In the offseason, NASCAR and racing legend Tony Stewart constructed the Tony Stewart Racing team with nitro Funny Car driver Matt Hagan and his wife, Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett.

Hagan’s team has not missed a beat, winning three races.

Last season, nothing went right for Robert Hight.

After dominating the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series in 2019 and then missing the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hight had high expectations that his team would pick right up where they left off last season. But that never happened.

It has been three years since the Pro Stock category last raced at Bandimere Speedway, the track affectionately known as Thunder Mountain.

At that event Greg Anderson picked up the win in a very close race against Matt Hartford, after which the class took a break from the facility until its return this season. And no one has looked forward to that return more than Hartford.

Reigning NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion made the decision to switch from Buell to Suzuki in the offseason.

However, he didn’t get rid of his championship-winning Buell and that was a good thing this weekend.

Smith brought back out his Buell to compete in the high-altitude of the Mile-High Nationals.

Smith rode the Buell to a dominating win in 2021 at the Mile-High Nationals and history repeated itself Sunday at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., just outside of Denver.

Longtime Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous driver Chris Rini scored his first-ever Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) win Sunday night at the Drag 965 Summer Shootout presented by Classic Graphix at Virginia Motorsports Park. Rini’s .006 reaction time and 3.732-second, 202.97 MPH pass gave him the win over first-time finalist Dane Wood and his 3.963 at 178.00. 
 
The final rounds closed out a long weekend that extended into Sunday due to afternoon rain showers on Friday and Saturday. A brief shower on Sunday afternoon also tried to derail the completion of the series’ fifth of eight races. 

Leah Pruitt delivered the  first Top Fuel victory for Tony Stewart Racing at the Mile-High Nationals

Robert Hight (Funny Car), Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won at the 11th of 22 races during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. The stop in Denver marks the first event in the three-race NHRA Western Swing.
 
 

Final round-by-round results from the 42nd annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, the 11th of 22 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

Brittany Force had a lousy Friday.



It was far from a typical opening day for the best qualifier on the NHRA tour. Coming into the weekend having qualified in the top half of the field at every race this year, Force struggled during both of her runs - puting a hole out early in Q1 and then seeing her machine shut off due to a mechanical issue during Q2 - leaving the second place driver in Top Fuel points 14th on the ladder.

There are dominating efforts, and then there is what Elite Motorsports did on Saturday.

Elite Motorsports held the top three positions in qualifying and six of the top eight slots on the ladder as youthful stalwart Aaron Stanfield paced them all.