Justin Ashley secured his fourth victory in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge by defeating Ida Zetterstrom in the Top Fuel final at the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park during the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. J.R. Todd (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock), and John Hall (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also claimed victory in their respective categories in the final Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge of the season.
Ashley needed only a 4.085 second elapsed time at 260.01 mph to win his tenth career Mission #2Fast2Tasty crown which resulted in his second consecutive overall season title in the bonus race.
“We feel good. We take the Mission Foods Challenge very seriously,” Ashley said. “It’s important for a number of reasons. Obviously, we want to run well because it’s a part of qualifying and help position ourselves well for raceday, but it’s also points that are going to be added on before the Countdown starts, which is super important to us.
“Anything that we could win, we want to see win lights whether it’s the Mission Challenge or even in qualifying then of course on raceday. I’m super happy for the team, happy for the guys and everybody at Scag Power Equipment. We’ll enjoy it, but then we have to shift our focus to tomorrow.”
Todd’s win in the Funny Car portion marked the third of his career, and he earned the victory by beating Chad Green. Todd’s winning time was a 3.953 elapsed time at 325.22 mph.
“We have to thank Mission Foods for allowing us to have the opportunity to race for those bonus points – they’ll come in handy when the Countdown comes around,” Todd said. “We’re already spotting (Austin) Prock over a full round with all the points that he’s racked up, so it’s nice to add to our reset, whatever that may be after Monday. Hopefully, we can put ourselves in a good position to maybe finish second in the regular season going into the Countdown and see where we stack up.”
“Mission Foods allows us to race for those bonus points,” Todd said. “Hopefully, we can finish second in the regular season going into the Countdown.”
Todd might have won the battle, but it was Austin Prock who won the war, capturing the season championship on the strength of seven wins in a season. It’s an unparalleled feat.
Pro Stock frontrunner Glenn captured his second Mission #2Fast2Tasty victory of the year, running a 6.621-second pass at 206.83 mph to easily beat a red-lighting Mason McGaha.
Erica Enders secured the #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on the strength of her five final rounds, which resulted in three wins. Her run of success earned 13 bonus points for the Countdown playoffs.
Matt Smith Racing rider Hall claimed his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty win in Pro Stock Motorcycle. He won when teammate Matt Smith went red in the final round.
“Today was a great day. I honestly didn’t know what to expect because we didn’t get to make a run on Friday night,” Hall said. “Normally, missing the first run wouldn’t be a big deal but when you have to go right into the Mission Challenge, you don’t know what the bike will run or what kind of a light you’ll have. I did just fine in the first run with a .011 light and I’m not sure what happened in the second, but I have to thank Matt for going red because I was way off.”
Gaige Herrera captured the overall title in Pro Stock Motorcycle, edging out Matt Smith on a tiebreaker. Both finished with 12 bonus points for the playoffs, but Herrera’s three overall Challenge wins secured him the tiebreaker.
Final qualifying for the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals is set to begin at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
