Championship Drag Racing

NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(April 6-9)

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Driver Profile

Mike Ashley ProCare RX Dodge Charger

Las Vegas, prerace: On a team of champions, every member must know the goals and have a vision for success. For Mike Ashley and his crew chief, Mark Oswald - both of whom are drag racing world champions - the goals include racing-program development and consistency, with the ultimate vision of winning the Funny Car championship in the Skull Gear Chevy Monte Carlo.

As the team heads from Houston to Las Vegas for the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip, they travel with anticipation of huge success in the not-too-distant future.

"I've been saying all along," said Ashley, "we are working on a lot of things to be competitive with the teams who have been running Funny Car for years. Mark and I both know that to come into such a highly competitive class with the expectation of jumping right to the top is un-realistic.

"We decided together at the beginning of the season to spend the first several races working on a lot of different things to make our team successful - and we're definitely on track," he said.

Coming out of Houston with a very good performance in qualifying and a near-perfect .007 reaction time in the first round of eliminations, Ashley is confident about the race in Vegas.

"I've always had good success in Vegas. Last year in the Pro Mod, I won our first race and then clinched back-to-back World Championship titles at the second," he said.

"Last weekend in Houston, we ran extremely well, and very fast, which means Mark's got a lot of power to work with in order to get the car down the track. The things we've been trying are working, and I know we're well on our way to achieving our goals.

"I told people last week to bet on purple in Vegas and I meant it," he said, referring to the color of his car.

"The car is running really well and my driving is consistent. Now all we need is that little bit of that Las Vegas luck," Ashley said with a smile.

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