{"id":100334,"date":"2025-03-27T15:39:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T22:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=100334"},"modified":"2025-03-27T15:39:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T22:39:36","slug":"paul-lee-victorious-at-the-nhra-arizona-nationals-in-nitro-funny-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/paul-lee-victorious-at-the-nhra-arizona-nationals-in-nitro-funny-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Lee Victorious at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Nitro Funny Car\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Lee secured his first-ever NHRA Funny Car victory at the 2025 NHRA Arizona Nationals, driving the McLeod Racing\/FTI Performance Dodge Charger to a commanding win. Overcoming four grueling rounds of competition, Lee and his team\u2014led by Jonnie Lindberg and John Medlen\u2014clinched the coveted Wally Trophy, marking a career milestone for the veteran racer.<\/p>\n

With the victory, Lee now sits atop the NHRA Funny Car points standings, setting the stage for a strong campaign as he heads into the NHRA Winternationals this weekend.<\/p>\n

A Hard-Fought Road to Victory<\/h3>\n

Sunday\u2019s elimination rounds put Lee\u2019s skills and his team\u2019s precision to the test. He faced and defeated Gainesville winner Chad Green, Blake Alexander, Bob Tasca III, and reigning NHRA Funny Car World Champion Austin Prock in a thrilling final round. This victory not only highlights Lee\u2019s perseverance but also validates the years of hard work and dedication he has poured into the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working towards this since I was 13 years old,\u201d said Lee. \u201cWinning this Wally means everything. All those 50 years of hard work\u2014it\u2019s worth it. And today was special. We lost Eric Medlen on this day (March 23, 2007). His father, John Medlen, leads our team prayer every Sunday, and today he asked Eric to watch over us. There was this unshakable calm in our pit all day, and I think Eric was with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Momentum Heading into Pomona<\/h3>\n

While the celebration was well-earned, the McLeod Racing\/FTI Performance team now shifts focus to the upcoming NHRA Winternationals at Pomona. With momentum on their side, they aim to keep their Dodge Charger Funny Car at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter taking a few days to celebrate, it\u2019s back to business,\u201d Lee added. \u201cOur team is working like a Swiss clock, and we\u2019re bringing that momentum into Pomona. Jonnie (Lindberg) is dialing in what this new car likes, and we\u2019re ready for another strong weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrating the Win with a Special Offer<\/h3>\n

To commemorate Lee\u2019s first NHRA Funny Car win, McLeod Racing and FTI Performance are offering an 11.6% discount\u2014a nod to Lee\u2019s competition number 116. Contact them today to upgrade your clutch or torque converter and get race-ready for summer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Lee secured his first-ever NHRA Funny Car victory at the 2025 NHRA Arizona Nationals, driving the McLeod Racing\/FTI Performance Dodge Charger to a commanding win.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":100336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,8427,8393],"tags":[11646,11645,2,8346,669,9603,3817,4050,4752,11647,1759],"class_list":["post-100334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-partner-news","category-press-releases","tag-clutch-upgrade","tag-dodge-charger-funny-car","tag-drag-racing","tag-fti-performance","tag-mcleod-racing","tag-nhra-arizona-nationals","tag-nhra-funny-car","tag-nhra-winternationals","tag-paul-lee","tag-racing-performance-parts","tag-torque-converter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PLR2025AZWC-min.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-q6i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100337,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100334\/revisions\/100337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}