Ashley Force was disqualified in the first round of eliminations at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

Scrambling to get the backup car ready and working through a fuel issue Sunday morning, the Force Hood team ran out of time to get the car to the scales before the call to the staging lanes for the Pro categories.It was an especially devastating turn of events for the Castrol GTX Mustang team considering they had worked well past midnight to put a back-up Mustang together for Force Hood after a dramatic qualifying round explosion. The resulting carnage forced the team to pull out the back-up Mustang and begin making it race-ready. On Sunday before the first round debris was discovered in the fuel line forcing the team to use valuable time replumbing the fuel system. That delay took the time normally allotted for a trip to the scales. It was a mistake that the team will not make again.

“This was not one of my best weekends. We got the number one qualifier even though we didn’t get our four qualifying runs because of the weather. It ran great on that first session. The second session we had a major explosion. At least we gave a little entertainment to everybody. I can’t say enough about my team. Today did not turn out the way we wanted it to but they went through a lot last night. We were warming up the car at midnight. I got back to the hotel around 2 a.m. They were still at the track when I left,” said Force Hood.

“They all got up early and were back out here to start race day right on time. Everyone stayed really positive no one was frustrated. We had the music cranked up and they turned what could have been at terrible night into bonding experience. Dad’s team also stayed and helped us which was really cool for them to stay and do that. We were the only teams in all the pits. It was one of those nights I’ll never forget. We got the car back together and it did make an amazing lap in the first round. One detail just kind of got us. We can learn from what happened and we know for next time how we can avoid that. That is the key way to learn. We are also turning that into a positive.”

“At least it got us before the Countdown. We are trying to make sure we cover our bases. We don’t want anything weird like that to happen to us in the Countdown when each round is so critical. Next up is Indy and everybody wants to do their best there. It’s Indy. I don’t want to take anything away from Reading, we definitely wanted to win here today but we know we are clinched for the Countdown so it is not as devastating. We are going to keep doing our best and hope that we don’t find any new ways to lose,” concluded Force Hood.”

In second round action, John Force used his weight to push Arend out of competition, getting a measure of revenge for his daughter.

 

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