Leah Pruett was angry, and nothing was going to console her. 

Her debut with Tony Stewart Racing, at her home track at Pomona, Calif., had been deflating. She was peeved by her sluggish .118-second reaction time and an annoying 17th loss to Antron Brown as they lined up in the season’s first elimination pass, but she shrugged it off and headed to Phoenix. She had enjoyed success there: two victories, including her first in Top Fuel, and one runner-up finish. Moreover, she had set her career-best speed (334.15 mph) there.

Pomona would be a forgettable stumble. And by the time the Camping World Drag Racing Series arrived at Houston Raceway Park Friday for the SpringNationals, she would be on a hot streak. But that wasn’t how it has gone for the Dodge Power Brokers Dragster driver. She’s an uncharacteristic 13th in the standings heading into this weekend, the lowest she has been since the end of the 2015 season. 

In the first round of the Arizona Nationals at Phoenix, Pruett cut a worse light, .127 seconds. She lost to Josh Hart on a holeshot – despite her best pass of the weekend, and an outstanding one at that: a 3.699-second elapsed time. Her temper got the best of her because, she said, she “just flat-out lost, 100-percent my fault.” 

So she took it out on her locker in the lounge of her hauler. 

“I share it with the crew guys. You open up all the lockers, looks like a high school. I've got so many collages of all my wins taped up on the back side of the door on the inside, along with a lot of pictures of fans that they give me,” Pruett said. “After Phoenix, I was just so upset because I hadn't figured out a solution to get me right yet. 

“Tony was up there with me and just kind of talking with me. First, we talk as husband and wife in a situation like that, and then we talk about our next steps,” Pruett said. “But I was so mad and only mad at myself and so mad and disappointed for the team [that] I ripped down all of my collages of all the wins that I had. Tony’s like, ‘Stop doing that. Don't do that.’ 

“He knows exactly what I was doing. I've seen him do those things before. I needed a reset, and he's like, ‘You look at those every day when you're in your lounge, and it proves to you that you can do it and you've done it. You can do it again.’ In that moment I forget exactly what I said, but I said, ‘I have done it, but that was yesterday and that's not today. Today's a new day, and clearly what I've been doing isn't working for me now, so I need to rewrite it.’ 

“So I didn't throw them away, by any means. They’re really nice collages,” Pruett said. “They're still in my locker, and I have a very bare lounge now. And every time I see that I'm like, ‘I need to fill it up, time to win this.’” 

And that was Pruett’s mindset as she approached this weekend, looking for her first victory since last July at Pomona. She’s working at converting her angry energy into a more positive outlook and productive output. 

“I will say my team has far exceeded my expectations for how well we gel. It says something we don't have to work at. Our chemistry is there now,” she said. “Just the physical win lights have yet to come on, but we're really close.” 

Meanwhile, Matt Hagan, her Funny Car teammate at Tony Stewart Racing, won the Gatornationals and the SpringNationals, and has reached the final round at the past four events. He was top qualifier at Phoenix, where he also set low E.T. and top speed of the meet. 

But Pruett, who said she has experienced “some new emotions, for sure,” said she isn’t questioning why Hagan is enjoying early-season success and she is struggling. Hagan volunteered his insight. 

“The transition for me has been seamless because I was able to bring my entire crew over, my crew chief that I've been with that we won multiple championships with . . . I mean, other than one crew guy in a different place. We pretty much have the same team that we've had for multiple years,” he said. “She just had to pretty much build an entire new team. 

“For me, trust is earned. You don't just give someone your trust. They have to earn your trust,” Hagan said. “Same with bottom-end guys. You got to make sure they're not going to not put the rods together and torque them right or hang a rod out of the block or cylinder head guys got to make sure it's run down right or I'll burn a head off and catch you on fire and stuff like that. So I jump in my race car, knowing that these guys have earned my trust over the years and that I'm focused on just one thing: leaving the starting line and keeping it in the groove. 

“When you start over with a new team – and I think this with anybody, not just Leah – that trust has to be earned. It’s earned over an amount of time, over a matter of races, over amount of rounds, over a lot of stuff. So honestly, I feel like what they're doing and where they're at, I know maybe it doesn't reflect the points or whatever.” 

“But,” Hagan said, “For a brand-new startup team with new parts and pieces and new people that still have to earn her trust and she has to earn their trust, I think it's honestly pretty exceptional for what they're doing right now . . . to go, like, ‘Boom, here you go, all new stuff, new people, new parts,’ it's pretty incredible. I remember when I started, my first time and I was still learning to drive the race car and had all new people and all this other stuff and there was a million things running through my head. And now nothing runs through my head. It's like get in, do your job, put your mouthpiece in, and kick their throat in. But all that other stuff has to go away first.” 

Pruett said, “Matt’s worked really hard with creating those relationships with his team. So there's nothing that I look to, like, ‘Why aren't we having the same results?’ Matt has the same equipment and so when you have that same equipment and you know it's running properly, you have the opportunities to tick back on it and improve it and look back at your notes. We are a team with, like, no notes. We are running a much different chassis. So how it moves, how it flexes, weight transfer, all brand new to us. It's different. It's nothing that we've had in the last five years. Let's say that. 

“Our performance pieces, we don't know where their power band lies. So we're in school right now. We are in training with our team. Matt, he's graduated college, he’s out there, he's got a career in it. We're still learning our parts and pieces.” 

Hagan saw that she was frustrated early on and approached her with some encouragement. 

Pruett said, “He goes, ‘Hey, you know, I want you to take this the best way possible . . . I'm here to help. You know, my first two races, I had triple-digit lights and I had squeezed the throttle on both first rounds of eliminations and it's really, like, really in my head. Matt came over and told me some tips about what he does and the exact mental process that he goes through that gets him in that place to be able to stomp on their throats. And so I would try that in qualifying, and then I would be so immersed I would forget to,” she said. “Then I'd come back to Matt, and I'm like, ‘I totally forgot to do the thing.’ And he's like, ‘It's OK. It'll come, and if it feels right it will be there.’ 

“It ended up working and happening and he's taking time out of him stomping everybody into the dirt to come over to see what he can do and ask me if he can help,” Pruett said. “You know, Antron's been that teammate to me for a long time, as well, and there are a couple people. But it's just, man, we really are one team, all team, and it starts with Tony. I get to live it every day, in and out. It's really cool, and it's really fun. This is the most fun I've had racing since I was winning in Pro Mod. It's a really cool time for us to be alive, and I feel like the more that you experience life in different ways, the more invigorating life is. And right now, I feel like Matt and I and Tony are, like, super-invigorated.” 

That showed in Pruett’s run Friday at Houston. She wound up sixth in the provisional order, which might not sound stellar but actually was, as the eight quickest put on a clinic for the fans. It signaled that Pruett is headed in the right direction and right now. 

She said her team is “growing, I mean, just like just like a farm – and we have so many great seeds and then Tony's been watering it well. That run right there is really for our Dodge Power Brokers. That is a program that is just growing and starting up right now, and it is massively powerful. So guys, that's for you and for all of my other Dodge enthusiasts who want to power up your cars a little bit more. Man, that just felt so good. You know, it wasn't NASA-fast (went to the Johnson Space Center recently), but that's as fast as we wanted to go right there so that we could pick away at it.”