Justin Ashley learned the saying " you live by the sword, you die by the sword" has real credence. He found it out the hard way by losing on a holeshot to Brittany Force in the final round at the NHRA SpringNationals outside of Houston. 
 
“It hurts, and you learn to live with it at times,” Ashley said. “Ideally, going to that final round, it’s not what you want. It’s not what you expect. But I think the most important thing is to learn from it and move forward, which I think I did a good job of.” 
 
The driver of the Phillips Connect Top Fuel Dragster learned the value of adopting the mindset to that of an NFL Quarterback.  
 
“That’s part of the game,” Ashley said. “It’s forgotten. It’s done. It’s in the past. They say the greatest quarterbacks have the shortest memories, and that’s kind of what you got to live by in a situation like this.”  
 
Ashley, a former college football player, has learned to keep a positive mindset and outlook, and deems the Houston runner-up a victory.  
 
“Overall, you don’t really want to focus on that round,” Ashley admitted. “You want to focus on the weekend, and the weekend was really good,” Ashley said. “It was really positive. We went a lot of rounds. We were able to get more data, more information, stack points for the rest of the season.” 
 
Ashley currently sits third in the Camping World Series standings and is not shy in saying he’s going to do what it takes to scratch and claw his way like a dog to get to the top.  
 
“I love to be on top,” Ashley admitted. “Forget about being the underdog. You want to be the best at what you do. It’s about helping put your team in a position to win. So our team wants to be the best, and we work hard to be the best. And it is hard out here.”  
 
Ashley knows building up a reputation of being a master on the starting line is one thing, but he also knows building up a reputation as a team to be reckoned with is something as well.  
 
“A reputation on the track and a reputation off the track is just as important,” Ashley said. “So you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and we have the best group in the world, and I feel like we’ve developed a reputation, not just me as an individual, but as a team, that we can really go to any race and we can win any race that we enter.”