Funny Car Vs Stock Car Fuel Use

Leah Pruett isn't intimidated at the prospect of driving a Top Fuel dragster. But then again, she never had a fuel-burning Funny Car pull alongside her while she was piloting one of the long sky cars either.

That's precisely what happened on the final day of the PRO Nitro Spring Training test session. Pruett and Tony Stewart Racing teammate Matt Hagan decided to give the fans a treat and run side-by-side.

"When I hear another dragster next to me, it's like, they just sound to me a little bit more high pitched," Pruett explained. "And maybe because it was my first time being against somebody in this car, I have a more encapsulated cockpit than I've ever had before. Maybe the percussions of another car; that was my first time hearing that. And so that had caught me. Not caught me off guard, but I'm like, 'Man, that thing definitely got your attention being next to it in the burnout."

If Pruett's dragster is the canine equivalent of a greyhound, Hagan's car definitely is a pit bull.

"That was super cool," Hagan said. "I mean, where do you get an opportunity to do that other than here at testing and to have Tony [Stewart] up there in between both cars, something just bought and purchased, and be able to go up there and actually stage a Top Fueler and a Funny Car together was pretty cool. The only part that wasn't cool was when at 330 I could see her nose, so I knew I was getting beat."

Yeah, in virtually every instance, a greyhound will outrun a pit bull. Or, in Stewart's other world, a stock car will outrun a sprint car. But, it was still a fun experience for the drivers and especially the fans.

Neil and I had talked about it just right before that run of like, 'Okay, this isn't a race."

"But we all had like an extra 20% of adrenaline. We were just dialing in our own performance and felt comfortable being up against somebody. So if we were to be up against anybody, I rather it be our teammate. We're never going to have that opportunity this year to do that again; for us both to make pretty much a full pull, it was really wild."

Pruett used the run to make her first full pull to the finish line and her best pass of the test session - a 3.706, 330.47.

On the other hand, Hagan was on a planned 800-foot shutoff run. The temptation to run it out the back door was there.

"It's tough, man," Hagan admitted. "It's always tough not to get out of. The car's running good, and we're making some planned shutoffs and stuff like that just to make sure we're not hurting parts and pieces, but you always want to run them down there at the end."

Hagan said the willingness for Stewart to run his cars against one another is just another example of why his team owner is good for drag racing.

"It's one of those things where it was just cool," Hagan said. "There's this environment over here at TSR; there's just really no pressure, laid back. Everyone knows that we're expected to perform. We have the tools and the capability to do so. And Tony's been great to work with. When you're expected to do something, you're don't have to be told all the time to do something. Our morale's great.

"I think that that comes from Tony just being laid back and being able to just take it all in and enjoy it. And that's what he come up and said, "I want your dad to show up here and just watch you race and enjoy it. And you enjoy your racing and just have fun doing it."

Racing Funny Cars against Dragsters epitomizes fun.

"We're all just giving each other high fives [in the turnoff]," Pruett said. 'We were out of the car screaming at each other, 'What did yours do?"

"And I'm like, 'Mine was just pulling the whole way."

"I haven't been 330 miles an hour in a little while."

And neither had she run against a Funny Car, either.

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Source: https://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/no-bull-tony-stewart-racings-top-fuel-vs-funny-car-match-race

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