Leah Pritchett earned her third Top Fuel victory in five Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events this season, defeating Steve Torrence in Sunday’s final round of the NHRA SpringNationals at Baytown, Texas.

And with that victory she delivered some more return on investment for Papa John’s Pizza, Pennzoil, and FireAde, the three major investors who took a chance on her this time last year when she was a proven winner suddenly without a team. With the decision-makers for those corporations on site at Royal Purple Raceway this weekend, scrutinizing every pass and every detail of the Don Schumacher-affiliated program and considering whether to extend her one-year deal or at least how to build on it, Pritchett had more than her personal pride at stake.

“I have tunnel vision on the racetrack, and we have very large visions for this sport,” she said, adding that because of the passion her corporate backers have, “the future is very bright.”

As for primary sponsor “Papa John” Schnatter, Pritchett said, “It’s incredible to have someone like him fall in love with our sport and back us.

“DSR has shown that we have the proper ingredients for success, and I’m a small part of that,”

she said. “I’m very privileged and proud and blessed to be standing here today.”

The normally laughing, fun-loving Pritchett – who did allow herself a giggle or two after her victory – carried a more weight-of-the-world tone in her voice. She was stressed by the fact she “knew [Torrence] was right there next to me going down [the track]” and the fact she had no idea which one of them got the win light until she figured out the FOX TV cameras were pointed at her. And even though she said the quirky racing surface, which she called “a little bit lumpy downtrack,” worked in her chassis’ favor, she nevertheless was on the steering wheel, admittedly holding on even tighter than usual.

“There’s a select number of drivers that I really, really get up for. I know Steve very well, great family friend and all that. I knew he was going to be after me. I told myself, ‘You’ve got nothing to lose. Get after it.”

Still, she said, “the meter’s as much pegged as it was winning at Pomona and then winning at Phoenix.”

Pritchett covered the 1,000-foot course in 3.781 seconds at 321.96 mph in the Papa John’s Pizza Dragster and won by .0156 seconds, or about seven feet for her fourth career triumph. Torrence challenged with a 3.787-second elapsed time at a faster 322.11-mph speed (mph) in his Capco Contractors Dragster.

Her victory, which followed Ron Capps’s in the Funny Car class minutes before, pushed Don Schumacher Racing’s total to 302. Their double-nitro-victory performance was DSR’s 69th overall, second straight, and fourth this season. DSR drivers have won all five Top Fuel trophies this year. Besides Pritchett’s three, Tony Schumacher won at Gainesville and Antron Brown at Las Vegas.

Setting her sights on a Four-Wide Nationals victory this coming weekend at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, Pritchett once again has the points lead. She regained it from Tony Schumacher, who dropped out in Round 2 Sunday.   

“Our goal was to leave as the points leader, and that was not easy – at all,” Pritchett said. “I’ve never been in a position to be counting points so early in the season, but I’m definitely enjoying that.”

In a steller effort from crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam, Pritchett defeated Scott Palmer, denied Doug Kalitta a chance to three-peat at this event, and knocked off reigning class champion Antron Brown to reach her third final round and the one the team called “our bounce-back.” Running consistent 3.7-second E.T.s all day, she improved her race-day record to 15-2.

Earlier in the day, in the first round of Pro Stock eliminations, Erica Enders lost a double-red-lighting decision to husband Richie Stevens. In this Top Fuel final, score one for the wife – Torrence’s clutch specialist is Pritchett’s husband, Gary Pritchett.

Torrence, a native of Kilgore, Texas, who was hoping to record his first 2017 victory here in his home state, was runner-up here for the second straight year. He advanced to the finals past Shawn Reed, Troy Coughlin Jr., and top qualifier Clay Millican.

But after losing to Kalitta in the Houston final last year by .019 of a second, Torrence said, “This is getting old. I know races like that are fun for the fans, but they’re hard on us drivers. To get so close to a win here the last two years, to have my guys give me such a good race car and then to come up that short, all you can do is suck it up and get back to work. If there’s a good thing, it’s that we’ll be back racing again in five days and maybe put this one behind us.

“The DSR cars?  They’ve won everything, and somebody has to stop ‘em. It might as well be us,” he said. “The big thing is we’ve got our hot rod back where it needs to be . . .and the last two days, it was one bad hombre.

“You have to remind yourself that it’s a long season,” Torrence, who moved  up a position in the standings to fifth place, said. “But, as a racer, you want to kick their butts every week. We’re going to Charlotte with a ‘kick their butts’ attitude and see if we can hurt some feelings.”

Pritchett also shared the winners circle with first-time Pro Stock winner Bo Butner and Pro Modified’s Steve Matusek.

Sportsman-class event winners Sunday were Jay Turner (Top Fuel Harley), Joey Severance (Top Alcohol Dragster), Doug Gordon (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Norvell Bowers (Super Stock), Chris Vang (Super Street), Steve Collier (Super Gas), Alan Savage (Super Comp), Kevin Helms (Stock), J.R. Baxter (Top Dragster), and Keith Raftery (Top Sportsman).

“These things become so hard to win these days,” Capps said. “But you take things for granted where I felt like we should’ve won at any of those first three races of the season. NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car division has to be the most competitive thing in the world right now; its cut-throat.”

Hight experienced engine problems and crossed the center line before the finish line while Capps’ engine violently exploded as he reached the finish.

Capps pushed past Todd Simpson, 16-time world champion John Force and teammate Jack Beckman before facing Hight in the finals. Hight defeated Jim Campbell, J.R. Todd and fellow John Force Racing teammate Courtney Force before falling to Capps.

Butner obtained the first Pro Stock win of his career when he raced his Jim Butner’s Auto Chevy Camaro to a 6.550 pass at 212.26 to defeat No. 1 qualifier Jeg Coughlin Jr. Coughlin Jr. raced his JEGS.com / Elite Performance Chevy Camaro to a 6.562 at 212.03 in his first final round appearance since Seattle in 2015. This was Butner’s seventh final round appearance.

“Any win that you stand on that stage, Super Stock, Super Street or whatever it is (the feeling) never gets old. It’s a great feeling and you can’t explain it unless you experience it,” Butner stated. “To make four consecutive win lights is very tough and a lot harder than I expected.”

Butner defeated Allen Johnson and Greg Anderson before facing Coughlin Jr. in the finals. Coughlin Jr. lined up against Chris McGaha and Tanner Gray en route to his finals appearance.

The 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season continues at the Eighth annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals April 28-30 at zMax Dragway.