Ashley follows win with a strong second-place starting position in Top Fuel
NORWALK, Ohio (June 25, 2022) – Ron Capps earned the first no. 1 qualifier for the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car in just its 10th event with a stellar 3.901 second pass in the second qualifying session. In Top Fuel, Bristol winner Justin Ashley continued his strong performance with a second-place starting position as all six Toyota-backed teams qualified inside the top-11.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park
Race 10 of 22
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Brittany Force* | Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster | 1st (3.666) | K. Wurtzel |
| Justin Ashley | Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 2nd (3.707) | L. Pruett |
| Doug Kalitta | SealMaster Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 6th (3.759) | A. Brown |
| Steve Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7th (3.768) | B. Torrence |
| Shawn Langdon | DHL Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 9th (3.774) | T. Tatum |
| Billy Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 10th (3.779) | S. Torrence |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 11th (3.808) | D. Kalitta |
(*non-Toyota driver)
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Ron Capps | NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra | 1st (3.901) | D. Creasy Jr. |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 6th (3.932) | P. Lee |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 7th (3.933) | B. Alexander |
TOYOTA QUOTES
JUSTIN ASHLEY, Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Davis Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 2nd
Do you look at your last qualifying run as something that can give you momentum for tomorrow?
“Of course. I think the conditions are going to be similar tomorrow throughout the day as we saw here. Q4 is important for us to go down the racetrack, go a-to-b and collect that data and information. As a driver, you are going up there knowing that you are not going to necessarily go up there and improve on your position, but you want to maybe pick up some bonus points. That is goal number one and then goal number two is to be able to set yourself up for tomorrow. I think that .84 was a good lap. I know (crew chiefs) Tommy (DeLago) and Mike (Green) wanted to go a little bit faster than that, but all-in-all, heading into tomorrow, it gives us something to work with.”
You had four qualifying sessions this weekend. How do you approach each qualifying session?
“It is a little different because we do have that extra qualifying session. I love that as a driver, because, first of all, the more times I get to go down the track, the better because I can feel and experience different things on that particular racetrack. It also gives me a chance to work on my reaction time and the tree a little bit more, which is nice. It gives us some more leeways to see – when you have these three sessions and there is 21 cars coming into the weekend, you look at it and you can already see where the bump spot is going to make it a tough field to make. From a drivers perspective, it just gives me another opportunity to get after it and feel certain things in the race car and feel more prepared for raceday on Sunday. I think from a tuning perspective – it just helps them feel more comfortable to have that extra session just in case things don’t necessarily go as planned.”
RON CAPPS, NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
FC Qualifying Result: 1st
What have you learned with this new GR Supra?
“It would have been a very steep learning curve had we not had the help from Del Worsham’s team and the Yella Fellas on what they’ve learned all season long. We definitely would not have had the success we’ve had right away – the win in Bristol and the first pole for the GR Supra, which is awesome. I said last night – it was going to take a while to figure this car out, get it trimmed out to where that (crew chiefs) Guido (Dean Antonelli) and John (Medlen) felt comfortable. Bristol was about as demanding raceday that we’ve seen with the bumps in the track, the heat and humidity, all of that together made it – for any team, if you go ask any team, that was probably the most difficult, demanding, fun race all season long. We knew coming here – and hats off to first off, Safety Safari, are the best in the business, but the Bader family – have you seen so many side-by-side runs like we’ve seen today and yesterday, it’s been unbelievable. This is a great race track. They do a great job, so the fans are going to get a great show, but that being said, it is hot and humid. It’s just like it was in Bristol, but you are seeing great runs. Tomorrow, cloud cover is going to come in and the reason that I bring that up is the adaptation of John Medlen and Guido have in super hot, tricky conditions and then when it cools off, like it did last night, we are going to see it do that again tomorrow. We are going to see some cloud cover. It’s going to be a cooler racetrack. It’s definitely going to be faster. That’s definitely what won the championship for us last year and I think our success so far this year has been due to the fact that they can adapt. We just threw another crazy thing at them when we brought the Supra body out in Charlotte. It’s been fun to watch them do that. If I can do my job as half as well our NAPA Auto Care guys do their jobs, we are going to win a lot more races. I was out of the groove the first run yesterday and I didn’t do my job, I don’t think in the right lane earlier today. It’s a tricky racetrack. You have to be on your toes as a driver. It’s going to be fun to see how tomorrow plays out though.”
How do you get in the right mindset of racing drivers like Matt Hagan and Robert Hight?
“We got here and the TV people came over and did an interview about us being disrespected because all they talked about was the two cars – Robert (Hight) and (Matt) Hagan – and for good reason. They’ve really been doing really well. They are probably two of the best cars. I look back at points last year – the top-five at this time last year, nobody in the top-five or maybe one, ended up being in the top-five at the end of the year. (Bob) Tasca was leading earlier on. A lot can happen. We saw (Tim) Wilkerson in the final with us in Bristol. I think teams are going to start hitting their stride, but when I made any comments about I didn’t feel like we were being taken as serious when runs come up, but I’m wearing another yellow hat again. That is four no. 1 qualifiers – that’s astounding for a new team like this, but together this year. I’m not surprised. When I get up and do that, I’m the voice of our team. Our team can’t speak. I feel confident, so happy for what they do in giving me these yellow hats, that I want to get up on the biggest speaker I can get and yell about how good they are. The win was great, but let’s not discount how good Jimmy Prock and Dickie (Venables) have been. They have set the bar, but we are just as good. It all started at the 4-Wides with Brian Lohnes. He wasn’t talking about our car. We had fun with Brian about it later. Then we won and he was like I wasn’t even talking about Ron Capps. It was just that. You have to earn that. Dickie and Jimmy Prock have earned that. That is why they have been talked about, but we are just as good I think, with conditions good and tricky one. It doesn’t matter. We got the big trophy at the end of the year last year. That’s what we are trying to do again this year. Teams can throw their big numbers out, but it’s going to be fun. It’s fun to battle those guys.”