Story By: ELON WERNER / JOSH HART RACING – OCALA, FL – With two races remaining in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team are looking to make a move up in the Top Ten.
Following the Toyota U.S. Nationals, Labor Day weekend, the points will reset for Hart and the rest of the Top Fuel championship hopefuls. Hart would like to use the Lucas Oil Nationals this weekend at Brainerd International Raceway and U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis as opportunities to grab points and move up in the standings.
“These next two races are critical to our championship hopes,” said Hart, who has been a Top Ten points finisher the previous two seasons. “The higher we get in the Top Ten the closer we are to No. 1. When they reset the points teams are only ten points behind their closest competitor and we could be within a race of the point leader.”
Since Hart’s amazing debut rookie season in 2021, that saw the businessman and entrepreneur from Ocala, Florida, race to two national event wins and half a dozen semifinal finishes, the R+L Carriers team has been working to regain that successful formula. Multiple final rounds have occurred, but wins have been elusive for Hart in a highly competitive Top Fuel class that has been recognized as one of the toughest in recent memory.
“Every race there are over a dozen top tier full-time teams that are capable of winning,” said Hart. “I came into this sport with my eyes wide open but there have still been some surprises since we started racing full-time in 2022. This is a business, and it is not all fun and games. Every round win is tough to get and there are no easy win lights.”
This season Hart has continued to invest in his team adding veteran crew chief John Stewart to work together with his existing crew chief Ron Douglas. The duo worked on some issues in testing before the Seattle and Sonoma national events and they continued to fine tune the performance in the west coast. They are coming into the Lucas Oil Nationals with more data and evaluations of where they have made progress looking to go rounds and improve their consistency.
“We improved in Seattle and Sonoma and we made consistent runs,” said Hart. “We just need to keep finding those hundreds and thousandths of a second. This is a team sport and the crew guys are doing their job, I am doing my job on the tree and we need to keep being positive and making quick runs. That starts on Friday with the first qualifying run.”
The weekend schedule will include four qualifying runs, which is a big help to Hart and all the competitors as they dial in their 12,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragsters. Brainerd International Raceway has a history of producing quick times and high speeds. Hart is looking to collect qualifying bonus points starting on Friday with quick passes every session.
“We have been getting qualifying bonus points the last couple of races and we need to keep adding those points,” said Hart. “If we can pick up five to ten points in qualifying, we will be in the top half and should be able to go rounds on Sunday. There are teams in front of us that we can move around with some round wins on Sunday.”
In addition to the qualifying bonus points racing to the semifinals allows teams to participate in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge races. Two win lights on Sunday in Brainerd could set up Hart and the R+L Carriers team to participate in the race within a race at the U.S. Nationals with cash and championship points on the line. Hart has already earned one championship point for his efforts earlier in the season.
“Earlier in the season no one was talking about Countdown points or the Top Ten,” said Hart. “Now that we are two races away from the playoffs it becomes more important. We are looking at everything that will put us in a position to win the Top Fuel championship. It won’t be easy but that is why I am racing Top Fuel. These are the best of the best and I want to test myself against these guys.”
Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team will be on track for two qualifying sessions Friday afternoon and two more on Saturday. On Sunday the quickest 16 Top Fuel dragsters will start eliminations at 10:30 a.m. with the race broadcast nationally on FOX.