The chase for a coveted NHRA Top Fuel championship just got a lot more interesting.
On a holeshot, Justin Ashley won the final-four quad to take home the title at the 17th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals Sunday near Charlotte.
The win helped him climb to second place in the standings, just 38 points behind leader Doug Kalitta with four races remaining. Ashley clocked a 3.784-second elapsed time at 329.83 mph to defeat Kalitta (3.784), Shawn Langdon (3.814), and Clay Millican (4.235).
The difference was at the starting line as Ashley had the best reaction in the final four at .043 seconds. Kalitta had a .068 reaction time, which allowed Ashley to win by 12 feet.
“It’s a great feeling. Obviously winning any four-wide race – or any race for that matter – is great, but to win it right here for the first four-wide race in the fall that NHRA’s ever had, especially where it’s positioned in the year being the Countdown, this was a critical day for us and when you look through some of those quads, even specifically when you get to those final two rounds, it’s just brutal,” Ashley said. “The margin for error now in Top Fuel or Funny Car – any class, really – is so small, so just really happy to take advantage of every opportunity that we had today. Obviously, four races left, but these races are hard to win, so I’m a firm believer in the fact that you have to enjoy them when they come before shifting your focus over to the next one.”
Ashley was quick to point out that his reaction times are only part of his team’s winning equation.
“The first thing is if the car’s not fast, all of it’s irrelevant. If the car’s not put together the same way each and every time, the reaction times are not going to be good – or they’re not going to be within a certain window,” Ashley said. “But in a lot of ways, when you go down the racetrack, holeshots could be misleading, right? We went a ‘78’ both in the final and the semifinals, but those were really good runs. It really is a team effort in that regard. Everyone sees the stat sheet, the .030s and .040s on the reaction time, but you have to collectively look at the combination together – and then hopefully at the end of the day, it leads to results and the kind of results that you’re looking for, and obviously we did it today.”
This was Ashley’s 19th career Top Fuel win and fourth this season. He also has claimed titles in 2025 in Richmond, Norwalk, Indianapolis in addition to Charlotte on Sunday.
“I think it is my experience. You can’t buy experience, and now we’ve really been in contention for a championship, I would say you can argue the last four years, but really the last three years,” Ashley said. “And just leaning on some of that experience, you go back, and I feel like I’ve been in some of these high-pressure situations before where back then it was the first time I was going through that. And also, we have a lot of guys on the team that have been through the Countdown before, and have won championships before. Obviously, [crew chiefs] Mike Green and Tommy DeLago have been there before, so just leaning on their guidance and their expertise throughout this process. And at the end of the day, it really comes down to one lap, one race at a time, and just let the points take care of themselves.”
Ashley has been knocking on the championship door for several years. He finished fourth in the points standings in the 2021-23 season, and he was a career-best third in 2024.
The key for Ashley, who pilots the SCAG Racing Toyota Top Fuel dragster, is to try to keep winning with four races left. During his career, Ashley has never won more than one race in the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
“I think this is a challenge for everybody because it’s different. It’s the first four-wide we have in the Countdown,” Ashley said about the weekend. “We don’t do four-wides very often, so it’s definitely a different challenge, but we’re all facing the same circumstances. I don’t look at it like it’s an advantage for me or anything like that because I try not to pay attention to what happens around us. I just try and pay attention to my process and being the very best behind the wheel that I could be.
“Reaction time is one thing, but it’s also doing the burnout the right way, backing up the same way every time, keeping the car straight – all that stuff adds up to the best possible combination, and hopefully a win at the end of the day.”
Ashley also knows he wouldn’t be in championship contention were it not for his sponsors and supporters.
“I think there’s always some thought that goes into everything that we do, whether it’s on the racetrack or off the racetrack, but for me it automatically shifts to what’s next,” Ashley said. “I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing or a healthy thing to be honest for that matter, but it’s always kind of thinking about what’s next. If you turn the corner and you get that win light, okay, what do I say in my interviews or after you win? Okay, how do we want to structure this winner’s circle?
“The truth is, for us, it is very important to get the SCAG dealers in there because without the dealers – and there were hundreds of them this weekend; probably more than we’ve ever had – we’re not out here racing. It’s important that they participate. It’s important that they are a part of the team, so there’s always some kind of thought process that goes into everything we do.”
Ashley did admit he’s trying to get better at his victory celebrations.
“I’m not that fun all the time. That part, I’m working on it. I’m working on it, I promise,” Ashley said after he showed more emotion than usual following Sunday’s win. One of my favorite things to do and I don’t always have the opportunity to do it, is to go back and spend a few minutes with the crew and see how excited they are. Honestly, look at something I’m working on, these races are hard to win. I probably need to do a better job of enjoying them. I enjoyed that one. That was fun.”
Now, Ashley is turning his attention to the third race in the Countdown – the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, set for Sept. 26-28 across the Mississippi River at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
“Just take what we learned. I have to see; I haven’t looked at the conditions. I don’t know if it’s going to be hot, cold or somewhere in between, but no matter what, I think there’ll be some runs that we took this weekend and we can use that data and information there,” Ashley said. “But from an outlook standpoint, to keep doing what we’re doing. We know it sounds a little cliche, but we don’t want to get caught up in the points because if we don’t take care of business, none of that matters anyway.
“So, our approach is one lap, one race at a time, try and collect bonus points in qualifying and then see where we end up at the end of the day. But this Countdown is about consistency. You want to win races, you have to win races, you have to stack round wins and put yourself in a good position to go for the championship Sunday in Pomona [Nov. 16]. So, with that outlook, that’s where our focus is going to be.”
