Bob Tasca III’s Friday night qualifying run at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals was disqualified because of a malfunction with one of the body latches on his Motorcraft/QuickLane Ford Mustang, forcing him to scramble Saturday to make the Funny Car field of 16.

The newly minted Maynard Ashley Racing team won’t look any different, really, on the racetrack.

However, news Saturday that Max Out Motorsports (formerly Justin Ashley Racing & Davis Motorsports) and JCM Racing merged to form Maynard Ashley Racing will have ramifications more on the business side of the operation.

This new organization – separate from Maynard Wilkerson Racing in Funny Car and JCM on the Top Fuel side with Tony Schumacher – will campaign the Phillips Connect Toyota Dragster that Justin Ashley drives and Mike Green and Tommy DeLago tune. The move is immediate.

He's been knocking on the door all weekend, and a day of calamity and race delays provided Comp racer Ed Federkell the opportunity to "bust it down" and drive his way to the No. 1 spot at the second Texas Motorplex NHRA Division 4 LODRS event of the weekend. 

Federkell drove his David Nickens-powered 2012 Dodge Avenger to a 7.181 elapsed time, -.689 under the B/Altered planetary. 

"The conditions were a lot better for the final session than they were in the daytime," Federkell said. "It was definitely instrumental in the performance of the car. We weren't trying to make that run, but the car just did it. Hopefully, on Sunday, I will drive good on both ends of the track, and we can go some rounds."

Comp racer Mike DePalma has been a win waiting to happen in the Rooftec Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund program this season. Saturday, after Friday's first race was rained out, DePalma sealed the deal on Saturday morning by becoming the fourth different winner in Competition Eliminator during the 2023 NHRA Division 4 double event at the Texas Motorplex. 

If the Lee Sharp-owned team ever needed a win, today was a bold move in the right direction. 

"Winning the race always leaves you feeling good," DePalma said. "We had a lot of problems with our second car. It blew an engine up, and it wore about five guys out trying to get it back together, and this other one, we've been pulling the transmission out and working on that thing like crazy, so I think we finally got it squared away."

Welcome to the big leagues, Camrie Caruso.

Fresh off of a Rookie of the Year award in 2022 and her first career major league victory earlier this year in Phoenix, Caruso etched her name into the record books once more Saturday with a victory at the first NHRA Pro Stock All-Star Callout at Route 66 Raceway.

A specialty race paired alongside the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at the Chicago-area facility, Caruso survived three rounds against the best in the business to earn her first specialty race win and a hefty payout. Meanwhile, Dallas Glenn was the quickest in the class this weekend, earning his first top qualifier award of the season and the third of his career entering Sunday's eliminations.

Final round-by-round results from the 23rd annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway, the sixth of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing
Series:

Point standings (top 10) following the 23rd annual Gerber Collision & Gloass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway, the sixth of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series -

Camrie Caruso was game. She zipped on more than 35 pounds of full fire-protection gear, including air tanks, which is approximately one-third of her body weight.

She joined Pro Mod drivers Lyle Barnett, J.R. Gray, Jerico Balduf, and Mike Thielen Thursday for an afternoon of firefighting skill tests and challenges that Funny Car driver Chris King orchestrated. King is a Chicago firefighter (just like Top Alcohol Dragster driver Johnny Ahten is in Los Angeles), and he put them through their paces, including the challenging “up and over” drill. That consisted of sprinting up five flights of stairs, running across the top of the training facility, then dashing down five flights of stairs down to the main floor, all while carrying the tools of the trade with them.

Pro Modified racer Mason Wright left Route 66 Raceway after his late Friday crash during qualifying for the NHRA’s Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals.

Reportedly sore but otherwise unhurt, Wright opted to finish the weekend at home with family at Odessa, Texas. His car slammed into the wall, showed a flash of fire, flipped onto its roof and wound up in the right lane in the shutdown area.

His friend and fellow Pro Mod racer Lyle Barnett, who was in the other lane, had trouble 

Camrie Caruso drove to the win at the first NHRA Pro Stock All-Star Callout, claiming the victory over Aaron Stanfield on Saturday as part of the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Route 66 Raceway.

In the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, Justin Ashley (Top Fuel) Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won the bonus event in Chicago. Mike Salinas (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car) Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also qualified No. 1 at the sixth of 21 races during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Caruso, who was seeded eighth in the eight-car field specialty race, went 6.524-seconds at 211.03 mph in her Tequila Comisario Chevrolet Camaro in the final round to slip past Stanfield’s 6.525. The 2022 NHRA Rookie of the Year claimed her first career Pro Stock win earlier this year, following with an impressive performance in her first appearance at Route 66 Raceway, which is hosting its first NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series race since 2019.