NHRA Southern Nationals Debut at South Georgia Motorsports Park

NHRA Southern Nationals Debut at Valdosta Georgia South Georgia Motorsports Park South Georgia Motorsports Park will make its debut in the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series this weekend with the Southern Nationals, but Top Fuel’s Leah Pruett, Funny Car’s Matt Hagan, and Pro Stock’s Aaron Stanfield have some history at the Valdosta, Georgia, facility. Though not the only ones—Pro Stock Motorcycle racers, among others, know their way down the dragstrip—they’re hoping the experience will benefit them in this fifth of 20 events on the 2026 calendar. The Tony Stewart Racing Nitro tandem of Pruett and Hagan has some vivid memories.

“South Georgia Motorsports Park was the first place I ever went over 300 mph,” Pruett said. “The year was 2008, and I completed my nitro Funny Car license in Jerry Toliver’s Rockstar car. I remember it like it was yesterday… in the left lane, ripping though there, the car rattling at past half-track.

It was the five-disc clutch locking up, then steering hard right to stay off the wall. “I wasn’t sure what all had happened, because my brain was still at the starting line when I turned off the track,” she said. “That’s how new my processing speed was relative to going 308 mph for the first time.

A right-side cylinder went out and tried to push me to the wall, but I was able to react and square it back up. Wild memorable ride, for sure. ” Pruett said, “Since then, I have tested there many times.