Leah Pritchett said she thinks she and her Papa John’s Pizza Dragster team are “doing pretty OK” in living up to boss Don Schumacher’s standards.

But she’s incorrect.

She and her Todd Okuhara-led crew are doing way more than “pretty OK” so far this year.

In Sunday’s rematch of the 2016 Top Fuel final round of the NHRA Arizona Nationals, Pritchett became the first in the class since Gary Scelzi in 1997 to win the first two races of the season. And she did it on a holeshot against Brittany Force.

Pritchett beat Force off the starting line (.053 seconds to .081) and won in 3.705 seconds at 328.22 mph on the 1,000-foot course at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Force, in the Monster Energy Dragster, ran a quicker and faster 3.704, 330.39 mph.

Perfect in the first two races of the season, Pritchett has a 92-point lead over Sunday semifinalist Tony Schumacher as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series moves to the East Coast for the March 16-19 Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

Matt Hagan’s Funny Car victory gave him and Pritchett back-to-back double-nitro performances for Don Schumacher Racing. This marked the organization’s 57th nitro sweep. (With Pritchett and DSR Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr.

leading their fields Sunday, DSR had its 30th nitro No. 1 sweep.)

Greg Anderson defeated Drew Skillman in the Pro Stock final to join Pritchett and Hagan in the winners circle at Chandler, Ariz., near Phoenix.

“Honestly, I’m trying to keep up with my team for how well they’re doing and make them proud of me as a driver,” Pritchett said after her .0271-second margin of victory. “I’m learning what it takes to get in that extreme, severe mindset of what it takes to do what we’re doing and do the job of what is expected of a Don Schumacher racing team. I think we’re doing pretty OK with that. We’re blessed with the equipment, talent, and capabilities of the people and everyone it takes to do it. I’m happy that I could hold up my end of the bargain.”

She has done that and more.

Her qualifying E.T. of 3.658 seconds made her the quickest drag-racing driver in NHRA history, and it came after she rocketed to the unofficial record of \3.654/331.85 earlier this month here during Nitro Spring Training. She has dominated as top qualifier, winner, and driver with low E.T. at both the Winternationals and the Arizona Nationals.

However, Pritchett said she “stumbled” along the way. Although it wasn’t glaring to most observers, she said she “caught myself flinching on a long tree” against Clay Millican in the quarterfinals. She said she told herself, “Get out of that mindset.” (She said, “This tree, this track, the average lights for Top Fuel cars are about two- or three-hundredths slower than they are at other tracks.”)

It was after her euphoric weekend here last February that Pritchett’s career took an uncertain detour. The team sponsor died unexpectedly and the operation folded, sending her into uber-aggressive mode to patch the rest of her season together. She did, but it was stressful, despite a strong Countdown appearance and seventh-place finish. So she knows it’s too early in the year to start assuming anything, especially happily-ever-after endings every race weekend.

“This sport is extremely humbling, and it can turn at any moment,” Pritchett said. “I like the confidence we have right now, because it’s not too high. We’re double-checking each other’s work in a very positive way. The thing I’m most impressed about is how well [the crew is] working together and how much we enjoy working together. And that’s showing on the track,” she said. “Todd is the unsung hero in all of this. We’ve taken really big steps here. We’re just trying to run a full season and be competitive.”

Two of her three total Wally trophies have come at this racetrack, and last year’s triumph over Force also was on a holeshot.

Pritchett had a first-round bye Sunday because of the short field, then advanced past Millican and surprise-of-the-day Shawn Reed, the newcomer from Washington State.

Force defeated Terry McMillen, Antron Brown, and Schumacher to reach her first final round of the season and first since last October at Reading, Pa. (where she beat Pritchett in the semifinal).

The final two pairings of the opening round provided upsets. Reed earned his first elimination round-win in an engine-blowing effort against traction-troubled Doug Kalitta. And Scott Palmer edged Troy Coughlin Jr. to record his first round-win since last July at Sonoma, when he defeated Shawn Langdon.

The second round was no less surprising, with Force knocking off current class champion and No. 2 qualifier Brown, who won seven times in 11 finals last year but hasn’t reached a final round yet in the season’s two races. Reed eliminated Steve Torrence to make his first semifinal appearance.