Leah Pritchett loses ride as NHRA team closes shop

It was just two weeks ago that Leah Pritchett was front and center during the media luncheon for the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

A few before, she had won her first race as a full-time Top Fuel driver. That was huge for the 27-year-old speedster; you could still see the glow in her smile.

She was sitting next to Brittany Force, one of John Force’s drag racing daughters, on the dais. The week after Pritchett won, Brittany Force won her first race. It appeared a new rivalry was budding.

Leah Pritchett greeted you by name — she remembered those she had encountered on her way up — and then on Sunday, after struggling during qualifying runs, she lost by the narrowest of margins to vaunted Antron Brown during the second round. It was a heck of a drag race. Pritchett lost by a tick of the electronic timer, despite going 322.11 mph.

And now, almost nearly as fast, or so it seems, she finds herself looking for a ride again.

In a move that caught most in the sport off guard, her team, Bob Vandergriff Racing, closed shop doors this week. As they say, effective immediately. Pritchett and teammate Dave Connolly were released following the death of team supporter Josh Comstock, chairman and CEO of C&J Energy Services, who died in March.

Wrote the engaging Pritchett on her Facebook page: “It is beyond unfortunate, surprising and a tip of a seahorse to say the least with the retirement news of Bob Vandergriff, and ultimately the doors officially closing of BVR. I have beyond huge gratitude to Bob for believing in me, on and off the track … his steadfast efforts to keep this program afloat.

“Not sure when I’ll be hitting the track again, but if you know me … You know I won’t lift!”

When she does hit the track again, it could be with Don Schumacher Racing. Schumacher has been talking about adding a fourth Top Fuel team, and with Pritchett bringing along Quaker State sponsorship, perhaps it will happen sooner than later.

BROOM JOB

Harry Gant has a bone to pick with Kyle Busch.

When Busch, the Las Vegan with the heavy right foot, swept the NASCAR Xfinity and Sprint Cup races at Texas last weekend, it marked the first time in 25 years that a NASCAR driver had swept races in the sport’s top two series in consecutive weekends in a quarter century.

The last guy to do it: Handsome Harry Gant, in 1991.

I doubt Busch’s twin sweeps will make Harry any less handsome. But it probably will be the last time you see his name (or that of his car, the Skoal Bandit) in a NASCAR story for a good little while.

GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED

• Derek Thorn won the rain-shortened SPEARS Southwest Tour Series stop at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring when Mother Nature threw the red flag — with an assist from the track starter — after 62 of 121 scheduled laps. There was very little door-to-door racing, or racing of any kind — two cautions, one scheduled, one because of a shower, slowed the early pace before the wet stuff starting come down in earnest. The cars slowly lapped the track for 62 laps before the race was called. The usual Bullring program also was washed out. Fans who purchased tickets can present them for free admission to the next Bullring card on April 23.

• It’s going to be a hectic couple of weeks for Las Vegas and Fox Sports pit road reporter Jamie Little, who this weekend will report on AMA Supercross (11:30 a.m. Saturday from St. Louis) and NASCAR Sprint Cup races (10 a.m. Sunday from Bristol, Tennessee). She will reprise the Supercross/NASCAR back-to-back routine at Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia, next weekend. “The closest thing I’ve ever done to a double was last year when I had the flying to the Indy 500 with Jeff Gordon to document his day there driving the pace car, then we flew back to Charlotte, and I covered the Coca-Cola 600 for Fox,” she said. “But doing the double is pretty smooth when you have private planes, chauffeurs and police escorts.” She won’t have those on these occasions.

• Las Vegas Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith told one of the auto racing websites he might be interested in buying the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Don’t get too excited, local pro football fans (or Mark Davis). The current owner of the Panthers, Jerry Richardson, has a written clause that any new owner of the Panthers must keep the team in Charlotte. Which is where Smith is from, anyway.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. His motor sports notebook runs on Friday. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski