Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley has put the regular season behind him.
His six victories and 33-9 round record is a thing of the past, while the unnerving, blank slate of the Countdown to the Championship commands his attention.
It’s an understandable mentality, considering Ashley was in position to win his first Top Fuel championship last season, but dropped from first to fourth during the final two races of the Countdown.
“For a number of reasons, we weren’t able to finish the deal and come through,” Ashley said. “To a certain extent, I think you have to lose to learn how to be able to win, and we already went through that last year.”
The Phillips Connect dragster driver is hopeful that the growing pains are over, especially as he enters the Countdown as the No. 1 seed for the first time.
Thanks to his impressive collection of Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus event wins — which gave him 21 extra points to carry into the Countdown — Ashley has a 30-point lead over four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence.
It is the largest points margin an NHRA driver has had entering the playoffs since the Countdown was introduced in 2007.
“In a season where points are so critical, we’ll definitely take that bump,” Ashley said. “But the Countdown is difficult.
“Whether we enter it from the front or enter it from the back, we’re all on the same playing field. We all face the same circumstances.”
The fourth-year Top Fuel driver entered the Countdown as the third seed last season, but a final-round appearance during the first of six playoffs races at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., pushed him to the lead.
When reflecting on where it all went wrong, Ashley pointed to the trio of first-round exits he experienced down the stretch as the major roadblock to his title run.
“Those will kill you,” he explained. “You want to win as many races as you can, but the intensity being so high and the competition being so difficult, it’s going to be so important to maintain that consistency and just stack up round wins.”
Call it experience, or perhaps lingering discontentment from coming up short last year, but Ashley is prepared to race every elimination round like it’s the NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif.
“During this six-race period of time, anything can happen at any race,” Ashley said.
He’ll restart his quest for the Top Fuel title during the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals this weekend at Maple Grove Raceway.