Ashley, Hight, Enders, A. Smith Lead Friday Night Qualifying
Top Fuel’s Justin Ashley delivered a strong performance under the lights at the prestigious 68th annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, racing to the provisional No. 1 position on Friday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Robert Hight (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 16th of 22 races during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season and the final event of the regular season.
In a preview of his semifinal matchup in the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout, Ashley went 3.716-seconds at 330.23 mph in a side-by-side pairing against Steve Torrence, putting him on track to earn his third career No. 1 qualifier in his 11,000-horsepower Phillips Connect dragster. The young standout is also seeking his first victory at the NHRA U.S. Nationals.
“You always want to come out hot and make a good run down the track,” Ashley said. “It’s a special weekend for us and we always want to put on a good show. People are going to go faster than that (this weekend), but this is a really good start for our team. We feel good about how we ran, and we’ll try to put our best foot forward tomorrow. This (callout) is going to be so exciting and we’re ready to go. I didn’t want to think about it too much until after we ran, but we can focus on trying to win it.”
Torrence went 3.725 at 327.51 to sit in the second spot, while Josh Hart is currently third after going 3.726 at 319.37. The semifinal field was also set for the completion of the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout, which will be completed on Saturday. Brittany Force selected Mike Salinas for her opponent, while the other semifinal will feature Torrence and Ashley, with the final round set to take place at 6:25 p.m. ET.
In a thrilling Funny Car session under the lights at the Big Go, Hight powered to the No. 1 spot with a strong run of 3.870 at 331.94 in his 11,000-horsepower Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS. It would give the points leader his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and the 75th in his career if it holds. Hight, who already has six wins this season, could enjoy a huge weekend at Indy as he’s on the verge of his 60th career win and is also participating in the Pep Boys NHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout on Sunday.
“This race is like a marathon, and you have to take it in stride and one run at a time,”…
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