Story By: SARA SLAUGHTER / SCAG RACING – KENT, WA – Justin Ashley and the SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel dragster team won their third Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge Saturday during qualifying at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.
Ashley picked up the specialty race victory with a 3.890-second pass at 315.49 mph to defeat reigning world champion Doug Kalitta’s 3.953 at 286.44. Ashley reached the final after coming out on the other side of a rematch of the Norwalk, Ohio semifinals against Antron Brown. Ashley would go 3.903 at 315.49 to take down Brown’s 3.906 at 303.98.
“This is really meaningful, especially this time of the year because we’re getting closer and closer to the Countdown to the Championship. The way the points are, they get added after the Countdown points reset, so these points are super important. Any time this SCAG Phillips Toyota team can get a win in competition, whether it’s on race day, or the Mission Foods Challenge, I think it’s really beneficial for us,” Ashley said. “There was a stretch recently over the last four or five races where we’ve been struggling, We had a good bounce back in Norwalk, then we ended up qualifying No. 2 here. We’re working on some things, testing out some things, just adjusting the tune up, so I’m pretty happy with where we’re at, and a win like this is good for the team.”
Ashley will start race day from the No. 2 position after laying down a stout 3.694-second pass at 331.04 mph during Friday’s night qualifying session. He’ll face-off with Shawn Langdon in Sunday’s first round.
In Funny Car, Daniel Wilkerson and the SCAG Summit Ford Mustang team made their best qualifying run Saturday afternoon going 4.046-seconds at 311.27 mph. It put them in the No. 8 spot to run against Cruz Pedregon first round.
Dave Richards and the Versatran / BlueBird team landed themselves in the No. 11 qualifying position with a 4.072-second run at 311.27 mph during the Friday night session. They’ll line up against defending world champion Matt Hagan in the first round.
Eliminations at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways will start Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Television coverage of the event will continue with a second qualifying show on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). The eliminations will air on FOX Broadcasting Network (FOX) Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET.