DINWIDDIE, Va. (May 15, 2022) – Bill Skillman and his Ray Skillman Ford Cobra raced to victory Sunday at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, the third stop on the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown, to widen their points lead defeating Dan Condon and his Mickey Thompson Tire Chevy COPO Camaro in the finals.

“You know what? Chris Holbrook, our guy, he makes some super smoke. All the guys that help us out and win, it’s amazing to get this done. It really is,” Skillman said. “Back-to-back wins really shows how great a job everyone has done, and we’ve got a really good team. These guys were ex-Pro Stock crew chiefs, and they really know how to make it work. All of them just do a great job and I can’t say enough about it.”

Bill Skillman Virginia Nationals winner, photo by Auto Imagery

Skillman would start the day with a first-round bye as Anthony Troyer and his Troyer Brothers COPO Camaro were unable to make the call. In the second round, Skillman would match with Gatornationals winner Lenny Lottig. Lottig would overpower the track and have to lift while Skillman would go 7.823-seconds at s177.91 mph for the win. 

Skillman would then have to take on defending series champion Aaron Stanfield and his Stanfield Racing Engines COPO Camaro in the second round. Stanfield would leave on Skillman but the Mustang was able to reel in the Camaro by 7.801-seconds at 177.86 mph and advance to the finals. 

En route to the finals Condon would defeat Warren Walcher in the first round on a holeshot before taking on No. 1 qualifier David Janac and his Janac Brothers Racing Ford Cobra. Janac would go -.006 red in the second round, sending Condon to face Jesse Alexandra and his Barton Chevy COPO Camaro in the semis. It would be a clean drag race as Condon went 7.889-seconds at 173.14 mph to better Alexandra’s 7.933-seconds at 172.36 mph. 

Bill Skillman Ford Cobra Jet Virginia Nationals winner, photo by Auto Imagery

In the finals, Condon would leave first but Skillman would run once again run down his opponent for victory. Condon’s 7.848-second pass at 174.46 mph would be no match for Skillman’s 7.813-seconds at 183.54 mph. With the runner-up finish, Condon moves from 17^th to eighth in points. 

With the victory, Skillman has now created a $2,000 target on his back through the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown Bounty Program. The bounty on Skillman will increase until another driver defeats him during eliminations. 

The ongoing battle between Chevrolet COPO Camaros, Ford Cobra Jets and Dodge Challenger Drag Pakswill pick up Father’s Day weekend at Bristol Dragway during the Thunder Valley Nationals. 

• Release
• Photos

May 16, 2022 — LEXINGTON, Ohio

• Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing combine for second consecutive 1-2 IMSA victory of 2022; and extend Acura’s winning streak at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
• Acura claims mid-season lead for IMSA manufacturer, driver and team championships
• Completes a weekend sweep of sports car, Indy car victories for Acura and Honda

Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque continued Acura’s winning ways at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and stretched the Acura ARX-05 prototype winning streak here to five years in a row in today’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

Starting second, Albuquerque moved into the lead at the start, and battled both fellow Acura racers Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist in their Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05, and the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande throughout the first half of the endurance contest. A mid-race caution flag saw Taylor and van der Zande go wheel to wheel, with van der Zande eventually spinning and Blomqvist quick to capitalize as the Acura duo then ran 1-2 to the finish.

Today’s victory is the fifth in a row for Acura at Mid-Ohio, as the manufacturer is undefeated here since returning to prototype competition in 2018. It also completed a weekend sweep for Honda Performance Development, the competition arm of American Honda in North America. On Saturday, Honda drivers Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud finished 1-2 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After five of 10 races, Acura moved into the lead of the DPi Manufacturers’ Championship, with Wayne Taylor Racing, Taylor and Albuquerque moving to the top of the teams and drivers’ championships, respectively.

Acura NSX GT3 Evo22

In the production-based GTD class, the #51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 driven by Aidan Read and Ryan Eversley, went off-sequence in their pit strategy mid-race, and led a significant portion of the second half of the two-hour, 40-minute contest. But a pit lane infraction during their final scheduled stop resulted in a drive-through penalty, and an unrepresentative 10th place finish.

IMSA Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Acura Race Results

• 1st overall – #10 Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
• 2nd overall – #60 Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
• 10th GTD – #51 Aidan Read and Ryan Eversely, Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22

DPi Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 5 of 10 rounds)

1. Acura           1,856
2. Cadillac        1,829

DPi Drivers’ Championship (unofficial, after 5 of 10 rounds)                                       

1. Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor; Wayne Taylor Racing	1707
2. Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis; Meyer Shank Racing	1675
3. Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn; Chip Ganassi Racing	1603
4. Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook; JDC Miller Motorsports	1583
5. Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez; Action Express Racing	1575
6. Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Chip Ganassi Racing	1499

Quotes

Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-05) Race winner, second consecutive win for Wayne Taylor Racing in 2022; third victory for Acura: “I can’t say enough about my teammate. At the beginning [of the race], the tire pressures just went crazy [high] and I don’t know how he drove the car. Because I got an improvement [fresh tires and adjusted pressures] and I was still struggling. But at a track where we needed to get everything right, the team executed perfectly. They just nailed it. Great teams just find a way to win. We might not have been the fastest in qualifying, but this just goes to show how strong our team is, that we find a way to win, no matter what.”

Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05) Race winner: “What an amazing race. I’m so happy about this group of people [at Wayne Taylor Racing and HPD], just an amazing job by everyone. We had a great start, but then the car was super, super tricky on old tires, and I was really worried. But the car came a little bit back to us [after the first pit stop] and Ricky just pulled it off, he was amazing. A perfect job by everyone at the Konica Minolta Acura team.”

Tom Blomqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05) Finished second: “Close again, but not quite enough. That was a crazy race, actually. We were running good, the car looked quick. But we got caught out at our first stop. We stalled, basically. We looked like we had the lead going out of pit lane, we just got that wrong. That put us back in third. We had good pace. On the restart [following a caution period], I struggled a bit with the tire buildup, but I still managed to hold the position because the car was quick. Then I got caught in traffic and two Cadillacs managed to get by. The team did a great strategy to bring me in early [for the final scheduled pit stop]. I did some good out laps and managed to clear them again. They saved our race! Two little errors possibly cost us the win. The positive is, we have a very quick car the last few races. We just have to iron out our mistakes and the wins are going to start coming.”

Daniel Bella (Supervisor, Trackside Operations, Honda Performance Development) on today’s 1-2 finish for Acura, and fifth consecutive victory, at Mid-Ohio: “This was a fantastic day, and a great weekend overall for Acura, HPD and our teams here in Mid-Ohio, especially coming from a 1-2 sweep at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (earlier this month), and a Honda 1-2 finish yesterday at Indianapolis. The DPi class produced a great race today, with a long, wheel to wheel battle with the #01 car. For the record books, this is back-to-back wins for Wayne Taylor Racing here at Mid-Ohio, and the ARX-05 is undefeated here in DPi competition. For their part, Meyer Shank Racing has the fastest race lap [Tom Blomqvist] and ran strong all day long to finish second. A great way to end the day, and a winning weekend for HPD.”

Fast Facts

• Today’s 1-2 Acura finish is the fifth consecutive win for Acura at Mid-Ohio, and the third in a row here for Ricky Taylor.
  
• It completes a weekend of 1-2 results for Honda Performance Development, with Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud finishing 1-2 for Honda yesterday in the GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last similar sweep for HPD was in September of 2021, when Alex Palou won the Portland Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES race for Honda, while Taylor/Albuquerque combined to win at Laguna Seca for Acura and HPD.
  
• Acura is undefeated at Mid-Ohio since returning to prototype competition in 2018. Last year, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque scored a thrilling victory in their Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, combining fuel mileage with speed to hold off the competition by just 1.7 seconds at the checkers.
• Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor won for Acura Team Penske in 2018 and 2020; teammates Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya won for Acura in 2019.

Next

The Motor City of Detroit is the next stop in the 2022 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, for the Detroit Grand Prix. One of two 100- minute “sprint races” on the IMSA calendar, the race takes place Saturday, June 12 on the tight and bumpy Belle Isle Park temporary street circuit, with live television coverage on the USA network and streaming on NBC Peacock.

Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Mid-Ohio can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

• Matt Hagan drove the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to a fifth final elimination round appearance in seven National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) national events and earned his third runner-up finish of the season for Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) at the Virginia Nationals
• The Virginia-native put his Smithfield Dodge//SRT Funny Car atop the eliminations ladder at his home race for his 300th career start with a track record elapsed time run of 3.853 seconds at 331.45 mph after also eclipsing the track record speed with his first qualifying run at 335.82 mph.
• Hagan’s 35th career runner-up finish keeps him in the Funny Car championship points lead ahead of event winner Robert Hight
• Cruz Pedregon continued his streak of solid qualifying performances by putting his Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat No. 4 on the eliminations ladder at Virginia Motorsports Park, his sixth top-five qualifying position this season, and advancing to his team’s fifth quarterfinal appearance of the year
• Leah Pruett qualified No. 10 for the Virginia Nationals aboard her Mobile 1 Dodge//SRT Top Fuel dragster but found herself in a first round pedal-fest for a second time this season

May 15, 2022, Dinwiddie, Virginia —Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) made its fifth Funny Car final elimination round appearance in seven National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World Drag Racing Series events with pilot Matt Hagan driving his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the No. 1 qualifier position to a runner-up finish at the Virginia Nationals in his 300th career start.

After a three-year absence from Virginia Motorsports Park, the NHRA returned to Hagan’s home track, located 190 miles from his stomping grounds in Christiansburg, Virginia, where the Dodge//SRT Funny Car driver wasted no time in setting the track speed record at 335.82 mph with his first lap, eclipsing the previous mark set in 2019 (John Force/326.32 mph) by nearly 10 mph. 

The Smithfield Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat continued to improve with every run as Hagan laid down solid passes of 3.914, 3.890, and a track record elapsed time run of 3.853 seconds to secure the No. 1 qualifier position, his second of the season and 45th of his career, and was rewarded with a first-round bye to kick off eliminations.

The three-time world champion worked his way past No. 9 seed Chad Green in the quarterfinals and then watched No. 12 qualifier John Force double-step and foul out of their semifinal match-up to advance to his fifth final round appearance of the year.

Looking to add to the Wally trophies already earned this year at the Gatornationals in Gainesville Florida, and Springnationals in Houston, Texas, the Funny Car points leader lined up for the final against No. 10 seed Robert Hight, who also has two wins under his belt and is stalking Hagan from second spot in the championship standings.

Hagan’s Dodge//SRT machine had the starting line advantage then battled side-by-side with his opponent until mid-track when Hight edged ahead to turn on the win light. Hagan’s third runner-up finish of the year, and 35th of his career, keeps him atop the Funny Car championship standings ahead of the race winner.

Fellow HEMI-powered Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon put his Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car No. 4 on the eliminations ladder on the strength of his final qualifying pass at 3.905 seconds at 323.27 mph. It was the Cruz Pedregon Racing team’s sixth top-five qualifying performance in seven national events.

Pedregon kicked off his race day against No. 13 seed Phil Burkart by driving straight down the grove with a respectable pass for the warm track conditions to take the round win. He was paired against Force for a quarterfinal battle, but when Pedregon’s car immediately lost traction at the launch, his race day came to a quicker end than anticipated.

TSR Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett recorded two solid qualifying passes to put her Mobile 1 Dodge//SRT dragster No. 10 on the eliminations ladder for Sunday’s Virginia Nationals with a best lap of 3.754 seconds at 318.92 mph, and set up a first round pairing against No. 7 seed Doug Kalitta. 

A quick 0.042-second reaction time gave Pruett the advantage on her opponent’s 0.057-second start but almost immediately both began to smoke the tires. Similar to what happened to her in the opening round at Houston’s Springnationals, she found herself in a pedal-fest against Kalitta. Hoping to regain traction, Pruett hit the throttle several times, even sending her ride sideways, as her opponent did the same, but unfortunately she was unable to get to the finish first. 

The NHRA’s next event, the New England Nationals, will take place June 3-5 at New England Dragway near Epping, New Hampshire,  the eighth of 22 national events on the schedule this season.

ADDITIONAL NOTES and QUOTES:

Leah Pruett, Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster 

(No. 10 Qualifier – 3.754 seconds at 318.92 mph)

Round 1: (0.042-second reaction time, 7.253 seconds at 129.35 mph) loss to No. 7 Doug Kalitta (0.057/5.995/234.33)

“Once I got off the line, I knew I hit [the throttle] good but we smoked the tires, and thinking back to the last race when I smoked [the tires], I had a different strategy of coming back off and feathering it and feathering it, but I couldn’t regain traction. I’ve got to say, for Mobil 1, Dodge, Tony (Stewart), GEARWRENCH and everyone that’s backing us right now, clearly we are going to get it. That run is frustrating, for sure, but not every run is going to be a record-breaking run. The fans are out here to watch a show. That’s a different type of show, but we’re going to take another deep breath, digest it and keep working on it. I’m happy I’m doing my job and my team is doing their job. Once it comes together, it’s going to be lethal, I guarantee you that.”

Matt Hagan, Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  

(No. 1 Qualifier – 3.853 seconds at 331.45 mph)

Round 1: (0.072-second reaction time, 3.964 seconds at 328.38 mph) bye run

Round 2: (0.090/3.965/322.65) defeats No. 9 Chad Green (0.096/4.021/317.05)

Round 3: (-0.036/3.955/327.03) defeats No. 12 John Force (-0.323/17.817/60.67)

Round 4:  (0.070/3.948/327.59) loss to No. 10 Robert Hight (0.075/3.907/328.86)

“It was another amazing weekend in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. We had a new sponsor on the car with Smithfield and got those folks crossed over from NASCAR a little bit. We went to the finals again and got to race Robert Hight. It’s going to be a fun season throwing down against him. It was special since it was my 300th career start in Virginia. Our car is running great and we’ve been to so many finals already and won two races, so I know there is more to come. We obviously wanted to win this weekend, but we’re going to be back in the Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car soon and be applying that power. I just want to say thank you to the fans for coming out and supporting us. The stands were packed. Thank you all for the love and we’re going to keep working hard to turn on those win lights.”

Cruz Pedregon, Pedregon Racing Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

(No. 4 Qualifier – 3.905 seconds at 323.27 mph)

Round 1: (0.092-second reaction time, 4.038 seconds at 317.57 mph) defeats No. 13 Phil Burkart (0.117/11.252/72.81)

Round 2: (0.051/10.719/75.87) loss to No. 12 John Force (0.008/3.992/329.91)

We did a good job of qualifying the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in the NO. 4 spot and went onto the quarter finals where we lost to John Force. We spun the tires on that run at the hit of the throttle, which was unusual for us, but we were pressing. We were trying to be aggressive and the racetrack didn’t hold the power we had. We’ll go back and regroup and get ready for the next event. It was one of those races where the conditions went from cooler, rainy, high humidity to warmer on Sunday. Some teams adjusted well and we were good. We were just not quite where we needed to be. So we’ll learn from it, move on and, and get things ready to go for Epping which should be a good race for us. We’re still maintaining that top five position in points. The great thing that I am most proud of is that the team continues to have that qualifying performance every week. It’s top four, top three, top five nearly every race weekend and that’s really tough to do in today’s Funny Car competition with all the cars running so close. So we’re going to hang our hat on that and we’re going to keep digging and be ready for the next one.”

NHRA CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS:

Following the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park

FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)

1.  Matt Hagan (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 673 (2)

2.  Robert Hight: 658 (3)

3.  Ron Capps: 561 (1)

4.  John Force: 447

5.  Cruz Pedregon (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 395

6.  Bob Tasca III: 354

7.  J.R. Todd: 331

8.  Chad Green: 321

9.  Alexis DeJoria: 310

10. Tim Wilkerson: 277

TOP FUEL (season wins in parentheses)

1.  Brittany Force: 605 (3)

2.  Steve Torrence: 524 

3.  Mike Salinas: 521 (2)

4.  Justin Ashley: 468 (1)

5.  Austin Prock: 367

6.  Clay Millican: 365

7. Josh Hart: 345 

8.  Doug Kalitta: 316

9. Tony Schumacher: 295

10. Shawn Langdon: 269

13. Leah Pruett (Dodge Power Brokers): 242

DodgeGarage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News

Fans can follow all the NHRA action this season at DodgeGarage, the one-stop portal for Dodge//SRT and Mopar drag-racing news. The site includes daily updates and access to an online racing HQ, news, events, galleries, available downloads and merchandise. For more information, visit www.dodgegarage.com.

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram

The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers, competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series.

Dodge//SRT

For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with muscle cars and SUVs that deliver unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.

Dodge drives forward as a pure performance brand, offering SRT versions of every model across the lineup. For the 2022 model year, Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock, the 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world, and the Dodge Durango SRT 392, America’s fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV. Combined, these three muscle cars make Dodge the industry’s most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.

In 2020, Dodge was named the “#1 Brand in Initial Quality,” making it the first domestic brand ever to rank No. 1 in the J.D. PowerInitial Quality Study (IQS). In 2021, Dodge brand ranked No. 1 in the J.D. Power APEAL Study (mass market) — making it the only domestic brand ever to do so two years in a row.

Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.

DINWIDDIE, Va. (May 15, 2022) – For the third time in their careers, Brittany Force with her Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy dragster and Robert Hight in his Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS have doubled-up for John Force Racing Sunday at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park. Austin Prock in the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster and John Force with the PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevy each had semifinal exits. Coming into the day having secured their 34th career No. 1 qualifier, Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac team enjoyed a bye for their first round. They would be thankful for the run as they smoked the tires almost immediately. In the second round, the David Grubnic and Mac Savage led team appeared to have figured things out laying down a stellar 3.788-second pass at 328.94 in the heat of the day to defeat Shawn Langdon who went only 4.512 at 203.22. En route to the finals, Force would defeat Mike Salinas with a 3.770-second pass at 334.07 mph before taking on reigning four-time world champion Steve Torrence in the finals. Force would have the starting line advantage and never trail going 3.770 seconds at 334.07 mph bettering Torrecne’s 3.781 at 326.24 for her third win of the season, 14th of her career and first at Virginia Motorsports Park. “This has been our greatest season yet,” Force said. “To come on strong with this many wins, I’m so excited. We’ve never won here in Virginia, so it was very cool to get this win. This Wally (trophy) is for (crew chief) David Grubnic because he makes the impossible happen. Any win is special, but to qualify No. 1, set the track record and then get the win, it’s great. Robert and I seem to have a lot of luck together, and it was great to see him win. Our whole team has come a long way and we’re already ahead of ourselves from last year.” Coming into race day No. 10, Robert Hight and the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS team showed no signs of the struggle they faced in qualifying. In a clean side-by-side race against Tim Wilkerson, Hight would handle his Chevy to a 3.919-second pass at 329.83 mph to better Wilkerson’s 3.942 at 325.92. The win would set Hight up to run reigning world champion Ron Capps. Capps would run into trouble early while Hight and the Auto Club Camaro would sail to a 3.935 at 325.30 for the win. Matched up with Bob Tasca III in the semifinals, Hight would leave the start second, but the Chevy Camaro would chase down Tasca to go 3.906-seconds at 324.20 mph to Tasca’s 4.015 at 328.06. Running against Matt Hagan in the finals, Hight and his Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham tuned Chevy would maintain their high performance to f 3.907-seconds at 328.86 mph to defeat Hagan and his 3.948 at 327.59. It would be his 56th career victory, third of the season and first at Virginia Motorsports Park. “I think we’ve had three battles with Hagan this year and it seems like it happens every week,” Hight said. “I think we’ve got the best two cars in the class and when you race them, you better be up for it. They were better than us in qualifying, but what a difference a day makes. We had mechanical failure the first run and it set us behind the whole weekend. But when you’ve got this great team, you just believe in them, and they just navigated things great today. We’re going to have a lot of these battles the rest of the year and hopefully we can just keep winning them.” After running his career best to qualify No. 2, Austin Prock would have an impressive 3.727-second pass at 333.16 mph to defeat Lex Joon who ran into trouble early and would creep across the finish line at 20.760. The Joe Barlam and Rahn Tobler Montana Brand dragster wouldn’t let up in the second-round blast to a 3.837-second pass at 313.88 mph to send veteran racer Doug Kalitta packing. Prock would face Steve Torrence in the semifinals and while Prock would have a slight starting line advantage on the four-time champ, Prock would run into tire smoke to go only 4.932-seconds at 155.85 mph. Torrence would advance to the finals on a 3.781 at 326.24. “It was a great weekend for this new Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team. We made extremely competitive runs and showed we can run with any of them,” Prock said. “Our time is coming, we’re on the right track and made huge headway this weekend. We wanted an all JFR final but came up short. We will be ready to go for a win in Epping.”  Without a clean pass throughout qualifying John Force and the BlueDEF Chevy managed to throwdown a 3.922-second pass at 329.67 mph to send J.R. Todd and his 3.994 at 325.85 mph pass home. With Danny Hood and Tim Fabrisi, Force would continue to be consistent going 3.992 at 329.91 mph to defeat longtime rival Cruz Pedregon, who ran into tire smoke. Force would be over eager in the semifinals against Matt Hagan. The 16-time world champion would red-light, giving Hagan the win and path to the finals. “Well, I just got over excited, I guess. I was amped up and I was ready to go, I wanted to win,” Force said. “But, if this PEAK Chevy can’t get the job done, I’m glad it’s Robert and that Auto Club Chevy. Over there in dragsters, just so proud of that Flav-R-Pac car for Frank Tiegs getting the job done. Brittany and Grubnic and Savage, that whole team really put in the work this weekend. Prock with Barlam and Tobler, they are really coming around, really looking good. It was just a great weekend for John Force Racing.” The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season continues June 3-5 with the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway, the eighth event on the series tour. -30-

AUSTIN PROCK, 26, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist DragsterQualifying:2nd; 3.672-seconds; 326.87 mphBonus Qualifying Points:+2 (2nd quickest Q2)Race Results: Beat Lex Joon, Doug Kalitta; Lost to Steve TorrenceBRITTANY FORCE, 35, Monster Energy DragsterQualifying:1st; 3.710-seconds; 335.82 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +9 (quickest Q1, Q2, Q3)Race Results: Bye; Beat Shawn Langdon, Mike Salinas and Steve TorrenceJOHN FORCE, 73, PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:12th; 4.094-seconds; 323.58 mphBonus Qualifying Points: 0Race Results: Beat J.R. Todd, Cruz Pedregon; Lost to Matt HaganROBERT HIGHT, 52, Auto Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:12th; 8.517-seconds; 384.37 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0Race Results: Beat Tim Wilkerson, Ron Capps, Bob Tasca III and Matt Hagan

May 15, 2022

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team avoided the adversity that affected many of their competitors and came away with a 21^st-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Burton took the green flag from 26^th place and finished the first 80-lap Stage in 23^rd place.

He continued to run inside the top 25 in Stage Two and got a big break when the caution flag flew for a spin by Kevin Harvick on Lap 127, during a round of green-flag pit stops.

Burton had yet to make his stop, so he moved up to 13^th place for the ensuing restart.

He ran inside the top 15 for much of the remainder of that Stage, and was running 17^th when that Stage ended at Lap 165.
 
In the third and final Stage, with his DEX Imaging team turning out quick stops on pit road, he was able to run inside the top 15 for much of the latter portion of the race before losing several spots and crossing the finish line in 21^st place, on the lead lap for the second-straight week. 
 
Burton said the up-and-down day left him a bit frustrated.
 
“We ran better than we finished,” he said. “You want it to be the other way, but just really free at the end.  
 
“It’s really hard to drive these things loose, so I don’t know if I need to do a better job or what, but when we get loose we struggle pretty bad. It was a handful at the end and it’s definitely frustrating.”
 
Burton said that prior to the final run to the checkered flag he and the DEX Imaging team were making the No. 21 Mustang faster.

“I felt like we were getting better throughout the day, and then on the last run we finally jumped over the cushion too far,” he said. “We were tight, tight, tight all day and couldn’t get it to turn and then all of a sudden the last run I’m crashing on entry and crashing on exit.
 
“Overall, we just have to keep digging. It’s not what we want, but we’ll keep going.”

Burton and the Motorcraft/DEX Imaging team now head to Texas Motor Speedway for next week’s NASCAR All-Star Race.

Capco Boys Fall to Force in Final Round by One One-Hundredth

RICHMOND, Va. (May 15, 2022) – After a two-year absence, the NHRA returned to Virginia Motorsports Park. Steve Torrence and the Capco Boys advanced to the final round in their Toyota Top Fuel dragster, but by only one one-hundredth of a second would lose to race-winner, Brittany Force. Qualifying proved positive for the GR Supra Funny Car contingent with all three posting times within the top-five, but a drastic weather change for Sunday’s race would eliminate them all by round two.

Toyota Post-Race Recap

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series

Virginia Motorsports Park

Race 7 of 22

TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS  —  Race Winner:  Brittany Force

Name	Car	Final Result	Round-by-Round
Steve Torrence	Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	Final Round	W. 3.772 vs. 3.926 (S. Palmer) W. 4.402 vs. 5.309 (T. Schumacher) W. 3.803 vs. 4.932 (A. Prock) L. 3.781 vs. 3.770 (B. Force)
Shawn Langdon	DHL Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	Round 2	W. 3.769 vs. NT (D. Foley) L. 4.512 vs. 3.788 (B. Force)
Doug Kalitta	Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	Round 2	W. 5.995 vs. 7.253 (L. Pruett) L. 5.946 vs. 3.837 (A. Prock)
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	Round 1	L. 5.833 vs. 5.384 (M. Salinas)
Justin Ashley	Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	Round 1	L. 8.368 vs. 3.792 (T. Schumacher)

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS  — Race Winner:    Robert Hight

Name	Car	Final Result	Round-by-Round
Ron Capps	NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	Round 2	W. 5.481 vs. 8.027 (McIntire Jr.) L. 9.626 vs. 3.935 (R. Hight)
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	Round 1	L. 3.994 vs. 3.922 (J. Force)
Alexis DeJoria	Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	Round 1	L. 3.962 (red light) vs. 3.948 (B. Tasca III)

TOYOTA QUOTES

STEVE TORRENCE, Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Torrence Racing

Final Result: Final Round

How do you feel about the race weekend overall and your appearance in the final round?

“It was a good weekend for the Capco car and really needed to get into that final round and improve moral for the team and I think we took a step in the right direction doing that. It was a tough final round race, but we get a couple weeks off and we’ll hit them hard again. I think this Toyota is headed in the right direction and I’m pleased with everything and the rest of the team is too.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION VIRGINIA NHRA NATIONALS VIRGINIA MOTORSPORTS PARK IN NORTH DINWIDDIE, VIRGINIA MAY 15, 2022 Chevrolet doubles up at Virginia NHRA Nationals• Top Fuel points leader Brittany Force records third victory of the season• Robert Hight delivers 150th Funny Car victory for Chevrolet and 56th of his career• Daniel Condon drives COPO Camaro to runner-up in Factory Stock Showdown

NORTH DINWIDDIE, Va. (May 15, 2022) — Robert Hight and crew chief Jimmy Prock didn’t find the sweet spot with the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS in qualifications, checking in at the No. 10 spot. But it got down the Virginia Motorsports Park quickly and consistently in eliminations, with Hight earning his third NHRA Funny Car victory of the season.

Teammate Brittany Force’s Flav-R-Pac/Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster checked in as the No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier and the 2017 champion ran the table for her third victory of the season for a big weekend for John Force Racing and Chevrolet. Hight, who claimed his 56th career Funny Car win, delivered the 150th Funny Car victory for Chevrolet sine 1967. The Camaro body has been to the winner’s circle 70 times. Hight and 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force have combined for 25 wins with the Camaro. Hight’s pass of 3.907 seconds at 328.86 mph eclipsed the 3.948-second run by Matt Hagan.  “I was a crew member for so many years, so nobody knows that better than I do. It takes eight guys pulling together and there is nothing like it at the end of the day when you can hoist one of these Wallys up,” said Hight, who remains second to Hagan in the standings through seven of the scheduled 22 races. “I just want to thank everybody … Auto Club, Chevrolet. This trophy is going to Mary Barra from Chevrolet, she is the CEO. Come out to a drag race and see us. “I think we’ve had three battles with Hagan this year and it seems like it happens every week. I think we’ve got the best two cars in the class and when you race them, you better be up for it. They were better than us in qualifying, but what a difference a day makes. We had mechanical failure the first run and it set us behind the whole weekend. But when you’ve got this great team, you just believe in them and they just navigated things great today. We’re going to have a lot of these battles the rest of the year and hopefully we can just keep winning them.”

Entering eliminations as the No. 1 spot for the 34th time in her career – and with the Top Fuel track elapsed time record of 3.654 seconds in her pocket — after a bye run, Force made passes of 3.778, 3.770 and 3.770 seconds in the final against reigning champion Steve Torrence to collect her third win of the season and 14th of her career. “This has been our greatest season yet,” said Force, who retains the top spot in the Top Fuel standings. “To come on this strong, with this many wins with our Flav-R-Pac team, I am so excited. We’ve never won here in Virginia, so it was very cool to get this win. This Wally (trophy) is for (crew chief) David Grubnic because he makes the impossible happen. Any win is special, but to qualify No. 1, set the track record and then get the win, it’s great. Robert and I seem to have a lot of luck together, and it was great to see him win. Our whole team has come a long way and we’re already ahead of ourselves from last year.” Austin Prock, who posted a season-high No. 2 spot in qualifications in the Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster, advanced to the semifinals against Torrence. John Force, who registered the 155th win of his Funny Car career on May 1, also advanced to the semifinals before falling to Hagan. Force, driving the PEAK BlueDEF Platinum Chevrolet Camaro SS, was the No. 12 qualifier. Daniel Condon of Wilmington, Illinois, drove his Chevrolet COPO Camaro to a runner-up finish in the third round of the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown.

Chevrolet teams return to competition June 3-5 at the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire. Pro Stock rejoins the schedule after a long break. Four-time class champion Erica Enders, who has won three of the five races in the Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, is first in the standings. FS1 will telecast eliminations at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, June 5.

Solid Day for Austin Dillon and The No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway

13th

21st

13th

“Nice work by everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet today. It was a lot of hard work and a long day, but we got an okay finish out of it at Kansas Speedway. We had a penalty in Stage 1 for equipment leaving the box, but the pit crew was pretty fast the rest of the day. In Stage 2, we pitted under green just as the caution came out and we had to take the wave around. We rebounded nicely, though, and spent most of Stage 3 in the top-12. The restarts were a struggle today. Our car didn’t really start handling well until about 20 laps into a run, so that’s something we’re going to have to do some work on. This team will keep digging.”-Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick And The No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet Team Lead Laps at Kansas Speedway Before Unscheduled Pit Stop

30th

2nd

15th

“Our entire Richard Childress Racing team started today pretty optimistic after qualifying second and starting on the front row at Kansas Speedway. We led some laps in Stage 1 and felt like our BetMGM Chevrolet was really strong. Unfortunately, things started to take a turn when we had a tire go down and made contact with the wall. We ended up going a few laps down, and even though we kept taking the wave around bad luck continued to strike. It just wasn’t our day. We’ll take this and learn from it like we always do. Our time is coming and this team doesn’t give up.”-Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

ADVENTHEALTH 400

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES

MAY 15, 2022

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:

POS.   DRIVER

2nd     KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1

7th      ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1

8th      RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 DILLONS / LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE CAMARO ZL1

9th      ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

13th    AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1

16th    WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1

18th    NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 16 CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1

19th    COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 GARNER TRUCKING, INC CAMARO ZL1

20th    TY DILLON, NO. 42 CHEVYLINERS.COM CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: 

POS.  DRIVER

1.        Kurt Busch (Toyota)

2.        Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)

3.        Kyle Busch (Toyota)

4.        Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

5.        Christopher Bell (Toyota)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next Sunday, May 22, at Texas Motor Speedway with the NASCAR All-Star Open at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by the NASCAR All-Star Race at 8 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd

SO CLOSE FOR KYLE LARSON TODAY. KYLE, EIGHT LAPS TO GO AND YOU’RE BATTLING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH KURT (BUSCH). YOU ENDED UP GETTING INTO THE WALL. DID HE GIVE YOU ENOUGH ROOM OR WERE YOU JUST TRYING TO USE EVERYTHING YOU HAD?

“I mean, we were racing for the win there. He never got into me, so I’m trying to squeeze throttle to get position on him and just got tight. That was fun racing with Kurt (Busch). You know, the last half of the race I was trying hard the whole time. I about spun out in front of him there at some point in the third stage and then we just kept fighting through it. 

Thanks to my team for building me a war machine. I hit the wall a lot today and just struggled, like people could put air on me and get me really tight and I hit the wall. We’ll work on that and figure it out, but happy with my car. It was hard to hold off Kyle (Busch) and then I knew when Kurt got by, I knew it was going to be really hard to hold him off. I did my best but came up one spot short.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th

“We started off pretty good and pretty early on in the race, we realized we were capable of a top-10 car. The first stage was good. We had a lug nut not get engaged on the left rear during the green flag stop in stage two, which we got lucky to even get it back on. We were able to cycle back around to about where we should have been, so that was fortunate. 

From there, there was just a lot of ups and downs. We would restart upfront and then we’d restart in the back; and I can’t even remember what all happened exactly. We had a lot of speed in our No. 1 Advent Health Chevy Camaro. It’s cool to be that fast. I hit a tire on pit road late and that dented in the left front fender; and that ultimately made us too tight to fight for a top-five.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 DILLONS / LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th

“All-in-all, a really good day and another top-10 for our No. 47 Dillons / Louisiana Hot Sauce Camaro. After starting in the back from our issues in practice yesterday, I’m really happy with the result. We were solid on pit road. We made some good adjustments to get our car better. I felt like I was really strong at points, but we were around an eighth-place car. The top-five were really, really fast, and I didn’t have anything for them. 

I’m really happy with where we ran. We didn’t make any mistakes and brought home another top-10. That was our goal coming in, to try and keep that momentum going.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th

“We had a fast No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 today. Greg (Ives, crew chief) and the crew did a good job at keeping me in it and giving me what I needed to stay up front. Super proud of my guys and the hard work they put in each week to continue to learn about the new car and give me what I need to be competitive. The pit crew did a great job on pit road, getting me track position and making solid stops. We will go back to Charlotte and look over all the notes from today’s race and try to get better for Texas next week.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 13th

“Nice work by everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet today. It was a lot of hard work and a long day, but we got an okay finish out of it at Kansas Speedway. We had a penalty in Stage 1 for equipment leaving the box, but the pit crew was pretty fast the rest of the day. In Stage 2, we pitted under green just as the caution came out and we had to take the wave around. We rebounded nicely, though, and spent most of Stage 3 in the top-12. The restarts were a struggle today. Our car didn’t really start handling well until about 20 laps into a run, so that’s something we’re going to have to do some work on. We’ve got some work to do but this team will keep digging.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 32nd

“Our FOCUSfactor Chevy was decent today. We started out pretty good, but a little on the free side. The guys made good changes and made a pit call to get us in the top 10 and stage points at the end of stage one. Unfortunately, we had the issue with our tire and getting the right rear off. That kind of ended our day after going multiple laps down. We’ll refocus and head to Texas for the All-Star race.”

STAGE ONE

• Tyler Reddick, No. 8 BetMGM Camaro ZL1, led the field to the green from a front row starting spot; his seventh top-10 starting spot of 2022 and his first in six-career NCS starts at Kansas Speedway. 
• The field saw a variety of pit strategies during a caution on lap 61. Crew Chief Dave Elenz called Erik Jones to pit road for two tires, giving the No. 43 FOCUSfactor Camaro ZL1 the win off pit road; advancing 11 spots ahead of the restart. 
• With a 13-lap dash to the end of Stage One, Ross Chastain powered his No. 1 Advent Health Camaro ZL1 to a runner-up finish in the Stage, leading Chevrolet to four of the top-five and six of the top-10. 
• Other Camaro ZL1’s earning stage points at the conclusion of the 80-lap Stage included

3rd      Chase Elliott, No. 9 UniFirst Camaro ZL1

4th      Tyler Reddick, No. 8 BetMGM Camaro ZL1

5th      William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 

8th      Erik Jones, No. 43 FOCUSfactor Camaro ZL1

10th    Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

• Three Chevrolet drivers recorded laps led in Stage One, including Tyler Reddick (24 laps; second-most); Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3 laps); and Kyle Larson (3 laps

STAGE TWO

• Following a cycle of pit stops at the conclusion of the Stage, Ross Chastain led the field to the green from the front row to start the 85-lap Stage Two. 
• William Byron powered his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 to the lead at the beginning of the Stage, becoming the eighth leader of the day. 
• Out in a strong lead, Byron suffered a flat left rear tire, forcing the No. 24 Chevrolet team to come down pit road under green for a four-tire stop; rejoining the field two-laps down. 
• With 41 laps to go in the Stage, Chase Elliott was scored as the leader, preparing to bring his No. 9 UniFirst Camaro ZL1 to pit road when the caution flew. Making a four-tire, fuel and air pressure adjustment stop under the caution, Elliott restarted in the 10th-position with 29 laps left to go in the Stage. 
• At the conclusion of Stage Two, Chase Elliott recorded his second top-five Stage finish of the day, bringing his No. 9 UniFirst Camaro ZL1 to the line in fifth. 
• Joining Elliott in the top-10 of Stage Two included: 

6th      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 

7th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Advent Health Camaro ZL1 

• With 165 laps in the books, 10 different drivers had held the lead, including six Chevrolet drivers: William Byron (25 laps; third-most); Tyler Reddick (24 laps); Chase Elliott (10 laps); Ross Chastain (4 laps); Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3 laps); Kyle Larson (3 laps). 

FINAL STAGE/POST-RACE QUICK NOTES

• Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team was second off of pit road, giving the team a front row restart position with 65 laps to go. 
• Larson ultimately crossed the finished line in the runner-up position, giving the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team its seventh top-10 finish of 2022. 
• Ross Chastain finished seventh; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished eighth; and Alex Bowman finished ninth to give Chevrolet four top-10 finishes. 
• With 13 races in the books, Chevrolet has recorded 36 top-five’s and 63 top-10’s, continuing to lead all manufacturers. 

RICHMOND, VA (May 15, 2022) — Josh Hart and the TechNet Top Fuel dragster team showed their resiliency and mental toughness battling through two days of tricky qualifying conditions. Friday and Saturday as rain showers moved through the Richmond, Virginia area delaying qualifying times and shuffling track temperatures. The team gave each qualifying run their best effort but did not see the results they were looking for. They moved into race day at the No. 13 qualifier on the strength of his final qualifying pass, 3.842 seconds. Hart knew that at NHRA national events like the Virginia Nationals the key is to get into the show because anything can happen on race day.

Josh Hart and TechNet Top Fuel dragster, photo by Auto Imagery

“We didn’t have the results we are accustomed to in qualifying,” said Hart, after three rounds of qualifying. “We missed the tune-up just a little and unfortunately the track wasn’t very forgiving for anyone. The good news is I have an amazing team of talented people led by Ron Douglas, so we have a solid gameplan for race day.”

In the first round Hart faced veteran Clay Millican who he dropped a close semifinal race to at the Arizona Nationals. The second-year driver held a 1-2 record against Millican going into today’s race.  When both cars launched Millican went into immediate smoke and Hart took off on a smooth, quick run. His winning time of 3.801 seconds was his quickest run of the weekend and a testament to his team’s work ethic. The round win evened his head-to-head record with Millican and advanced the young driver to at least the quarterfinals for the fourth time this season.

TechNet Top Fuel team, photo by Auto Imagery

After two days of showers the sun remained out throughout the day today keeping track temperatures on the rise. In the quarterfinals facing the most recent Top Fuel race winner, Mike Salinas, Hart and his TechNet team had lane choice and confidence. Hart was the first off the line with a reaction time advantage and both race cars experienced tire smoke. Each driver battled to regain momentum and Hart’s race car didn’t cooperate as he pedaled the TechNet dragster to no avail. Following the run the team deduced that the pan pressure sensor was tripped and aborted the run. Salinas got to the finish line first, ending Hart’s chances of consecutive semifinal appearances.

“I could not be more proud of this TechNet team,” said Hart. “We struggled in qualifying and came out swinging today in the first round with our backs against the wall. That was a great win for us over a tough team. In the second round I bet I pedaled that TechNet dragster 10 times but with that pan pressure sensor active it didn’t matter. We have a couple weeks off and then we are right back at it.”

Seven races into the season Hart and the TechNet team continue to be one of the most competitive teams on the circuit. In a tough Top Fuel category Hart will head into June sitting seventh in the Camping World points just one round behind his closest competitor. 

Qualifying Results

Q1: 4.181 sec, 203.28 mph; Qual. 14

Q2: 8.666 sec, 82.51 mph; Qual 15

Q3: 3.842 sec, 256.45 mph; Qual. 13

Bonus Points: 0

Race Results

First Round

Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., TechNet dragster, 3.801, 326.87 mph def. Clay Millican, Drummonds, Tenn., Parts Plus dragster, 9.786, 80.10 mph 

Second Round

Mike Salinas, San Jose, Calif., Pep Boys/Scrapper Racing dragster, 6.686, 204.39 mph def. Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., TechNet dragster, 8.512, 87.59 mph

Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Top Fuel

1. Brittany Force                          605

2. Mike Salinas                            526

3. Steve Torrence                        524

4. Justin Ashley                            468

5. Austin Prock                             367

6. Clay Millican                            365

7. Josh Hart                                 345

8. Doug Kalitta                             316

9. Tony Schumacher                    295

10. Shawn Langdon                     269

RICHMOND, VA (May 15, 2022) — Justin Ashley and the Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel dragster powered by Vita C Shot came out of their hauler at Virginia Motorsports Park ready to make a run for the points lead. Their first two qualifying runs locked them solidly into the top half of the field and his first pass was the second quickest of the session earning the 2020 Rookie of the Year two qualifying bonus points. The team stepped up their efforts on Saturday morning posting an even quicker 3.700 second pass at 325.85 mph. In the final qualifying session after a lengthy rain delay Ashley and his Mike Green tuned Phillips Connect Toyota dragster threw everything at the track making a run for the top spot but they overpowered the conditions and moved into race day as the No. 6 Top Fuel team on the property.

Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel dragster powered by Vita C Shot, photo by Ron Lewis Photography

In the first round Ashley pulled up beside veteran and multiple time world champion Tony Schumacher. The 2022 Winternationals winner was looking to avenge a first round loss to Schumacher at the NHRA Arizona Nationals earlier this season in their first meeting. Ashley was able to pick his lane and the three-time winner got the jump off the starting line with a strong .049 reaction time. Unfortunately, his Phillips Connect Top Fuel dragster powered by Vita C Shot which also has backing from Auto Shocker, Lucas Oil, and KATO Fastening Systems overpowered the race track. The immediate loss of traction combined with Schumacher’s unblemished run combined to end Ashley’s race day in the first round.

 “We learn something every race,” said Ashley. “The team is doing great and one round of racing certainly doesn’t affect our attitudes and expectations moving forward. We’ll be ready for the New England Nationals.” 

While his race day was not as successful as hoped Ashley knows that sometimes competition results pay dividends in different forms. The qualifying runs and bonus points contributed to positive takeaways for the third-year driver. The team also gained valuable information heading into the busy stretch run of the summer. 

“I love having Dustin Davis, Mike Green and Tommy DeLago leading this team,” said Ashley. “Those are three smart guys who will take everything we learned this weekend and make this team even better. We are heading into a stretch of racing where we will be at the track almost every weekend and I can’t wait. We have a lot of positive things happening with this Phillips Connect Vita C Shot team.”

Ashley will hold onto his strong position, fourth place, in the NHRA Camping World point standings as the series moves to Epping, New Hampshire, for the New England Nationals in June. 

Qualifying Results

Q1: 3.725 sec, 327.82 mph; Qual. 2

Q2: 3.700 sec, 325.85 mph; Qual. 4

Q3: 9.131 sec, 67.03 mph; Qual. 6

Bonus Points: +2 (2^nd quickest in Q1)

Race Results

First Round

Tony Schumacher, Lakeway, Tex., SCAG dragster, 3.792, 319.52 mph def. Justin Ashley, Phillips Connect Toyota dragster powered by Vita C Shot, 8.368, 76.72 mph def. 

Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Top Fuel

1. Brittany Force                          605

2. Mike Salinas                            526

3. Steve Torrence                        524

4. Justin Ashley                           468

5. Austin Prock                             367

6. Clay Millican                            365

7 Josh Hart                                   345

8. Doug Kalitta                             316

9. Tony Schumacher                    295

10. Shawn Langdon                     269

Derani, Nunez co-drive No. 31 Whelen Engineering DPi-V.R to another podium finish

LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 15, 2022) – The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R claimed its second consecutive third-place finish in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition and third podium finish in as many years at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to pace the Cadillac contingent in the Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio.

After starting fifth in the 2-hour, 40-minute race on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course, co-drivers Pipo Derani and Tristan Nunez inherited third place following the lone full-course caution midway through the race and held the position. In 2021 and ’20, the Action Express entry was runner-up at Mid-Ohio. “I think we got the maximum we could out of the car and we delivered,” said Derani, the reigning DPi champion. “Unfortunately, not quite there, but I think we have to be proud of our job finishing as the best Cadillac. The team was flawless all weekend and we’ll take another podium.” The No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R, which earned its third pole start of the season with Sebastien Bourdais behind the wheel, controlled the pace through the first 1 hour, 15 minutes.  Bourdais exited the seat on a pit stop during the caution and Renger van der Zande took the green flag on the restart. Battling the second-place Acura in the winding back section of the track, the cars made light contact in Turn 6, which sent the No. 01 Cadillac off course. Van der Zande quickly recovered, but the opportunity for the second victory this season slipped away. “I think Seb did a fantastic job putting it in the lead. When I got in I struggled with the tires on the restart. I tried to keep the position in first but lost control of the car by a little touch,” van der Zande said. “It’s tough to keep a fast car behind when dealing with low grip. It’s a shame. I think we had a good shot at winning with a good car and a good strategy. We are onto Detroit next, which is an important one for Cadillac.” Bourdais and van der Zande combined to lead a class-high 61 f the 121 laps and finished fifth overall. The No. 10 Acura went on to win the race. Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn teamed to finish fourth in the No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R, while Richard Westbrook and Tristan Vautier co-drove the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R to sixth place. Cadillac teams return to competition June 3-4 for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on the 2.35-mile, 14-turn temporary street course on Belle Isle in Detroit. The No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R won the 2021 race from the pole. The USA Network will telecast the 100-minute race live at 3 p.m. ET Saturday, June 4.

Cadillac Racing results and quotes

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.RPipo Derani, Tristan NunezFinish: Third Start: FifthPipo Derani: “We have to be proud. The 31 Whelen Engineering team did a fantastic job this weekend. I think we got the maximum we could out of the car and we delivered. Unfortunately, not quite there, but I think we have to be proud of our job finishing as the best Cadillac. The team was flawless all weekend and we’ll take another podium.” Tristan Nunez: “It all kind of fell in our laps toward the end. Once again, we were the strongest Cadillac, which is good. And good for points. We go to our home turf next race and hopefully we’ll have better overall pace, which I think we will. Cadillacs are always strong at Belle Isle. Looking forward to getting to Detroit and banking some more strong results.” No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.REarl Bamber, Alex LynnFinish: Fourth Start: FourthEarl Bamber: “Tough race for us today. Our team had two really quick cars. We had an issue with the stop, which put us behind the 5 car. We recovered back to fourth, but I think third was on the table. Now, we look forward to Detroit, which is a good rack for Cadillac, and we need to score big points there.” Alex Lynn: “Not the day we dreamed of today. I thought we had a chance at third and could’ve stole a podium. In the end, Fourth place is important points for the championship. We will regroup and improve and come back for Detroit.” No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.RRenger van der Zande, Sebastien BourdaisFinish: Fifth Start: FirstRenger van der Zande: “I think Seb did a fantastic job putting it in the lead. When I got in I struggled with the tires on the restart. I tried to keep the position in first but lost control of the car by a little touch. It’s tough to keep a fast car behind when dealing with low grip. It’s a shame. I think we had a good shot at winning with a good car and a good strategy. We are onto Detroit next which is an important one for Cadillac.” Sebastien Bourdais: “It was a more eventful run than we wanted. We did not get a the start we wanted being in the safety car map. At that point, we lost the lead and wasn’t looking great. Fortunately, we got a couple of lucky breaks and put big pressure on the 10 car to retake the lead. We seemed to be under control with how fast the car was. The yellow came at the wrong time for us. Renger did everything he could to keep them behind. Unfortunately, it did not pan out for us. It was a good weekend for us, so obviously disappointed we did not come out with more points. We will keep digging and hope for better days.” No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.RTristan Vautier, Richard WestbrookFinish: Sixth Start: SixthTristan Vautier: “My stint on the qualifying tires was really hard. I lost the rears early on, and I was struggling throughout my stint. I think the track kind of came to us near the end, so it’s a shame that we couldn’t put it together. I was a trying weekend for us. We would have liked to have a solid result out of it, so our eyes are on Detroit.” Richard Westbrook: “We salvaged the most of it. I lost downforce and then run wide through Turn 1 and that really damaged the front splitter. Then it was just a case of bringing it home. I feel so bad for the guys. We had a good car in traffic, but when you go through the dirt in Turn 1 you give everything up. We worked so hard this weekend to get a decent car for the race and it looked like we had one.”

(5/14/2022 – Alex Nieten) Hanford, CA… Dominic Scelzi summed up his 2022 Peter Murphy Classic victory at Hanford’s Keller Auto Speedway with just six words.

“Better to be lucky than good,” Scelzi said to open his victory lane interview.

The reigning NARC Fujitsu General Sprint Car champion found himself in the right place at the right time with just nine laps to go when Justin Sanders and Corey Day collided in turn four while battling for the lead, taking each other out of contention.

The incident gifted the lead to the Red Rose Transportation/Whipple Superchargers No. 41 piloted by Scelzi, who started the race from 12th, and he went on to sweep the NARC portion of the Peter Murphy Classic after claiming the opener at Tulare on Friday and Saturday’s finale in Hanford. The victory was Scelzi’s fourth NARC triumph at Keller Auto Speedway, making the three-eighths mile the winningest track on his NARC resumé.

And perhaps the most meaningful statistic to Scelzi is that he became the first driver in the Peter Murphy Classic’s eight year history to win the $11,000 NARC finale twice after he claimed last year’s edition, too.

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for Peter,” Scelzi said. “He dug me out of the darkest spot of my career as a young kid. He made me keep going, and I will forever be thankful for that.”

The race was brought to green by Justin Sanders and Kerry Madsen. Sanders darted ahead as Max Mittry ripped the topside around Madsen into the runner-up spot.

Sanders opened up a commanding lead early on as Corey Day began to charge toward the front. First Day and Colby Copeland nearly got together dueling for fourth with Day coming out on top. Then Day made quick work of Madsen and Mittry and set his sights on a distant Sanders who navigated traffic.

The race’s first yellow flew on lap 11 when Madsen spun in turn one. D.J. Netto inherited the fifth spot that Madsen had held as a result.

On the restart with 20 laps remaining Day got an excellent jump and squeezed to Sanders’ inside entering turn one. The two drifted high exiting turn two with Day completing the slider and immediately setting sail.

Behind them, Scelzi made a couple moves to power into fourth after restarting in sixth. The No. 41 machine prepared by Jimmy Carr made Scelzi’s life easier as he charged from row six throughout the race’s opening half.

“When we pushed out onto the racetrack before the feature, I saw Jimmy walk past my car and he was wearing my shirt, so I knew we were going to be pretty good,” Scelzi joked.

“It’s been amazing,” Scelzi added. It’s been incredible. He’s changed my entire life… He made a driver out of me. He taught me how to win races and how to race.”

Scelzi climbed onto the podium by passing Colby Copeland on lap 14, and shortly after disaster struck for the leaders.

Day, who had built a considerable lead, drifted high out of turn two and off track down the backstretch on lap 21. As a result, Sanders had a huge run into turn three and threw a slider, clearing Day but drifting slightly above the rubber that was starting to develop in turn four. Day stayed in the rubber and dove under Sanders, but Day’s right rear hit Sanders’ left front, sending Day on a wild slide down the front stretch and breaking Sanders’ front end. Both of their nights were done.

Their troubles were Scelzi’s good fortune as he took over the top spot.

“I felt like we were, honestly, as good as the 14 (Day) and 57 (Sanders) and we closed in on both,” Scelzi explained. “But as it started getting abrasive I felt like there was no way. I wasn’t really paying attention to how Sanders slid Corey, but I was probably half a straightaway back trying to conserve tire, hoping maybe they’d get too antsy and lose a tire. When I saw them start racing I just said ‘okay I’ve got one or two laps to get right there and hope something happens.’ And when it did I was just far enough away to miss it.”

After Scelzi inherited the lead, he drove away unchallenged on the ensuing restart to claim his 17th career NARC win with a 1.3 second advantage over Copeland.

“We got lucky tonight, but nobody’s going to give a crap in two days,” Scelzi said. “Whether we got lucky or not, we won. We got the check. We got the trophy. We got the wine. We got everything.”

Copeland’s runner-up in Larry Anaya’s Fire Protection Management No. 16A kept his perfect top-two streak alive. He’s raced in three of the four NARC races this year with finishes of first, second, and second.

“Second is obviously great with this kind of competition,” Copeland said. “Larry (Antaya) and Jim (Vanlare) gave me a great car, just need to do a little fine tuning to keep up with Dominic.”

Completing the podium was the 2019 champion D.J. Netto in his Netto Ag/Penny Newman Grain No. 88N.

The balance of the top-10 included Mitchell Faccinto, Kalib Henry, Max Mittry, Craig Stidham Willie Croft, Bud Kaeding, and Chase Johnson

FUJITSU GENERAL USA FEATURE (30 laps): 1. Dominic Scelzi 41 2. Colby Copeland 16A 3. D.J. Netto 88N 4. Mitchell Faccinto 21 5. Kalib Henry 17 6. Max Mittry 2X 7. Craig Stidham 36 8. Willie Croft 29 9. Bud Kaeding 69 10. Chase Johnson 24 11. Mitchel Moles 01 12. Robbie Price 21P 13. Michael Faccinto 56 14. Garen Linder 22 15. Dylan Bloomfield 11 16. Nick Parker 115 17. Corey Day 14 18. Justin Sanders 57 19. Joel Myers Jr. 83V 20. Shane Golobic 17W 21. Kerry Madsen 83JR 22. Landon Brooks 5V 23. Kaleb Montgomery 3 24. Tim Kaeding 42X

HOOSIER TIRE LAP LEADERS: Sanders 1-11, Day 12-21, Scelzi 22-30

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (31 Cars): Kerry Madsen 13.623

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 laps): Faccinto, Myers Jr., Brooks, Madsen, Henry, Bloomfield, Forler, Faria

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (8 laps): Netto, Stidham, Day, Kaeding, Johnson, Moles, Kent, Shaw

DIRT.TRAVEL CLUB HEAT THREE (8 laps): Copeland, Sanders, Croft, Scelzi, Golobic, Linder, Aton, Foland

KAEDING PERFORMANCE HEAT FOUR (8 laps): Faccinto, Mittry, Montgomery, Kaeding, Price, Parker, Strole

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” POLE SHUFFLE: Mittry/Brooks: Mittry, Mittry/Netto: Mittry, Mittry/Madsen: Madsen, Madsen/Day: Madsen, Madsen/Sanders: Sanders

STARR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SEMI (12 laps): Bloomfield, Parker, Moles, Linder, Faria, Aton, Forler, Shaw, Kent, Foland Jr., Strole

Race-Long Leader Jacob Allen Ran Out of Fuel on Final Restart

MECHANICSBURG, PA – May 14, 2022 – One yellow flag is what changed it all in Saturday’s Morgan Cup finale at Williams Grove Speedway.

Hanover’s Jacob Allen was poised to complete a storybook week, sweeping a swing through his home state of Pennsylvania with first-career wins at Lincoln Speedway and now Williams Grove. It was the perfect ending to a perfect week in Posse-land, but then the Shark Racing #1A started sputtering as the Newman Racing Engines powerplant starved for fuel with only two to go.

Allen had controlled the first 28 laps of the 30 lapper and was pursuing a perfect night with a QuickTime, Heat win, and Dash victory when disaster struck as the caution flew moments prior to the white flag waving. It was at that moment that Allen knew he had no shot of hanging on.

“I knew immediately when the caution flew that I wasn’t gonna make it,” Allen told DIRTVision afterward. “I feel like if we stayed green that I could’ve limped it home, but I still don’t know if I could’ve survived for the win. It’s just the name of the game. We’ll come back next time with a different strategy and we won’t run out.”

While Allen went from hero to zero, behind him in the right place at the right time was fellow Pennsylvanian, Brent Marks.

The Myerstown Missile, in fuel conservation mode himself, fought off a bad vibration and non-existent brakes to seize control of the lead with the white flag waving. He survived the final mile with ease and took the Murray-Marks Motorsports #19 to victory lane with $17,500 and the Morgan Cup trophy awaiting him.

Although he’s Pennsylvania’s “truest Outlaw,” Marks’ victory goes on the scoreboard for the Posse with the rivalry tied at 1-1 with another seven races scheduled this year in The Keystone State. Saturday marked his ninth career win with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the 14th of his career at Williams Grove Speedway.

“It’s great to win any of these World of Outlaws races, but these higher-paying ones feel even better,” Marks said. “There’s no doubt we got extremely lucky, but we had to be in that position to get it done. I can’t thank my guys Fud [Dennis Christ] and Heath [Moyle] enough. We destroyed a car on Wednesday, built this thing on Thursday, and here we are in victory lane.”

Following an hour-long rain delay, racing resumed at 11:00 pm on Saturday with air density, fueling, and weight becoming crucial factors in the program. While Allen ultimately ran out, it was on the mind of Marks as well and may have won him the race.

“I tried to save as much as I could under yellows by staying totally off the throttle and leaning the engine out as much as possible,” Marks noted on his fuel conservation. “I was running out near the end of the Dash and with how fast the pace was tonight I knew we should be worried. The track turned out to be pretty sporty after the rainstorm, and we did just enough to make it all the way.”

For Marks, he now owns wins from each of the three World of Outlaws trips to Williams Grove – Morgan Cup in May, Summer Nationals in July, and National Open in October.

For Allen, he barely missed out on earning back-to-back wins for the first time in his career, which would’ve given him three World of Outlaws victories in the last six weeks.

“Sometimes the cards just don’t fall your way,” Allen added.” It’s life, though, it goes on. I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of this team. I’m thrilled with how fast we are lately. Being competitive nightly with the World of Outlaws is such a surreal feeling.”

The drama didn’t end with Allen’s fuel light as Carson Macedo crossed the finish line in second place, but failed to meet the post-race minimum weight requirement and thus was disqualified. The wild turn of events took the Jason Johnson Racing #41 from taking over the championship lead to being back down to third and behind by -42 points.

Assuming the runner-up result by default was Sheldon Haudenshild aboard the NOS Energy Drink, Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing #17. He was joined on the podium for the first time in 2022 by third-place finisher Rico Abreu, continuing to show speed since welcoming renowned Crew Chief Ricky Warner to the #24 team.

Rounding out the top-10 at Williams Grove was Donny Schatz in fourth, Logan Schuchart in fifth, David Gravel in sixth, Brad Sweet in seventh, Spencer Bayston in eighth, James McFadden in ninth, and Giovanni Scelzi in tenth.

UP NEXT (Fri-Sat) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will head to New Jersey and Ohio next week. Three races in five nights will take the Series to Bridgeport Motorsports Park on Tuesday. May 17, then Attica Raceway Park on Friday, May 20, and finally Sharon Speedway on Saturday, May 21. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or watch every lap LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature Results (30 Laps) – 1. 19-Brent Marks [4][$17,000]; 2. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [2][$6,000]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu [3][$3,500]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [8][$2,800]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart [9][$2,500]; 6. 2-David Gravel [7][$2,300]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [10][$2,200]; 8. 5-Spencer Bayston [11][$2,100]; 9. 83-James McFadden [21][$2,050]; 10. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [18][$2,000]; 11. 48-Danny Dietrich [24][$1,600]; 12. 27-Devon Borden [26][$400]; 13. 5C-Dylan Cisney [13][$1,200]; 14. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [16][$1,100]; 15. 67-Justin Whittall [23][$1,050]; 16. 1A-Jacob Allen [1][$1,000]; 17. 11-TJ Stutts [14][$1,000]; 18. 39M-Anthony Macri [15][$1,000]; 19. 19R-Matt Campbell [6][$1,000]; 20. 44-Dylan Norris [25][$]; 21. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [20][$1,000]; 22. 69K-Lance Dewease [17][$1,000]; 23. 99M-Kyle Moody [19][$1,000]; 24. 6D-Ryan Smith [22][$1,000]; 25. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [12][$1,000]; 26. 41-Carson Macedo [5][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Jacob Allen 1-28, Brent Marks 29-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 27-Devon Borden[+14]

NEW Championship Standings (After 19/78 Races): 1. Brad Sweet (2,638); 2. David Gravel (-24); 3. Carson Macedo (-42); 4. Sheldon Haudenschild (-82); 5. Logan Schuchart (-102); 6. Spencer Bayston (-132); 7. Donny Schatz (-144); 8. James McFadden (-162); 9. Jacob Allen (-224); 10. Brock Zearfoss (-324).

DINWIDDIE, Va. (May 14, 2022) – David Janac, in his Janac Brothers Ford Cobra Jet, secured the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown No.1 qualifying position Saturday at the Virginia NHRA Nationals. Through a rain riddled two days of qualifying, Janac’s 7.711-second pass at 178.92 mph from Friday afternoon held up through two qualifying rounds before Mother Nature took over.

“We’re plenty excited about that No. 1 qualifier. We’re on a learning curve with this car, so we put together something we thought the car would do and everything went fantastic. Everything went great and we were really happy with that run,” said Janac who will line up against Lee Hartman and his Carrier Service Group Dodge Drag Pak in the first round. “I think we’ve got good data to be competitive tomorrow. It’s going to come down to being able to go from A-to-B. That’s going to be our focus and if we can do that without making mistakes, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

No. 1 qualifier David Janac, photo by Auto Imagery

A monster match-up in the first round of eliminations is the duel against David Barton in his Saw Mill Auto COPO Camaro and Mark Pawuk in his DSR Empaco Equipment Dodge Drag Pak. The pair have faced each other in both previous Factory Stock Showdown 2022 events. Both times Barton defeated Pawuk on a holeshot. 

“Wish we had a third qualifying session here at Virginia Motorsports Park, but Mother Nature had other plans tonight,” Pawuk said. “I’ve had some bad luck against David in the past. A couple of red-lights and luck on his side, really. I think it’s our turn to get the win-light tomorrow, just have to make sure the driver does his job.”

With his win at the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, Bill Skillman and the Ray Skillman Ford Cobra Jet now have the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown Bounty Program target on their backs worth $1,000. 

Anthony Troyer and his Troyer Brother COPO Camaro will be the first to have a chance at the $1,000 bounty when he lines up against Skillman in the first round. Skillman earned the No. 3 spot with a 7.788-second pass at 178.40 mph while Troyer qualified in the No. 14 position with a 7.889 at 174.39.

Eliminations at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park for the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown will begin Sunday at 1:30 p.m. 

First Round Matchups: 

No. 1 David Janac vs. No. 16 Lee Hartman

No. 2 Aaron Stanfield vs. No. 15 Donald Belles

No. 3 Bill Skillman vs. No. 14 Anthony Troyer

No. 4 Stephen Bell vs. No. 13 David Davies II

No. 5 Ricky Hord vs. No. 12 Jesse Alexandra

No. 6 Lenny Lottig vs. No. 11 Scott Libersher

No. 7 David Barton vs. No. 10 Mark Pawuk

No. 8 Daniel Condon vs. No. 9 Warren Walcher

JFR DRAGSTERS QUALIFY TOP TWO AT VIRGINIA NHRA NATIONALS; BRITTANY FORCE EARNS SECOND NO. 1 OF THE SEASON

DINWIDDIE, Va. (May 14, 2022) – It was a battle between the John Force Racing Top Fuel dragsters on day two of the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park. Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team would prevail setting the track record ET for their second No. 1 of the season. Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team would have to settle for No. 2. In Funny Car, Robert Hight and the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS would improve to No. 10 while John Force and the PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevy would end up No. 12. Coming into the day already in the No. 1 spot, Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac team had been shifted down to No. 7 before they laid down a blistering 3.669-second pass at 334.98 mph to set the track ET record and take back the No. 1 position. In their final qualifying try, with nothing really to prove, Force and her David Grubnic and Mac Savage tuned Flav-R-Pac dragster set the track record ET for the third time when they blasted to a 3.654 at 333.33. “That was outstanding for this Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac team, improving and improving with each run,” said Force who has a bye in the first round. “Now the hard part is doing that tomorrow (during eliminations). That’s going to be the tough one, but as long as we can make some consistent runs all day tomorrow, I think we should be good. I have confidence in this team and confidence in myself in getting down this track. This is one of the best tracks we’ve been one. It’s smooth and it felt fast, so we were really happy with it.” After making a clean bassline run on Friday afternoon, Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / RMT team brought their A-game to temporarily set the track ET record and earn the No. 1 spot with a career best 3.672-second run at 326.87 mph. Prock would end the second qualifying session in the No. 2 spot and hold on despite shutting off early in the third session to coast to an 8.596 at 76.77. “It’s been a great weekend in Richmond so far. This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team is really coming along nice. I watched the team service, and they look like a well-oiled machine, the crew chiefs have that confidence in their eyes,” said Prock who will face Lex Joon round one. “I’m excited for tomorrow. We ran a career best this afternoon. It was an impressive run. To top it off, the JFR dragsters are sitting No. 1 and 2 rolling into Sunday, giving us a chance to meet in the finals.” Robert Hight and the Auto Club team improved in their second qualifying run despite running into tire smoke. Hight pedaled his way to a 5.623-second pass at 135.41 mph and would stay No. 12. In the final session, Hight would improve once again improve despite not making a clean pass at 4.017 at 270.64 to settle into the No. 10 position. “Bit of a rough start to the weekend but only tomorrow matters,” said Hight who will race Tim Wilkerson round one. “Tomorrow everything is different, the weather, the conditions, everyone will be in the same situation and I’m confident this Auto Club team will be ready to go. We’ll just get out there and try to turn on some win lights to end up in the winner’s circle.” John Force and the BlueDEF Chevy ran into trouble early both session on Saturday afternoon and evening. Force would first coast to an 8.273-second pass at 84.82 mph and then to an 8.459 at 85.99. The PEAK team would drop to the No. 12 spot off their 4.094 run at 323.58 mph on Friday. “Well tomorrow is race day, it’s when it matters. We’ll be ready to go,” said Force who runs J.R. Todd to open eliminations. “Those dragsters are running well, Brittany with Flav-R-Pac and Prock out there with Montana Brand. Conditions will be different tomorrow, it will be warmer, humid. So it will be something new from what we’ve seen all weekend. We’ll just have to get out there and go some rounds and see how it goes.” Eliminations at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park are slated for Sunday at noon. The Virginia NHRA Nationals television coverage will continue on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with a second qualifying show Sunday at 9:00 a.m. ET. Finals coverage will air Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.   -30-

AUSTIN PROCK, 26, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist DragsterQualifying:2nd; 3.672-seconds; 326.87 mphBonus Qualifying Points:+2 (2nd quickest Q2)BRITTANY FORCE, 35, Monster Energy DragsterQualifying:1st; 3.710-seconds; 335.82 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +9 (quickest Q1, Q2, Q3)JOHN FORCE, 73, PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:12th; 4.094-seconds; 323.58 mphBonus Qualifying Points: 0ROBERT HIGHT, 52, Auto Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:12th; 8.517-seconds; 384.37 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES GMR GRAND PRIX INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE RECAP MAY 14, 2022

Power Grabs Points Lead After Crazy Day at IndianapolisTeam Penske driver leads Team Chevy with third at GMR Grand PrixINDIANAPOLIS (May 14, 2022) – Team Penske’s Will Power may not have turned his Friday pole position into a victory, but his third-place finish in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix moved the driver of the No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet into the championship lead of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES heading into the Indianapolis 500. Power was the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver in a wild, wet and wacky rain-shortened race around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The event ran 75 of the scheduled 85 laps and featured eight full-course caution periods. Power led a group of four Team Chevy drivers to finish in the top-10 Saturday: · Fifth: Conor Daly, No. 20 BitNile Chevrolet, Ed Carpenter Racing· Sixth: Felix Rosenqvist, No. 7 McLaren Vuse Chevrolet, Arrow McLaren SP· Seventh: Callum Ilott, No. 77 Dynamic Edge Chevrolet, Juncos Hollinger Racing Colton Herta (Honda) was the race winner. The next race for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29. TEAM CHEVY QUOTESWILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED THIRD: “Cars were dropping like flies! It was such a hard choice on whether to get the slicks, which could have been the best strategy out there – or go for the wets. It’s so crazy, this place. When you look around, it can be completely raining on the frontstretch and you go around to the back and it’s completely dry. It was really anyone’s guess at what was going to happen. We got to the point where it was too wet, we were going to get caught out and we needed to take wets.”MORE ON TIRE CHOICES: “This is an Indianapolis-type day! I’ve had races here where we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to rain, and it just doesn’t rain. The cell just stops there. There must be some kind of vortex in the Speedway here that just doesn’t allow weather!” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – FINISHED FOURTH: “I truly don’t think I’ve ever been through anything like that! It was raining, then it was sunny, then it was raining again and then you couldn’t see anything! Once we got off the wet tires at the start and onto the reds, we lost so much grip. It felt like something got on the tire, it was like they had gone off immediately. As soon as we put on the next set of reds, we were flying again. I didn’t forget how to drive in the first stint and remember in the second, it was so weird! I really wanted a trophy from here, but this is a great way to start the month. We wanted to rebound here, we knew we had a fast car, had a great qualifying, we executed all weekend, which is exactly what we wanted.” FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED SIXTH: “That race had so many swings. We had a perfect race at the beginning. We went one lap longer than Herta and Pato, so we were in the best fuel and tire situation. Everything looked really good but then on the restart, there was contract in front of me and I couldn’t avoid it. Pato was able to keep going but I stalled. Then we were a lap behind but we were able to get that back. Finally, on the last stint, we nailed the stint and we went from 18th to 6th in the course of about ten laps. That  CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING – FINISHED SEVENTH: “It’s our best finish so far this year. It was a bit of an up-and-down race. We had to find our feet a little bit at the beginning. I managed to start making way through and had some good running in the mixed conditions. We were kind of a bit late on one of the calls to box for wets. We dropped a couple of places but managed to make a couple back. I couldn’t see anything at the end. It was more about survival and hanging on at that point. There was so much water and spray everywhere. For the team, for Juncos Holinger, Chevy and our single-car team, a top-eight result is a big reward in this race. What an amazing result. Let’s try and get some more.” TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 15TH:”  “It was pretty crazy with the rain. It stopped and then it stopped and then it rained at the end. The team did a great job on the pitstops. We had the right strategy and made the right decisions. I’m very thankful for that. Unfortunately on the last restart, we got hit from behind so I think we could have finished a little higher up. Nevertheless, I’m happy I’m fighting people and making some overtakes. I had a lot of fun.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED 17TH: “Today was probably the craziest race I have been in in IndyCar. I feel like the team deserved so much more today. I really, really do. Nobody was quicker than us with rain tires and we were really strong in the dry as well. We put ourselves in a position to challenge for the win after spinning but we made a gamble and didn’t make the right tire choice. Mother nature brought more rain and made it impossible to drive on slick tires. That’s how racing goes sometimes. It was a fun and entertaining race but the outcome was disappointing.” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SNAP-ON CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 18TH:RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BUILDING TOMORROW CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – FINISHED 23RD:“Not the result we needed! The start was the first time ever in the rain with an Indy car for me, second ever car race in the rain. It started out pretty well, we got a few spots at the start. Then we had a great pit stop and got a few more people. On the slicks, it was pretty good and I was very happy. Then people got to shoving each other a lot, into the grass, which I was a victim of a few times. One time I got all the way off and got hit, which broke the undertray of my car. We basically finished the race just to finish and get what points we could. It was a bummer, I think we could have really challenged, every call we made on the radio was the right call. I think we could have really powered to the front, but, on to the next one!” JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 6 ARROW McLAREN SP CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED 24TH: “Despite the result, it was a really good day for the No. 6 Arrow McLaren SP team. I told them we had a really good car and that I hadn’t used it well all weekend because I have just been behind the car. The extra laps during the race, I started to get more comfortable and started passing people. I was much more comfortable than last year. My engineers have done a really good job with the car. I’m really encouraged for the Indy 500. It’s a shame that at the end, I couldn’t really see anything. The aeroscreen was all fogged up and I couldn’t see. Overall, it was a good race and we should have had a good result.” JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 25TH:  KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 26TH: “Unfortunately we ended the INDY GP a too early. I think we finished 53 of the 85 laps we were supposed to run. We had quite a good race up until that point. The weather went the opposite direction of what our strategy was. We were running second there and went off strategy there and then put on the wrong set of tires too early and unfortunately that didn’t work out for us. Then when it cycled back and we lost a lap or maybe two and then got hit hard by another competitor and that ended it up for us. Indy 500 is next.” DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 27TH:  “We had contact that ended our race a little early, which is too bad. We had a good race going. We weren’t really where we wanted to be in terms of qualifying and pace, so it was good to see that we were able to race well and be up there. We could make some moves and be in a better spot than where we started out. I’m happy with that, at least. Obviously we wanted to complete the race and get a good finish. There are some good positives to take from this and bank those for the next road-course race at Road America after Detroit. Now we’re on to oval mode. I’m looking forward to being back here in a couple of days and get in our Indy 500 car.” Will PowerPress ConferenceTHE MODERATOR: I asked Conor, where do you begin with a day like this? But where do you begin? It was a crazy day for everyone. Simon, we’ll begin with you coming in second today. Crazy day.SIMON PAGENAUD: You tell me. Oh my God, that was nuts. The weather, we should have a button just to spray some water on the track I think because the racing was phenomenal.Strategy was also the name of the game today. Choosing the right time at the right time. Waiting for the rain. Not sure it was coming. It was coming. Then just amazing. Amazing succession of events.Just really proud of my team. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to show results, but the potential has been there the whole time, so I’m really proud that today we were able to show all the hard work that has been done in the background by Mike Shank and everybody at Meyer Shank Racing.I’m just very proud of my guys, my whole team. The pit stops were great. We keep pushing. We’re going to keep pushing. Yeah, just super awesome.I just wish I could repeat the story. I was hoping I could catch back up to Will with that win, but I just couldn’t see. I don’t know about you, Will, but I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t drive. I was just surviving at the end.I’m very thankful that INDYCAR let us race. That is something to me in these conditions it shows a different set of skills, and it’s treacherous, but that’s our job to go out there and give the best we can. And I’m thankful that they let us race in these conditions. Yeah, to me it was awesome racing today.THE MODERATOR: For Will. Yeah, go ahead.WILL POWER: At the end there, man, you could not see a thing. There was a spray in front of me. I don’t know how it was behind the one car, but just the two car, I couldn’t imagine being back in tenth, man.You don’t know if someone is braking early or you are kind of looking to the fence to get a reference, you kind of lift early. You don’t want to lift too early because no one can see from behind.Yeah, pretty crazy day. One to stay on your toes and know when to pick the right tire and definitely not overdo it. Yeah, real happy with third with a day like that. Just survival.THE MODERATOR: Good points today. It’s not about points, but it kind of is at the end of the day.WILL POWER: Yeah, it is, and those sort of days you’re thinking points when you see Palou out and you see Newgarden out and a couple of the main contenders that you are going to be fighting. You start thinking a little bit that way, yeah.WILL POWER: I’m not having issues with the spark plugs and brakes, and what else went wrong? The car is not starting. They were pretty good results right there. (Laughing).THE MODERATOR: We’ll see what happens when you leave the team.WILL POWER: Just changed my whole mentality.WILL POWER: It’s good because I’m kind of the lone guy. I’m the older guy, and you have the two young blokes, good mates. I’m just getting the work done. Actually, it’s been a good thing from me. I put my head down and do the work.WILL POWER: Not screwing around with Josef in the office. It’s working out good.THE MODERATOR: I’m glad you guys are friends. (Laughing).Q. Elaborate a little bit on the Aeroscreen. Conor said the thing that surprised him was the water seemed to kind of pool right in the middle of the vision, and he said he thought that at speed it would have blown away, but it didn’t. What were some of the surprises you saw in the first rain test of the Aeroscreen?WILL POWER: Actually, I didn’t have much problem with the rain. The worst part for me was when it was half wet. We’re on drys, and you have kind of that gritty just dirt on top of water. That was when I struggled to see a little bit, but in the full wet, I mean, the biggest problem for me was the spray from the cars.There’s really nothing can you do about that with open-wheel cars. It’s just going to be a lot of spray. Honestly, it was on the edge of whether we should have been running right at the end there. It was starting to get a bit of aquaplane.WILL POWER: Did you have any moments going around?WILL POWER: 12, man, going around that one. It was wide open. Just like suddenly –WILL POWER: I was lifting, and it still was doing a bit of that. I was like, oof, probably should go red here.Q. For both of you guys real quick, did you get less wet in the cockpit because of the Aeroscreen, or do you feel as wet as you have ever been in a rain race?WILL POWER: You have less for sure. At the end when it was really raining, you started to get some dribbles in, but not terrible. I really got nothing on my visor. A lot less wet, yeah.Q. For both. We’re coming off the Barber race where I think it was the record or one near record podium age. Now we have two veterans on the podium here. Was the rain part of that, or is it just the track, your prowess here? What was the key to you guys on the podium?WILL POWER: I would say experience definitely counts in these races to not get caught out or put yourself in a bad situation, so yeah, it’s no surprise to me to see Simon up there. It’s cool to have both of us on the podium together again at this track.Q. For Will. You mentioned points, and you thought it was a good points racing day. Have you always thought points behind the wheel, or is that something you shifted over the years more long-term than short-term?WILL POWER: Yeah, honestly it’s not that good to think about points, but sometimes you have to be smart about it if you’re — you know Palou is going to be the guy and, obviously, Newgarden as well. It’s just one of those days where if you can finish in the top six, you’re going to get a good chunk of points on those guys.If I had the car to win and the chance to win without big risk, I would definitely have gone for it. If it had been a constant condition, it would have been a different story, but it was just too easy to get caught out by a patch of water. It’s just a day to be smart and finish.Q. A couple of things. I’m looking at a screen right now. There’s a dozen safety vehicles down in turn one trying to clear standing water so they can run the Lights race. Was it starting to puddle up out there, or was it okay for most of the race?WILL POWER: It actually wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t terrible at the end. Only going around when you go around out of 10 to 12. That was the only place where you were actually starting to get aquaplane.Q. Then I guess my other question: How difficult was it, especially when you saw guys out there on slicks and you knew that you weren’t sure they were going to go. McLaughlin, O’Ward, these guys are out there on slicks. You’re trying to go green again. They kept spinning under yellow. Were you shocked that they were even trying it?WILL POWER: Palou, no. He can hold to a car.WILL POWER: Very impressive. At the end of the day, it blew my mind that Palou kept hanging out. I thought maybe they red-flagged this, and he gets that second position. That was smart. He was going to hang on as long as he could because if it goes green again and he survives turn one, two, and there’s a crash, he is in the same position. Yeah, he is someone that can hang on to a car like no one else.Q. That one restart where we did have the slicks on, that was impressive that he didn’t just —WILL POWER: I didn’t see how he went through, but was he pretty good speed?WILL POWER: Coming on the straightaway.SIMON PAGENAUD: Crazy, man. I was happy to be on rain tires. (Laughing).WILL POWER: Yeah, yeah, big time.SIMON PAGENAUD: I didn’t want to be him.Q. Was this stressful or fun? How would you rate it?SIMON PAGENAUD: Both. I think it goes together. I think it’s even more rewarding when it’s stressful and when you make yourself come out of a tricky situation. So definitely one of my most — like right now I feel like that is one of my most rewarding finishes just because of how tricky it was to make all these decisions and discuss with the team the entire race.Definitely the driver had to be a big part of the strategy today and the calls, and then you have to have your team behind you to support that. That was really cool for all these reasons.Q. The pit stop on I think it was around lap 56 everyone in the commentary booth and up here we were all wondering, are you going to switch to reds or wets? Everyone went for slicks. How close was it in terms of your — presumably it’s the driver’s call at that stage rather than the team’s, right?WILL POWER: No.WILL POWER: Yeah.WILL POWER: The rain tire they almost need an intermediate. It’s too soft for — a bit more than damp conditions just destroys the tire. They finally felt good at the end there.WILL POWER: When it was really, really wet. We need something in between.Q. Did you have very bad pit stop for the first time this year, Will, at one point when and you Rossi went in and you emerged behind way down the group? You got in in fifth and came out in kind of, like, tenth out of the group.WILL POWER: No, I don’t think so. No. I don’t think we had — oh, yeah, we did have — something happened on one of the stops. I do remember, yeah. Maybe we did have WILL POWER: What do you mean? Oh, yeah.WILL POWER: We did actually have one. Yeah. (Laughing).Q. My apologies if this was asked earlier. Back at the open test everyone was talking about the sealer this or sealer that. Was there any issue with the sealer on the track with rain at all, or was everything okay?WILL POWER: It was fine. No differences in grip in the wet.WILL POWER: It felt fine to me.WILL POWER: You mean on the front straight there? It seemed like it was –WILL POWER: Yeah. Conor DalyPress ConferenceTHE MODERATOR: Let’s begin with the driver of No. 20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet, Conor Dailey. Seventh career top five finish in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season for his career. You could write a whole book on what happened today, right, amongst everybody?CONOR DALY: Yeah. Where do I start?THE MODERATOR: Exactly.CONOR DALY: I don’t remember the last rain race that I did. I actually walked up to Ric Peterson with SPM. I was, like, ‘heck, I think the last time I had a rain race was with you in Detroit in 2015, and we led a lot of that race.’ I was, like, I’m ready. I’m excited.Then it dried out very quickly. Difficult first for us. I don’t know what happened on the first set of reds, but they were used reds, and we just went straight backwards. Car was an absolute handful, and I have no idea why.Then it kind of forced our hand, and we put on new reds, and it was right back to the great car that it was. So I think we did second fastest race lap, and we were just hauling getting back making up some of the ground that we lost. Then, obviously, the skies opened up a little bit so, that made for an interesting rest of the afternoon.Q. Conor, first race with the Aeroscreen in the rain. A lot of drivers saying they couldn’t see. Was that more from just the rooster-tail effect than the actual Aeroscreen?CONOR DALY: No, I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was like the water just stayed in the center of the screen, and I don’t know why, but even as you went faster, which you would hope it would clear, it didn’t. Again, I can’t say anything.Obviously, this is very much a scientific test run. Obviously, we have a lot of data to go through with the series, and I’m sure Jay Frye will look at it as well. And he hates when I talk about the Aeroscreen, but I’m just describing what I saw. That’s all. It was challenging.Thankfully, we had a great spotter in Packy Wheeler, who was literally guiding me into turn one. I couldn’t see the brake zone or the cars in front of me or the end of the pit wall, but I could look out the side of the Aeroscreen, so I was looking right and left to go straight, which was neat.Q. (Off microphone).CONOR DALY: Look, I used to race in the rain all the time, so we had a visor that you can work with, but this is a new era, so obviously there are things that we can figure out. We go from here.I do think it was tough. It was definitely hard to race like that because you don’t want to, obviously, end up on the wrong side. Even under yellow. I couldn’t see the cars in front of me under yellow. I had to be guided into pit lane, and that’s concerning. Hopefully we can figure that out, but hopefully we also have very shiny weather for the rest of the year.Q. When you said the tires, did you make any adjustments to the car outside of the norm, or is it literally just the tires weren’t agreeing with the car?CONOR DALY: I really don’t know because Firestone obviously makes a great tire, and sometimes when you put on the used reds, I don’t know if you pick up something on it. It’s something.I’ve had that happen before in other races kind of randomly, but it might just be kind of like the luck of the draw. You might have run over something that — it felt like we had a left rear that was going flat, but it wasn’t. Very strange feeling. Literally, as soon as you put on another set of tires, everything was perfect. There’s only one variable there that we changed, and that’s tires.Q. What are your emotions inside the car knowing you were fourth. You’re top five. Then, oh, no, what’s going on? Is it hard to keep your calm?CONOR DALY: I thought it was just another day in the office, but I never give up in this series, and I tell the team that. I said, it doesn’t matter if the day is going bad, but I will always be fighting until the end.Same in Barber. Same in any track. This is what I love to do. I want to be competitive. I want to beat these guys and girls that we’re racing against, and we obviously beat the majority of them today.It was something that worked out in the end, and we’ve seen crazy stuff like this before. I remember Sebastian Bordais starting last and winning races, and people going all over the place spinning, being a lap down and winning races. That’s the fun of INDYCAR.Q. With the rain this last race, leading the most laps and top five today for you, do you feel a momentum now? Now you’re going to the race that you led the most laps last year. Do you feel it within the team now?CONOR DALY: I think the team has done a great job this year. We know we had some areas where we wanted to improve, and I think we have. Obviously, the old big one is next, and I’m very excited about that one, honestly.This was a day that helps us for sure. There’s a lot of momentum. And, honestly, it’s a shame because all of our BitNile folks are not here this weekend, so we might have to ban them from the rest of the races, I don’t know, because we had a wildly good day today. Hugely thankful for their support. Honestly, Chevrolet right now is doing a great job and really proud to be under that banner as well.Q. Is that one of the most physically demanding races that you have ever done?CONOR DALY: No. My left elbow is bleeding. I don’t know why. I don’t know if I hit it on something or I had a couple of moments where the wheel was doing a lot of different things, but, yeah, I was okay today. It was not too hot and then in the rain you’re going a lot slower, so it wasn’t too bad today.Q. In terms of, obviously, next week we go into the practice for the Indy 500, how much does this give you confidence going into the month of May given that ECR have been so good kind of at the 500?CONOR DALY: We know we’re excited, and I think everyone at Chevrolet is excited about the next couple of weeks. I think we got the right horses underneath us, and we have a great team, and, yeah, let’s just roll on the next week.

Four Toyota Top Fuel Dragsters Qualify Top-10

RICHMOND, Va. (May 14, 2022) – With weather a threat throughout the three qualifying sessions, the three GR Supra Funny Cars were able to get down the race track and all posted qualifying times to position themselves in the top-five for Sunday’s race. Ron Capps led the way the number two qualifier followed by Alexis DeJoria (number three) and J.R. Todd (number five). Toyota Top Fuel dragsters of Steve Torrence (number three), Justin Ashley (number six), Doug Kalitta (number seven) and Shawn Langdon (number eight) all posted times within the top-10 cars.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series

Virginia Motorsports Park

Race 7 of 22

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Brittany Force	JFR Top Fuel Dragster*	1 – 3.669334.98 mph	BYE
Steve Torrence	Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	3rd – 3.683	S. Palmer
Justin Ashley	Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	6th – 3.700	T. Schumacher
Doug Kalitta	Autodesk Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	7th – 3.703	L. Pruett
Shawn Langdon	CMR Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	8th – 3.724	D. Foley
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	12th – 3.828	M. Salinas

(*non-Toyota driver)

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Matt Hagan	Smithfield Dodge*	1st – 3.853331.45	BYE
Ron Capps	NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra	2nd — 3.864	M. McIntire
Alexis DeJoria	Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	3rd – 3.896	B. Tasca III
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	5th – 3.926	J. Force

(*non-Toyota driver)

TOYOTA QUOTES

RON CAPPS, NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 2nd

How do you feel about your qualifying position?

“Just an unbelievable job. We were fighting weather a little bit here and you know, there are things you can count on in life. This Toyota GR Supra is such a great car to drive and to have Guido (crew chief) and our NAPA team with no pressure it seemed on them and that really calmed me as a driver. But to go out there and fire a shot like that, it’s not like we just threw something at the dartboard. Guido is good about being consistent. Team Toyota and Team NAPA, this is just a fun car to drive right now.”

DOUG KALITTA, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 7th

How do you feel about your qualifying position for tomorrow?

“We made three good, solid runs so I’m excited for tomorrow. The track here is really, really smooth. They’ve really prepped it nice. It should be a little warmer, but looking forward to getting up there and getting this Mac Tools Toyota into the winner’s circle.”

How are these strong runs helping your momentum with the team.

“It definitely is. Just going down the track and the more data we get, the better we get. Really proud of all of my guys here.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.  

Toyota directly employs more than 48,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 43 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants.  By 2025, Toyota’s 14^th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.  With the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

May 14, 2022

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang are set to start 26^th in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Burton took that spot with a lap at 174.362 miles per hour in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session.

The DEX Imaging Mustang picked up speed in qualifying after being 25^th fastest in practice, with Burton posting his best speed of 172.579 mph on the fourth of his 18 laps run.

He was 10^th best among drivers in speeds on a 10-consecutive-lap run. He averaged 170.049 mph on his fourth through his 13^th lap.

Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 is set to get the green flag just after 2 p.m. (3 p.m. Eastern Time) with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.

Stage breaks are scheduled for Laps 80 and 165 of the 267-lap race. 

Three Camaro ZL1’s Claim Top-10 Starting Spots

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 QUALIFYING RESULTS:

POS.   DRIVER

2nd     TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 BETMGM CAMARO ZL1 

3rd      KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1

8th      ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 

11th    ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1 

13th    WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1

14th    CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 UNIFIRST CAMARO ZL1 

15th    JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1 

17th    TY DILLON, NO. 42 CHEVYLINERS.COM CAMARO ZL1 

19th    DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 

20th    COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 GAMER TRUCKING INC. CAMARO ZL1

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS: 

POS.  DRIVER

1st      Christopher Bell (Toyota)

2nd    Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)

3rd     Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)

4th      Austin Cindric (Ford)

5th      Kurt Busch (Toyota)

·       Following Group A and B practice sessions, Tyler Reddick was third-fastest overall, clocking in a best lap of 30.845 seconds/175.069 mph in his No. 8 BetMGM Camaro ZL1.

·       The conclusion of round one of Group A qualifying saw Tyler Reddick on the top of the leaderboard with a lap of 30.388 seconds/177.702 mph. Also advancing to the final round of qualifying and a chance for the pole position was Kyle Larson, who was fourth in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1.

·       Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, was second-fastest in round one of Group B qualifying with a lap of 30.340 seconds/177.983 mph to advance to the final round. 

·       In the final round of qualifying, Tyler Reddick secured a front row starting spot for his No. 8 BetMGM Camaro ZL1 team, recording a lap of 30.192 seconds/178.855 mph. 

·       Other Chevrolet drivers that captured a top-10 starting spot include Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 (3rd), and Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 (8th). 

·       This will mark Reddick’s seventh top-10 starting spot of 2022; and his first in six-career NCS starts at Kansas Speedway. 

·       Larson’s third-place qualifying run gives the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 their ninth top-10 starting spot in 13 races this season. 

·       FS1 will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series Wise AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway live at 3 p.m. ET tomorrow, Sunday, May 15. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 BETMGM CAMARO ZL1, Qualified 2nd:

“Any car you drive here, you can’t really drive it flat across (turns) three and four, especially that high. I’m just so used to it getting a little tight landing into three. I just lifted a little bit too much and as soon as I got there, I kind of hated myself for lifting as much as I did. I could have run a little faster lap through three and four. But all-in-all, our No. 8 Bet MGM Chevrolet has been great.”