The stakes were sky-high on Friday at the RAD Torque Systems Fall Fling presented by OPTIMA Batteries, and Kevin Pruett made the most of it. Behind the wheel of his Chevy II wagon, the Appling, Georgia racer cashed in on the first $75,000 main event of the weekend at Bristol Dragway.

The car count was massive—418 single-entry drivers rolled into round one of the combined Advanced Product Design and ATI Performance Products $75K. By the end of a long day, it was Pruett standing tall after laying down a nasty .018 package in the final against Matt Schapiro’s dragster from Tabernacle, New Jersey. Pruett’s .012 light and dead-on-six lap sealed the deal for his first-ever Fling event victory, and it couldn’t have come at a better time—he now leads the Robco Residential Fall Fling Points Championship heading into the second $75K.

The semifinals had plenty of drama. Multi-time Fling winner Jeremy York went red by just .009 against Schapiro, who was .013 green and solid on the tree. On the other side of the ladder, Pruett coasted through his bye run to punch his ticket to the money round.

The ladder round leading into the quarters was split evenly—three door cars and three dragsters. Greg Brown, Gage Burch, Lane Dicken, York, Schapiro, and Pruett were all still alive. Burch fell by a razor-thin margin after going .001 red and running dead-on four against Schapiro. York’s .009 light and .015 above held off Brown, who was .007 and one-thousandth under. Pruett threw down .006 total to take out Dicken in a race separated by just .004 at the stripe. By night’s end, it was Pruett’s consistency and precision that carried him to the big check and the top of the points board.