Baytown: Mike Ashley Friday summary

Ashley Provisional Number Four in Houston

BAYTOWN, Tex. (March 30, 2007) - With rain in the forecast for Saturday, Mike Ashley and the entire Gotham City racing team were focused on putting the Torco Race Fuels, Inc. Dodge Charger solidly into the field heading into Saturday. A 4.814/309.63 run during the second qualifying session earned the provisional No. 4 position at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals, alleviating any doubts as to the team's plans for Sunday.

"I always had faith in Brian Corradi [Ashley's crew chief] that he would get things figured out for this Torco Dodge," Ashley said.

"When there is rain in the forecast, you always want to be in the show, and the team really delivered today. I'm really proud of all the guys.

"It's been a difficult ten days for all of us, but we shook off the cobwebs and now we're right back in line with the performance we expect. I'm definitely glad we're in the show for Sunday," he said.

Barring rain, qualifying is scheduled to continue in the fourth of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series at noon and 3 p.m. (CDT) on Saturday, March 31. Final eliminations start at 11 a.m. (CDT) on Sunday, April 1.

-credit: gcr