DAVID CUADRA TO MAKE HIS PRO STOCK DEBUT IN CHARLOTTE

CONCORD, N.C. (April 28, 2023) – The largest professional team in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series is adding another Pro Stock driver and machine to its impressive fleet. David Cuadra, son of Fernando Cuadra Sr. recently obtained his Pro Stock license and will make his professional racing debut this weekend at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals behind the wheel of his new Corral Boots Mustang.
D. Cuadra will join his father as well as his brothers, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and Cristian Cuadra on the Elite Motorsports team. The competition will be intense for The Cuadra Boys as each driver vies to bring home the family’s first professional victory.
“This past week has been one of the best weeks of my life,” said D. Cuadra. “I had the opportunity to get my Pro Stock license with the best team I could ever ask for. I’m really excited about this new experience beginning in Charlotte. I know I have a really good and fast race car and a lot of great people supporting me.”
The Elite Motorsports team has been working non-stop since their last event in Las Vegas, including testing in Tulsa, Okla. They feel confident coming into the race at the famous zMAX Dragway where they will tackle the track in the fan-favorite four-wide format.
Troy Coughlin Jr. had a phenomenal start to the season with a victory in Gainesville. He is currently ranked second in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series points standings and is on track for an impressive season in his JEGS.com / White Castle Camaro. Coughlin’s daughter, Aubrey, will be competing in the Red Line Oil Toddler Tricycle Race this weekend and she’s ready to hammer those pedals and take out the competition.
Aaron Stanfield won the fall event at zMAX last year and is looking forward to turning on some win lights this weekend in his Janac Brothers / JC3 Energy Camaro. Bo Butner will be looking for his first Pro Stock victory at zMAX Dragway and his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Camaro has been performing well all season long putting him in a great position to take the ultimate prize this weekend. Five-time Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders has been testing quite a bit in her JHG / Melling Performance Chevrolet Camaro and the team found some opportunities for improvement that should help her performance. Pro Stock rookie Jerry Tucker has also been performing well this season and will be one to watch this weekend.
Mason Wright will be piloting the Elite Motorsports Pro Mod entry this weekend in the FuelTech NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Type A Motorsports. This is only the second event of the season for the Pro Mod category and Wright is looking to make some major moves in the points standings this weekend.
Pro Stock action at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals begins with qualifying on Friday, April 28 at 4:00 pm EDT.
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Pre-Race Notes

Elite Motorsports: Pre-race notesCircle K NHRA Four-Wide NationalszMAX DragwayConcord, N.C. (April 28-30)
The Elite Motorsports team, the largest team in professional drag racing, has expanded for 2023 and will field a total of 10 entries for this weekend’s Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Concord, N.C. The Elite Pro Stock team features nine drivers including reigning and five-time world champion Erica Enders, Aaron Stanfield, Troy Coughlin Jr., Bo Butner, Fernando Cuadra Sr. and his three sons, Fernando Jr., Cristian, and David, as well as newcomer Jerry Tucker. Mason Wright will also make his second start in the Pro Mod class with his Elite-backed Camaro. In the 19 Pro Stock events contested last season, Team Elite won 15 times and appeared in 26 of 38 possible final rounds. In addition to Erica Enders’ 10 wins, Aaron Stanfield collected three victories while Troy Coughlin Jr. earned his first two professional victories. Enders is coming off the most dominant season of her career that produced ten wins in 13 final round appearances and an astounding 55-9 record in elimination rounds. This season, Enders’ impressive roster of supporters includes Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage, Melling Performance, SCAG Power Equipment, PeopleLease and Mark Stockseth. During her professional career, Enders has accumulated 43 wins in 74 final rounds and has a round-win record of 441-244 for a .644 win percentage. Enders also has a win in Super Gas (2004 Houston) bringing her career total to 44 national event victories. Enders has won at least one event at 17 different venues including zMAX Dragway. She won the track’s fall event in 2015 and also won the four-wide race in 2018. She was also a runner-up at the famed facility in 2012-2013. Overall, Enders has won three events under the unique four-wide format including the 2018 event held at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C. as well as her two Las Vegas wins in 2021-2022. Enders currently holds both the elapsed time and speed records for the NHRA Pro Stock class with bests of 6.450-seconds and 215.55 mph. The elapsed time record was set at the 2022 Gatornationals. If Enders wins four events this season, she will surpass three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Angelle Sampey as the sport’s winningest female driver. Sampey currently has 46 wins while Enders has 44. Following an impressive fourth-place finish in 2022, Troy Coughlin Jr. has begun his fourth full season behind the wheel of the familiar yellow and black JEGS.com Camaro. Coughlin enjoyed a breakout season last year with back-to-back victories in Seattle and Topeka. Coughlin also went to final rounds in Phoenix, Reading and Las Vegas.
Coughlin heads to Concord as the No. 2 ranked driver in the championship after a dominating win at the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals and a runner-up at the most recent event in Las Vegas. He currently sits just 51 points out of first place.
At the recent NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix, Coughlin became the first winner of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, a special event open to the four semifinal finishers from the previous event. Coughlin defeated Greg Anderson in the final with an elapsed time of 6.57, compared to Anderson’s 6.60, to capture the inaugural event victory. In addition to his three career Pro Stock victories, the multi-faceted Coughlin has won in Top Alcohol Dragster, Super Comp and Super Gas. Coughlin’s father, Troy Sr., is a 15-time national event winner in Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Super Gas. Including his uncles, John, Mike, and Jeg Jr., the Coughlin family has combined to win 131 national event titles. Coughlin’s career bests in Pro Stock are 6.515-seconds and 212.29 mph, set earlier this year at the season opener in Gainesville. Aaron Stanfield has also returned to the Elite team for another season behind the wheel of the Janac Bros/JC3 Energy Camaro. Stanfield, the son of five-time Super Stock world champ Greg Stanfield, is coming off a season where he was the third-ranked driver in Pro Stock.
Last year, Stanfield earned Pro Stock wins in Phoenix, Bristol and the Fall Charlotte race to go with four runner-up finishes in Pomona, Epping, Norwalk and Denver. Stanfield finished the season with a 38-16 record in elimination rounds.
Stanfield is coming off a semifinal finish at the recent Four-Wide Natonals in Las Vegas and has moved from No. 10 to No. 5 in the standings.
Stanfield won back-to-back titles in the FlexJet Factory Stock Showdown class in 2020 and 2021. He will continue to drive his Janac Bros.-owned COPO Camaro in that class and will also continue to race in the Wright Trailers Top Dragster class.
Stanfield was the winner the last time Pro Stock cars ran at zMAX Dragway last Fall. He defeated Matt Hartford to win the Betway NHRA Carolina Nationals title. All told Stanfield has 21 career wins in Pro Stock, Factory Stock, Super Stock, and Top Dragster. He’s enjoyed previous success in Las Vegas with back-to-back Factory Stock titles at the track’s fall events in 2020 and 2021. Stanfield’s career bests in Pro Stock are 6.457-seconds and 213.47 mph, both set in Gainesville 2022. Bo Butner is a two-time NHRA world champion in Pro Stock (2017) and Comp Eliminator (2006). He joined the Elite team last season as the driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Camaro. Last season, Butner drove to a ninth-place finish in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Pro Stock standings.
Earlier this season in Phoenix, Butner drove to a runner-up finish in Pro Stock, reaching the finals for the first time since the 2019 Richmond event. Butner defeated Erica Enders, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and Kyle Koretsky to reach his 26th career Pro Stock final. Butner is now ranked No. 6 in the Pro Stock standings, 144 points out from first place.
While he did not win a Pro Stock event last year, the multi-talented Butner did earn a pair of victories in the Super Gas class in Indy and Reading.
Butner has 29 career national event victories including 11 in Pro Stock. He also has wins in Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Gas, and Super Street. Butner has also enjoyed success as a big-money bracket racer with a victory at the K&N Spring Fling Million in Las Vegas in 2021.
Butner has won at least one national event title at 14 different facilities but has never won at zMax Dragway. Butner does have three runner-up finishes in Concord including the 2016 four-wide event in Pro Stock along with Factory Stock (2019) and Stock (2013).
Butner’s career bests in Pro Stock are 6.475-seconds and 214.28 mph, set in Dallas (2015) and Gainesville (2017), respectively. The Cuadra family including Fernando Sr., and his sons Fernando Jr., Cristian, and David, have returned to Elite Motorsports again this season and this weekend they will expand to four Pro Stock machines backed by Corral Boots. The Cuadra family will race Ford Mustangs under the Elite banner. Fernando Sr. is a two-time national event runner-up with final-round appearances at the 2019 races in Reading and Pomona. Cristian Cuadra was also the runner-up to Enders at the 2022 four-wide event in Las Vegas and he was a semifinalist at the recent four-wide event in Las Vegas. He comes into this weekend as the No. 8 ranked driver in Pro Stock.
David Cuadra is making his Pro Stock debut this weekend after recently upgrading his Top Sportsman license. David is a three-time finalist in the Top Sportsman category including his most recent runner-up at the 2022 Dallas event. The Cuadra family has career-best elapsed times of 6.515 (Fernando Jr.), 6.524 (Fernando Sr.) and 6.527 (Cristian) – all of them recorded in Gainesville. Their career-best speeds are 212.13 (Fernando Sr.), 211.43 (Cristian), and 210.73 (Fernando Jr.).
Earlier this season in Phoenix, Cristian Cuadra became the first Mexican-born NHRA racer to qualify No. 1 in a pro category when he drove his Elite-powered Corral Handcrafted Boots Mustang to a 6.552 pass. C. Cuadra is one of just 11 non-U.S.-born drivers to qualify No. 1 in a professional NHRA class and the only one to accomplish the feat in Pro Stock.
New to the Elite Pro Stock team this year is Jerry Tucker, who enjoyed a memorable debut in Gainesville. Tucker qualified his Elite Camaro in the No. 15 spot with a 6.573 and won the first round after teammate Enders encountered a mechanical issue. Tucker also performed well in Phoenix, Pomona and Las Vegas qualifying for all three events. He is currently ranked No. 13 but is well within striking distance of the Top 10. Tucker, of Lindsay, Okla., has spent the last 30 years racing everything from Sprint cars to Midgets and has also enjoyed success in drag racing. Tucker previously raced in the Top Sportsman class.
Tucker is expected to be one of the leading contenders for the NHRA Rookie of the Year award. Collectively, the eight current team Elite drivers have combined to win 104 NHRA national event titles across all classes including 64 in the Pro Stock class.
Mason Wright will return to action this weekend in the FuelTech Pro Mod class presented by Type A Motorsports. At the season-opener in Gainesville, Wright qualified No. 10 in the tough field with a 5.828 at 245.49.
Wright is currently ranked No. 16 in the Pro Mod standings but after one event, he’s just six points out of the Top 10. Wright, of Odessa, Texas, is also a graduate of the Top Sportsman class.
Justin Elkes of Modern Racing will serve as Wright’s crew chief thisseason. It was recently announced that Pro Mod the class will be part of the NHRA on Fox Sports television broadcasts for each event.

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DAVID CUADRA TO MAKE HIS PRO STOCK DEBUT IN CHARLOTTE

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