HISTORIC WEEKEND FOR ASHLEY AT BRISTOL
Ron Capps helps deliver second consecutive Toyota sweep of Bristol Dragway

BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 11, 2023) – Justin Ashley earned a historic double-up as he scored the win in the rain-delayed New England Nationals on Saturday, along with the Mission Foods Challenge victory, before following that with another win on Sunday in Bristol. With the success this weekend, Ashley took over the points lead.

It was also a big day for Antron Brown as he scored his 800th career round win, before coming up just short to Ashley in the final. Brown is the sixth driver in NHRA history to earn 800 round wins.

In Funny Car, Ron Capps celebrated the anniversary of his first Toyota win by taking the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car back to the winner’s circle for the seventh time in his career at Bristol Dragway. Capps defeated fellow Toyota driver Alexis DeJoria in the final round, as Toyota swept the final round spots in NHRA competition.

With Ashley and Capps’ victories, Toyota stands at 199 NHRA victories heading into the next race at Norwalk.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Bristol Dragway
Race 8 of 21

TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

Final Result: Winner

How do you feel about winning everything this weekend?

“I’m on cloud nine. It is just an amazing feeling. It’s so hard to win a race. It is so difficult, so to be able to come into one weekend, in the course of three days, and win two events and one Mission Foods Challenge, is really something special. It’s hard to turn on win lights in this sport, so I just have so much gratitude for my entire team and the work they did to turn this car around round after round, and making sure it went down the race track. We had a lot of friends and family here – this is not too far from when the Maynards are, so they had a lot of their friends out as well. It’s a big win for the entire team.”

What does it mean to defend the Bristol title?

“After the fact, I certainly think about it. During the race, that doesn’t cross my mind and if it does, I do everything I can to get rid of that thought, because it is just a matter of focusing on that moment and taking it one round at a time, because it is not easy to win. I think that approach gives us as a team the opportunity to win.”

The last driver to win two races in one weekend was Tony Schumacher with your now crew chief, Mike Green. Can you talk about what your crew chiefs mean to this team?

“Mike (Green), Tommy (DeLago) and Dustin (Davis) are just fantastic. They are excellent at what they do both on and off the race track. You are only as good as the team that you have. They have done a great job themselves, but they have also assembled an amazing team that surrounds the race car. Honestly, it is fascinating to be able to watch them round after round maintain that consistency. Nothing stops this team. We can lose in the first round, we could win the race, we could fall short somewhere in between, but the mentality is the same. We always expect to win, and the reason for that is because it starts on top. It starts with guys like Dustin, Mike and Tommy.”

Your win was 199 for Toyota. What does it mean to close in on that milestone and the support Toyota provides you?

“It’s very, very deep – the talent pool that we have. I am so grateful that we have Toyota Gazoo Racing North America and Slugger (Labbe) and Paul (Flynn) and all of the people from that team that not only provide us with the data and information that we need, but treat us like family. When you are part of Toyota Racing, you are part of the Toyota family and we all have each other and we all work together. Going into that final round, against our Toyota teammate, and knowing, no matter what happened in front of us it was going to be a Toyota double-up and we are inching closer to a 200th win for Toyota is really amazing. It speaks volumes on Toyota – to be able to put all of the time, energy, effort and commitment that have into the sport of NHRA drag racing – really is beyond measure.”

Was there one race today that stuck out today?

“It was every round today. I think at this point you always need to dig deep, especially with the way the competition is. Anytime we go up against Antron (Brown) is usually a fantastic race, and it is a really small margin of victory. I don’t really believe in the approach of getting up for anyone in particular, but you have to be extremely focused because he is not going to let you get away with anything. Antron is a fantastic driver, and more importantly, he’s a fantastic person, so I think racing a guy like Antron brings out the best in myself and my team.”

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

Final Result: Winner

What does it mean to you to pick up your seventh win at Bristol?

“We are celebrating an anniversary of sorts. We got to announce our Toyota partnership in Charlotte at the 4-Wide, and then we gave the new GR Supra its first win here. So for Ron Capps Motorsports – to be able to do that last year – was one of the most epic moments of my life. I was pretty stoked when we pulled up and all four nitro cars were Toyota teams. Jwan (Smith), Paul (Flynn) and Slugger (Labbe), and all of the people that are here every weekend – people don’t understand that they send one of their trucks – it’s like what goes to NASCAR races as well – and they send it to NHRA races for the support of our teams. It is unbelievable behind the scenes that you don’t hear about. So very happy for Toyota. Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief), T-Buck (Tom Buckingham, assistant crew chief) got moved up when (John) Medlen retired last year. We promoted within with our company going into our second year. Allison (McCormick) our PR, and Kass (Pawuk), social media – same team, just kept at it. We’ve been close. Three final rounds. Should have been a win already, but this is probably the most demanding race track there is to drive a Funny Car. I think that anybody will tell you that, that drives one. I probably cost us a couple of qualifying runs. I just couldn’t hang on the car and keep it in the middle. Thankfully, I got my act together on Sunday, and Guido was able to lay it down. It is such a relief to see that Wally again. I honestly tell people, you never know if you are going to see one again. That is how tough it is.”

Can you talk about closing in on that milestone for Toyota and the relationship you have with them?

“You have to have the respect. J.R. Todd helped design that body, Alexis (DeJoria) helped design that body and I came in late. We came in with success – it’s tough. That creates a lot of weird vibes. I was very careful. I apologized a few times to them last year. I was careful about what I said. You have to be careful. I was invited into that family. I wanted to get into that family bad over the years – Antron Brown being such a close friend. I just knew that if I could get in as a part of that family, I knew what it meant. It is showing right now. It would be great to get them that win. I would honestly cheer for Alexis or J.R. or somebody getting that Funny Car win as well. It would be cool. It is a great thing. I forgot that there were two wins. That is looming on the horizon. Paul Doleshal, Slugger (Labbe) – you can’t believe the efforts that go in. People just don’t see it. Jwan (Smith), Paul (Flynn) – their track people are here before anybody during the day. When we are all hanging out having coffee and having breakfast and they are here at night, when they are people trying to kick them off of the track. They are tracking and showing us bumps and everything about the track. You just don’t get that – it is such a cool thing to have. I’m so grateful to be a part of the Toyota family.”

Can you talk about being back as the points leader?

“(Matt) Hagan has had us scrambling on it, him and Tony Stewart (owner). That is huge. It’s a long year. It’s great and it’s great for NAPA on Monday morning to look at competition Plus or any of our race sites – we send them the links – and see that we’re the points leaders. That’s great, but that doesn’t matter until Sunday at Pomona. I can finally say that. We finally won one from behind – we won it on Sunday. We are just trying to get wins and just get our consistency down, but this is huge. Great win.”

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

Final Result: Finalist

Can you talk about the race this weekend?

“We definitely bounced back. One thing I can tell you about our team is we always stay persistent. This track was handing us our butt. We got too aggressive on Friday night – the first run coming out – our car was on at .78 run and it didn’t make it because we were too aggressive. We want to qualify well. We like to qualify in those top three spots. We want number one. We are going to go with that same attitude going into Norwalk. We are just going to scale it back. The coolest part is the way we rebounded – we came back out. Brian (Corradi, crew chief), Mark (Oswald, co-crew chief) and the boys went to the stuff that we know and the car went out the first round and we ran a .76. We were trying to run between a .74 and a .76 and it did it. It got us the round win and we just started picking away at each round to make it better. Semis, when we ran that .73 flat against Doug (Kalitta) – it really set us up for that final, where we thought we could go out there and go .71. That was what we were shooting for. Justin (Ashley) did it. We were already a hundredth quicker at the 60 foot mark and with the calculations that means you could have run about 15 thousandths quicker. If we would have run 15 thousandths quicker, we would have run a 3.715. That is what we were shooting for. We got a little greedy. It was going to hold it. The car was trying to get ghost. With that being said, when you make it to a final, it is a great weekend. Great weekend for a rebound in points. That moves us up a few spots or whatever it did. We just have to keep doing it. Our main focus is the Western Swing. Hit the swing hard and come back and make a strong push all of the way to Indy and see if we can move up some points spots and get ready for the Countdown for the Championship.”

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