing is more important than getting a solid, momentum-type of race and making it to the finals. We have a lot of confidence when we get to the line to execute. In our preparation, there is a lot of humility and humbleness like (Denver) and I think that is why we got the results we got to see (Friday night).”

Pruett also took a mindset of her team dealing through the hard times this year before getting to this point.

“I think it goes back to experience,” she said. “Although we are a new team, each individual on this team, starting at the top, is not new by any means. For (crew chief) Neal Strasbaugh it has been a long time coming for him to be in this position and for him to execute like that. But my teammates signed up at TSR at the beginning of the season, they knew it was going to take a certain type of character to be able to go through the lows. That’s kind of what got us through that. We knew that was going to happen, that there was going to be some aches and pains and there were people who didn’t come over because they didn’t want to be a part of a new team and that’s unfortunate for them because in order to appreciate the highs, you have to go through the lows.

“The morale starts with Tony Stewart at the top. If he started to waver and started putting the pressure on in places, then it would have trinkled down. We have been able to have a highly elevated attitude with the team and morale because of Tony, because of Neal, because of our PR department and general manager. Everybody just knew what it takes to win. The win in Denver was so big for us because it showed us where we needed to improve to do it again. That’s what we have prepared for this week.”