Bristol: Mike Ashley Saturday notes

Ashley blasts to No. 4 spot in Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. (July 7, 2007) - With lightening speed, Mike Ashley blasted the Torco Race Fuels, Inc. Dodge Charger R/T into the No. 4 qualifying position at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn. His run of 4.850/323.74 in the Friday night session was the fastest lap of all Funny Cars for the weekend, the seventh time he has run top speed at an event this season.

In both rounds Saturday, Ashley struggled to get down the track, citing testing as the reason for the uncharacteristic results.

"We knew we were in good shape coming into today, and took the opportunity to try out some different things on the car to get ready for Sunday," Ashley said.

"It's important to realize that qualifying isn't always finding out what to do but also what NOT to do, and that's exactly the way we played today. Brian [Corradi, crew chief] wanted to try some of our new blower technology on the car, and, we found out a whole lot as we reviewed the data after the runs.

"With so many races in a row, it's tough to get testing in, and you have to use every opportunity you can to work on your program. We knew that we would have a tough time improving our '.85, so we took advantage of the runs to help us down the road.

"Now, we will just set the car up like we had it on Friday, and get ready to hit it hard tomorrow," he said.

Ashley has lane choice against Tony Bartone in the first round of eliminations, scheduled for noon on Sunday, July 8.

-credit: gcr