Justin Ashley’s Star Has Risen In NHRA’s Top Fuel Ranks

BY SUSAN WADE PHOTOS COURTESY OF NHRA.COM

RightnowisagreattimetobeNHRATopFuelracer JustinAshley.

The Phillips Connect / Toyota Dragster driver won half of the first eight races on the Camping World Drag Racing Series tour, including two in one June weekend. That double-up weekend at Tennessee’s Bristol Dragway – which combined the rained-out New England Nationals from Epping, N.H., and the regularly scheduled Thunder Valley Nationals – regained him the point lead he had lost at the April Las Vegas four-wide event.

Along the way, the Long Island, N.Y., racer has banked nine precious Countdown to the Championship bonus points and pocketed $30,000 for winning three Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge finals. (The specialty event features rematches among the semifinalists from previous races.)

“It means a lot to start like this and it’s a result of the team we have,” Ashley said. “You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and I feel comfortable saying we have the best in the business. And I think it’s shown. But we can’t get too ahead of ourselves. We know how good this Top Fuel field is, so we can’t stay stagnant. We need to continue to get better, because everyone else is doing the same thing.”

Indeed, Steve Torrence, from whom Ashley swiped the lead in the standings, is starting to look like the driver he was when he dominated for four consecutive titles. Doug Kalitta finally is starting to gel with tuner Alan Johnson and easily could make a midsummer move from his No. 9 ranking. The John Force Racing duo of Brittany Force and Austin Prock are poised to challenge, and top-five Antron Brown and Leah Pruett are creeping up the ladder.

“The competition is so stiff. Sure, you want more consistency. But the depth of the field is so strong, every round is so tough, that you’re going to have those ebbs and flows. It’s a long year, and I have all the confidence in the world in this team. It’s just great to get off to a good start,” Ashley said.

It has been beneficial for Toyota Gazoo Racing North America (TGRNA), pushing it to the brink of 200 victories during its NHRA presence. Ashley’s “two-fer” at Bristol put the count at 199. Ever since Funny Car’s Jerry Toliver produced Toyota’s first drag-racing triumph, at the February 2004 Winternationals at Pomona, Calif.. the automaker has earned 150 trophies in the Top Fuel class (with Brown’s 56 leading) and 49 in Funny Car (13 by Cruz Pedregon).

“It would mean the world to me to win the 200th race for Toyota in the NHRA. Every race is prestigious. Every race has history, but to be able to do that for Toyota, such a prestigious organization, would really mean the world to me and our entire team.”

Off the dragstrip, too, Ashley has thrived. In late May, at the series; return to Joliet, Ill., and Route 66 Raceway, his team had yet another transition. What had been Justin Ashley Racing & Dustin Davis Motorsports, which had morphed into Max Out Motorsports, became Maynard Ashley Racing with an infusion of cash and corporate networking from Joe and Cathi Maynard.

The goal for this new alliance, they said, is “delivering world-class results, on and off the racetrack, for a growing community of marketing partners and fans drawn to Ashley.” Jim Epler, the former Funny Car racer who already was with Phillips Connect, officially has joined the brain trust. It expands Ashley’s technical reach and connections to eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher (through Maynard’s JCM team) and Funny Car’s Tim Wilkerson (through Wilkerson Maynard Racing). With Toyota, Ashley already was aligned with Torrence and Brown.

Ashley called the move “a beneficially strategic” one and said, “I am more excited today about this overall partnership than I have been since I started in the sport. It’s a blessing, and the fact that [the Maynards] have decided to join forces with us validates our team and all that we’ve been working for.”

He’shopingNovember,whentheseasonends,willbeanevenbettertimetobeJustinAshley.

Dave: What made you decide on an International as your project?

John: I had originally saw a rat rod Dodge at a car show with a 12 value, but I couldn't find a Dodge (donor vehicle). The secondary problem is the way the Dodge fenders attached to the nose cone of the truck, it makes it very difficult to add steel but with the Internationals, they were just perfect. There was almost nothing we had to do except cut it, add steel and weld it back. It had to be a long slender nose to accommodate that straight six of the Cummins. I wanted that slender look; I really wanted that aerodynamic airplane look.

Dave: I think it came all together great because it is a combination of classic muscle and American steel. Yet the curves that you find in the fenders from the era, it really translates well.

John: When I got to the designing of the back of the truck, most of the classic pickup trucks fall short of those big, huge fenders up front. I thought of those 40’s Ford's, all those fenders are very prominent, their bathtubs. I thought those ’49 Ford fenders would match with the front fenders appropriately.

Dave: Did you start at the front? Did you start with the cab? Where did you feel was the best place to get started when you got started working on the truck?

John: The truck used to be a rat rod. There was a 46 truck I had that was just a rat truck and it got wrecked. We were able to salvage the passenger side fender, the back half of the cab and one of the doors, everything else was destroyed. We took the bed of the truck, which is the one that is there now, and basically bought another truck out of North Dakota in the weeds and another truck here in town that wasn't complete and put all three of them put together. We were able to rebuild this truck in its entirety again because I wanted to stretch the cab. There's actually two cabs involved to make that cab. I didn't put a metal strip down the middle, I just took the back of the old cabin and the front of the new cab, making them all both too long and then put them back together.

Dave: It sounds like there's pieces from at least three vehicles. One of the things that's really striking to me is what you've done with the interior. Would you describe what you did there?

John: The truck was going to have race car performance characteristics, even though it's sexy and it's a show truck. It is a functional drift truck, but it can do laps on the track. I decided to go with a full roll cage on the inside. It's very clean and sterile with just some stainless steel or aluminum and nothing but gauges.

Dave: At the Father's Day Fiesta Car Show at Casino Azul, there was a tremendous amount of interest the in the pickup. Not only did they do well with the People Choice voting but with the Best in Show voting. The Best in Show voting was from people who were displaying their cars. How does that kind of make you feel about your decisions and choices on the International?

John: That is a great question because it is Art, this is my form of Art. My art is my expression and I'm going to do it my way. But at the same time, I really want that feedback from the audience, from the spectator. When I see joy on that little boy's face and they walk up to the truck, that's it right there and that moment, I know I made the right decision on every nut and bolt.

Dave: I would say that there was some young 80-year old’s that walked up and had the same look on their face because they remember those trucks. Those trucks basically built the United States. Men and women who worked in those trucks and drove those trucks every day.

John: Yeah, really interesting about this truck is that it has a title from the Department of Defense. It is a World War Two veteran. It’s a veteran, it's a big deal.

Thecompleteinterviewisavailableat NMMotorSportsReport.combypodcastfromJuly8,2023.

BY SPENCER HILL | PHOTOSCOURTESYSRX

Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience will make a massive move this month as they revitalize the famed “Thursday Night Thunder” series on ESPN.

The Camping World SRX Series has quickly grown to be a fan favorite since its birth in 2021. The series has successfully taken short track stock car racing to a whole new level, pairing the biggest stars from NASCAR, IndyCar, and numerous highly accredited racing divisions with a prime-time television slot as they compete in an IROC-like format perfectly formatted for live TV.

SRX will race on six consecutive Thursday nights in 2023 live on ESPN, starting at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, CT on July 13th. The multiyear agreement with ESPN is a strategical move to bring back a new version of the famous “Thursday Night Thunder” motorsports programming that brought forth some of the biggest names in racing as it covered grassroots racing across the country in the 80s and 90s.

One of those names just so happens to be Tony Stewart, co-creator of SRX.

“‘Thursday Night Thunder’ is where guys like me, who were just starting our careers in USAC, got the chance to make a name for ourselves because of its presence on ESPN,” Stewart said. “It’s great to see ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ return, but to also be a part of it all over again with SRX.”

In addition to the full-time return of 2022 SRX Series Champion, Marco Andretti, the move to Thursday night will also allow new names to compete for superstardom such as Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kenny Wallace and more.