It was an exciting first day of qualifying for the 36th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Friday at Brainerd International Speedway.

Leah Pritchett piloted her Papa John’s Pizza dragster to the quickest run in NHRA history with a pass of 3.640-seconds at 330.63 mph to close out the second qualifying session. In Funny Car, Robert Hight’s 3.793 pass at 338.00 in his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS also landed him in the record books.

Pritchett, who is currently third in the point standings on the strength of three victories this season, was thrilled with her car's outstanding performance.

“That pass was absolutely incredible," Pritchett said, regarding her record-setting second qualifying attempt of the day. “We’ve looked forward to this night session for a long time. Knowing that Brainerd, this track, this surface, the conditions and what NHRA is able to do to it, lays down the ground work for us to pull out the most power possible. That’s what this team did. They have been working tirelessly at finding small amounts of power here, there and everywhere and to be able to put it on the track tonight was incredible.”

“The first pass today was a (3).67, and I have never experienced a pass like that," Pritchett said. "I knew something was wrong because the car jackhammered me on the burnout. I thought that the run was going to be something else, and it was. I went from seeing one groove to seeing four grooves. I thought the car was going to implode, but it kept pulling so I stuck with it. It ended up being a tire issue and we were able to correct it as soon as I got back to the pits.

“Before we made that second pass I kind of borderline watched Robert run that .79 in Funny Car because I knew the conditions were there for the first 340 mile an hour pass. When I got in the car I strapped in extra tight because with all the last minute changes my crew chief Todd Okuhara and his crew made, I knew we were fixing to get down, and it stuck and got down. I couldn’t be prouder of this entire crew.”

Rounding out the top-three heading into Saturday qualifying are Brittany Force who ran a 3.685 pass at 333.16 in her Monster Energy machine and Doug Kalitta with a 3.694 pass at 330.31 in his Mac Tools dragster.