Leah Pritchett’s Mopar Dodge 1320 Dragster has an “Angry Bee” logo on it, and she has been swarming her rivals all weekend at Bandimere Speedway, at Morrison, Colo., west of Denver.

Doug Kalitta was the latest to get stung.

Pritchett beat him to win the Top Fuel trophy Sunday at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, the opener of three Western Swing events.  And she has her broom ready to take to Sonoma, Calif., and Seattle.

After edging Kalitta by about 14 inches, or .0024 seconds, with a 3.831-second elapsed time at 316.45 mph on the 1,000-foot course – against his 3.852-second pass at a faster 319.82 mph in the Mac Tools Dragster – she spoke about her take on the notion of pressure.

“You can look at it as you’ve got to do well for your sponsor’s race or you have a partner that believes in you and all the people are there and they bring that vibe and that energy. We have our own ZIP code of the Mopar Midway and pitting with [two-time Funny Car champion Matt] Hagan. You can look at it is pressure or infiltration of positive momentum. And that’s what happened for this entire weekend,” Pritchett said.

Of crew chief Todd Okuhara, she said, “It’s so cool to see the smile on Todd’s face when he finds that Mopar power back and is using it. Knowing I have a good race car under me is incredible. It was a full-fledged team effort.”

The lone No. 1 qualifier this weekend to make it to the final round, Pritchett is the first No. 1 starter to win here in Top Fuel since Antron Brown in 2009.

Pritchett beat Terry Totten, Scott Palmer, and Clay Millican to reach her third final round this year and 11th overall.

She used a holeshot to beat Millican in the semifinal. They had identical elapsed times – 3.826 seconds and her speed was slower (312.93 mph to his 320.36) – but her reaction time was quicker (.043 of a second to .087). That set up a battle between this pair of top-five drivers.

Pritchett was part of Don Schumacher Racing’s chance to score a nitro double at Denver. Funny Car colleague Ron Capps fell short against John Force. Other winners Sunday were Greg Anderson in Pro Stock and Hector Arana Jr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Both were enjoying their first victories of the season.

She won at Atlanta and was runner-up at Chicago before earning her seventh overall victory and denying Kalitta his 45th. Pritchett also passed the 100-round-win mark Sunday.

Kalitta, who won at Pomona and was runner-up at Charlotte and Richmond, as well, said, “Anytime you are on the mountain and in the final is a good day. [I was] really impressed by the Mac Tools team after our struggles in qualifying. They worked so hard, and we accomplished a lot. It always stings to lose close races like this, but it makes me even hungrier to get to Sonoma and try to pick up the win there."

Kalitta advanced past Tony Schumacher, Jim Maroney, and Blake Alexander for his fourth final-round appearance this season. He sliced fourth-place Schumacher’s advantage to 37 points. Kalitta heads to this coming weekend’s Sonoma, Calif., race in fifth place, 143 points ahead of sixth-place Antron Brown.

Points leader Steve Torrence was racing Sunday without Capco Contractors Dragster crew chief Richard Hogan on hand for the first time in more than four years. Hogan was ill from an adverse reaction to the heat and thin air at the track’s 5,800-foot altitude and remained at the team’s hotel Sunday. Torrence lost in the second round to Blake Alexander but will take a 133-point lead over Clay Millican to Sonoma.