ENNIS, TX – October 11, 2022 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Suffering his first bump in the road in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs, Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley will look to bounce back at a track that served him well just a season ago. Ashley is the defending event winner at the Texas Motorplex and a second straight victory at this weekend’s 37th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals would put him back on an ideal path to try and claim his first NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series world title.
Ashley advanced to the final round at the first two playoff races in his 11,000-horsepower Phillips Connect dragster but saw his lead evaporate to just 14 points with a first-round loss in St. Louis coupled with a victory by four-time defending world champ Steve Torrence.
Ashley, though, is not in panic mode, trusting a team that has helped produce a pair of victories and six final-round appearances during a standout 2022 season. Plus, Ashley has plenty of confidence racing in Dallas coming off last year’s win, hoping to replicate that to kick off the second half of the NHRA’s six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
“Our whole team’s excited about it,” Ashley said. “Obviously, we didn’t have the kind of weekend that we expected or the kind of weekend that we wanted in St. Louis. But I thought that we had a really productive first two races and if you had asked me prior to the Countdown if I would like to be in the position we’re in right now going to Dallas, of course, we would have said yes, So, we feel good about the position that we’re in. It was a really good regular season. I think it’s been a great countdown for us. But now all bets are off and we have to finish strong over these last few races.”
Ashley (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won last year’s playoff race and this season’s event will also be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) as the playoffs head to crunch time in Dallas. It is the 20th of 22 races during the 2022 NHRA season and Ashley has been consistent throughout, opening the year with a victory and never dropping lower than fourth in points.
That helped build Ashley’s confidence, as did racing with a team with a championship resumé. That’s helped erase some of the nerves involved in a race for the young standout’s first world championship, but Ashley knows there’s plenty of work to do, especially with a…
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