St. Louis: Mike Ashley Friday notes

Mike Ashley Helps  Missouri Family with $250,000,

Teammate Melanie Troxel Grab No. 1 Qualifying  Spot

He's used to hanging around drag racing tracks, but not to presenting $250,000 to anyone. But that was one of the good things that happened to Mike Ashley Friday before he even went to Gateway International Raceway to begin qualifying for the O'Reilly Midwest Nationals.

"Everybody has  been asking me how I feel about that," he said of the large
check given to  Amanda and Wesley Michno of St. Clair, Mo., Friday morning.
They were the  fortunate family chosen to receive the top prize in Lend America'
s "Homefree  Mortgage Giveaway."

"It felt great to be able to help the Michno family. They had a 100 percent mortgage on their house and they weren't able to refinance. They called (Lend America) and we entered them in the "Homefree Mortgage Giveaway." They were one of 30,000 people -- imagine those odds -- and they won. It was so great to see them with their three beautiful children. They were so happy to get that money.

"There was a  lot of attention around it," continued Ashley.  "It's going
to be on  'Inside Edition' Monday night.  But at the end of the day, the truth
of the  matter is it's with God's help that we were able to do that.  It
felt  really good."

That good feeling continued when qualifying began,  especially when he was
able to help Melanie Troxel take the first-day Funny Car  qualifying lead.

Ashley, co-owner of Gotham City Racing with Roger  Burgess, pointed out that
his decision to step into the Lend America/Gotham City  Racing Dodge R/T Funny
Car at Gateway is already beginning to show  results.  Ashley was 13th with a
best of 4.923 seconds and made his run  before Troxel.

"First, I am confident my Funny Car will qualify  Saturday," he said.  "This
is exactly why we run two cars. I went down the  track and we got some
information. We were able to relay that information to her  team before her run and
Melanie was able to parlay that in to the No. 1  qualifying position.

"I've always said that we have the best team out  here and there is something
special about a team that goes through real tough  times and shows their
character when they get up off the canvas like that and  qualify No. 1."

Ashley and Troxel will be back on the track Saturday for their final two qualifying runs.

-credit: www.GothamCityRacing.com.