JUSTIN ASHLEY GOES BACK-TO-BACK WITH ANOTHER WIN AT POMONA
Capps Makes Final Round Appearance in GR Supra Funny Car
POMONA, Calif. (April 2, 2023) – Justin Ashley drove his Toyota Top Fuel dragster to a second consecutive nation event win in Sunday’s NHRA event at In-N-Out Dragstrip in Pomona. Ashley claimed the number one qualifier position during Saturday’s qualifying session and went on to claim his second event win in the first three races of the 2023 season. It was also Ashley’s 10th consecutive win light.
The GR Supra of Ron Capps represented for Toyota in the final for Funny Cars on Sunday afternoon, but had to settle for a runner-up result to race-winner Matt Hagan.
The Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car team of J.R. Todd had a difficult weekend in Southern California. Their DHL GR Supra was involved in an incident on Saturday afternoon that resulted in the team having to go to a backup chassis and body for Sunday’s race. Then in Round One on Sunday morning, the car exploded toward the end of the run resulting in the loss of another chassis and body. Todd walked away from both incidents. The team will regroup and prepare for the next event in Las Vegas in two weeks.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip
Race 3 of 21
TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Justin Ashley | Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Race Winner | W. 3.719 vs. 5.634 (K. Baldwin)W. 3.712 vs. BYEW. 3.743 vs. 3.749 (A. Brown)W. 3.713 vs. 3.762 (A. Prock) |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Semi-Finals | W. 3.690 vs. 6.548 (D. Kalitta)W. 3.733 vs. 3.769 (M. Salinas)L. 3.749 vs. 3.743 (J. Ashley) |
| Shawn Langdon | DHL Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round Two | W. 3.740 vs. 3.738 (T. Schumacher)L. 3.743 vs. 3.729 (B. Force) |
| Steve Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round Two | W. 3.715 vs. 3.756 (J. Hart)L. 4.157 vs. 3.822 (A. Prock) |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round One | L. 6.548 vs. 3.690 (A. Brown) |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Final Round | W. 3.947 vs. 4.412 (P. Lee)W. 3.997 vs. 4.598 (C. Pedregon)W. 3.987 vs. 4.078 (B. Tasca III)L. 4.303 vs. 3.967 (M. Hagan) |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Round Two | W. 3.945 vs. 12.709 (J. Arend)L. 4.060 vs. 3.950 (M. Hagan) |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Round One | L. 4.154 vs. 4.066 (A. Laughlin) |
TOYOTA QUOTES
JUSTIN ASHLEY, Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Davis Motorsports
Final Result: Race Winner
How are you able to remain so focused during the race weekend and what does it mean to have turned on your 10th consecutive win light and go back-to-back with national wins?
“It becomes much easier when you have the kind of team that we do, I’ll tell you that much. It really takes an entire team effort from start to finish. Not only on the race weekends, but during the week and I mean on and off the racetrack. This car has been on absolute rails, and I think it’s now 10 straight win lights. One thing that I’ve learned, that’s one win light that you never get sick of looking at. Just really proud of our guys all day long. They brought the smarts to this Phillips Connect team. For everybody at National Debt Relief, Toyota, Kato, Matco Tools, Lucas Oil and all the guys that do such a great job supporting us. We are really going to enjoy this one.”
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
Final Result: Final Round
How would you evaluate your race weekend at Pomona with another final round appearance?
“Great weekend. It was almost a fantastic weekend. You hate to get that close. Qualifying, I said I really wasn’t worried, but to not be qualified going into one session to go and feel that type of pressure, which I told my NAPA Auto Parts team, that’s the same type of pressure I felt going into a World Championship on Sunday of last year. It’s the same type of pressure for different situations and it builds character of course. But I looked at my guys when I was sitting in the car and there was no way that they were even worried, which made me much calmer as a driver. To start from eighth and last pair, a lot of things that would have been obstacles for a lot of teams, I thrive in that moment with Guido and our team because they’re so good at adapting. As a driver, I feel so good driving this Toyota Supra. There’s nothing better than to know that they’re on top of everything and they’ve thought of everything and the car goes up and runs great every time and it just builds confidence. Two finals in a row. The car was out in front of (Matt) Hagan on that one and I thought we could hang onto it and I couldn’t keep it from going to the center lane. Definitely my fault. But we’ll go on to Vegas and I told Guido to download that same run into Vegas and we’ll start out the weekend great. We’re the defending champions of that event and I can’t wait to go back.”
ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, AB Motorsports
Final Result: Semi-Finals
After making it to the semi-finals, how would you evaluate your race weekend overall?
“It was a good weekend here at Pomona for our Matco Tools team with Lucas Oil and Toyota and FVP and our great partners. We came out and qualified where we wanted to and that’s in the top five. We got the number four spot and felt good about it. We wanted to go for that number one spot on Saturday and had a few gremlins, but threw down first round with that 3.69 for low ET w/Brittany (Force) and a big mph. We ran big speeds all weekend. I’m super pumped and super happy with how this team is progressing. We made the semifinals after a tough first round race a week ago at Phoenix and made it into the Mission 2 Fast 2 Tasty (Challenge) at Joliet (Ill.) in May and we’re looking forward to (Las) Vegas in a few weeks. It’s a four-wide and we love those and so do the fans and our goal is to do well.”
J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports
Final Result: Round One
What did you experience from the cockpit with the explosion in Round One?
“Nowadays, the way we run these things, as soon as it spins the tires, you have to get off the throttle and I was too late doing that. As soon as I got off the throttle, there was stuff starting to fly in my face. Really just a bad weekend for us all in all. I hate it for my guys, they’ve been busting their asses. Going through what they went through yesterday, which didn’t need to happen and now to have this, just a lot of work that we have to get done before Las Vegas. That’s two chassis and obviously two bodies. I’m just at a loss for words.”
It’s been a difficult weekend for the DHL GR Supra Funny Car team with Saturday’s incident with John Force and now the explosion in Round One.
“If you knew a weekend like this was coming, you’d rather stay home,” Todd said. “More than anything, I just hate all the work that’s been created for all my guys – especially right before an off weekend. With all the work the DHL team’s been doing up to this point, my guys needed that off week badly. Now they have a ton more work to get done before we go to Las Vegas.
How was the DHL GR Supra running before the explosion?
“The DHL Toyota Supra was running ok early, and I didn’t see Alex Laughlin next to me. The next thing I knew, after it got down the track quite a ways, it started spinning the tires. I learned in the Gainesville (Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.) final that when it starts spinning like that, you gotta get out of the throttle as soon as possible. Sure enough, it happened in the first round today, and we saw what can happen. Looking back on it, I wish I could go back and lift sooner; if you do that, you’ll lose the round, but we would have come back with a race car and body instead a lot of extra work for these guys.
How will the team prepare for Las Vegas after losing two chassis and two bodies this weekend?
“We’ll see where we are this week with cars and parts. If I need to go to the shop in Ypsilanti (Ypsilanti, Mich.) or Brownsburg (Brownsburg, Ind.) to deliver parts and pieces, I’ll do whatever the DHL team needs; I just want to do anything I can to contribute on my end to get us ready for Las Vegas.”
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