Toyota Gazoo Racing North America NHRA Brainerd Post-Qualifying Report – 08.19.23

ASHLEY, CAPPS EARN NO. 1 QUALIFER SPOTS FOR TOYOTA IN BRAINERD
Antron Brown Wins Top Fuel Mission Challenge

BRAINERD, Minn. (August 19, 2023) – Toyota drivers Justin Ashley and Ron Capps earned the no. 1 qualifier spots for Top Fuel and Funny Car competition, respectively, at Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway on Saturday. Ashley leads the Toyota Top Fuel contingent, who swept the top-three qualifying spots with Doug Kalitta set to start second and Steve Torrence in third. Antron Brown picked up his first Top Fuel Mission Challenge win on Saturday and qualified in the sixth spot.

Capps was the top-qualifier in Funny Car action, followed by J.R. Todd who slotted in the second spot and Alexis DeJoria qualified eighth.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Brainerd International Raceway
Race 14 of 21

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

TOYOTA QUOTES

JUSTIN ASHLEY, Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Maynard Ashley Racing

TF Qualifying Result: 1st

How important is it to get the top qualifying spot for tomorrow?

“That’s a style run with the conditions what they are and, you know, nothing necessarily surprises me with the team that we have with Mike Green and Tommy DeLago. It really just speaks volumes for our team. This is kind of a unique situation, because I’m not sure how much of that you can actually take and apply it to tomorrow because it’s going to be cooler. It’ll be much different out there tomorrow. But nonetheless, what we did was, at least position ourselves the best that we can heading into race day. I don’t care who we’re racing now. I feel like it’s hard to even win on a bye run out there. It’s going to be tough starting with our good friend Terry Totten over there. I never take anyone lightly so I am looking forward to hopefully what will be a long and exciting race tomorrow.”

How do you feel about the position your team is in right now?

“I feel like we’re in a really good place. I think the most important thing is that we’re staying on offense. We’re staying aggressive. You know, we don’t want to become conservative at all. We want to continue to move forward. And the best way that we can do that is take each and every lap whether it goes good bad or somewhere in between. Once these points reset, we have people right now, nipping at our heels so we just got to stay on the offensive and make sure that we continue to learn and continue to grow and do everything we can to apply it in the most positive way they’re in those final six races of the Countdown.”

ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, AB Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 6th

Mission Challenge Top Fuel Winner

How exciting was it for you to get the Mission win today?

“We’ve been wanting to win this race for a long time. First, you’ve got to make it in the show, and we made it in a couple times. I think this was our fourth time and it felt good to get past that first round today. All these cars are just tough, tough competitors. To go in the final round against Brittany Force and the way their car has been running and to go against Justin Ashley in the first round, they are the two heavy hitters of the class. (Steve) Torrence and the rest of them and Kalitta is running good – so many cars are running so good. Just get in that final, we’re off to a good start and we were trying to run a mid-seven and our car was on that, and we held on. To pull off that win is very special for us because we’ve got to get some of those points back to all these other cars like Torrence and Dougie and Justin whose got a lot of points from this thing. The championship countdown is right around the corner, so we’ve got to keep going and doing what we do and man, I’m telling you it feels good to get that first win. For Mission to put this on, and give us something to race for Saturday. This feels like it’s a Sunday and we’re racing on Saturday. It’s really cool to do that in front of the fans and watch them go crazy. It’s great to put on a show like that and I love being a part of it.”

RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 1st

Do you feel good heading into tomorrow knowing what kind of runs tomorrow can bring?

“Yeah, I hope so. You never take anything for granted. The equalizer will be the cool conditions. We saw the clouds come in with a few runs to go and I actually felt the breeze inside the car. Bob (Tasca III) ran that 92 and I thought, ‘Oh boy.’ Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief) actually got back in the box, and I think he was trying to run 88 and test the track. Tomorrow is going to be epic. It’s going to be some pretty incredible times and speeds. The yellow hat is just such a tribute to how good our guys are and there’s not a lot you do as a driver. I say that because you just try to just stage the car and keep it in the groove. I look back at that first run and we had to shut the car off. It was at the time very unfortunate. I thought, man, we don’t get very many races we get two qualifying runs on Friday. The fact they caught that and the fact we didn’t hurt anything, and we went back out and got the number one spot – it sure felt a lot better.”

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