St. Louis: Mike Ashley final report

Mike Ashley Has 'Great Weekend' En Route To Quarterfinal Finish at Midwest Nationals

Mike Ashley recapped his No. 2 starting  position and a quarterfinal Funny
Car finish Sunday in the O'Reilly Midwest  Nationals in five words: "It was a
great weekend."  And an impressive one,  he could've added.

He refused to give up after his Lend  America/Gotham City Racing Dodge
Charger R/T lost traction early in his opening  round against Scott Kalitta. Kalitta'
s car stumbled a bit, too, and Ashley  mashed the throttle pedal down again.
The tires hooked up and Ashley's  pursuit began.

Ashley got the win when he passed Kalitta at the  finish line.  His winning
margin was 16-thousandths of a second, thanks to  a 252.90 mph effort at 6.579
seconds to Kalitta's coasting 6.622 at  138.12.

"I was just trying to stay with it, trying not to get on  (the throttle) too
much because I wanted to make it to the finish line. My team  has done a great
job with this car and I didn't want to screw it up.  But  you know what the
moral of the story is, you never quit. You just never, never,  ever quit."

In the next round, Ashley was in front early, but the  car's tires lost
traction, enabling Neff to sneak past at the finish line.   Ashley's numbers were
4.959 seconds at 295.79 mph to Neff's 4.924 at  295.79.

"This was our first race in Funny Car in a while and to  qualify No. 2, go to
the quarterfinals and give a John Force (owned) car a good  run for his money
was fun.  We were ahead of him until the 1000-foot  mark.

"We just had too much power and blew off the tires," Ashley  commented.  "
The motor hit the rev limiter and he passed me in the last  second.

"It was a great race. I had a great time. It was one of the best weekends I' ve had in a long time."

-credit: gcr