{"id":40546,"date":"2022-10-14T23:17:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T04:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=40546"},"modified":"2022-10-14T23:18:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T04:18:11","slug":"nhras-ashley-looks-to-widen-points-margin-in-the-top-fuel-championship-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/14\/nhras-ashley-looks-to-widen-points-margin-in-the-top-fuel-championship-race\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA’s Ashley looks to widen points margin in the Top Fuel championship race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Justin Ashley. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

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By Michael Haag <\/p>\n

ENNIS, Texas \u2014 <\/span>Despite being the youngest driver competing in NHRA\u2019s premier Top Fuel Dragster category, Justin Ashley has proved his name to be among the best. Ashley sits atop the standings ahead of the NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex. <\/p>\n

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Justin Ashley. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

The 27-year-old holds a 14-point lead over 2021 Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence. Ashley is pleased with his performance to this point, but said the pressure amps up in the postseason. <\/p>\n

“Really happy with how things went, but once we get to the Countdown, everything kind of shifts,” Ashley said. “There\u2019s a little bit of that added sense of intensity. You kind of feel the pressure coming on so it\u2019s been an important first few races.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Aiding in that pressure and intensity is the fact that Torrence, who’s won four-straight world titles, looms closely behind. Ashley, the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year, said he’s keeping close tabs on those beneath him, especially Torrence.<\/p>\n

“I worry about everybody,” Ashley said. “Even when they said Steve [Torrence] was \u2013 and I quote ‘struggling’ \u2013 he was never struggling. He was having a great season, but everything is relevant. With a guy like Steve, this is not over until it\u2019s over. If you want to leave the door cracked open even a little bit, he\u2019s going to find a way to slither in.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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Justin Ashley. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

In order to replicate success, Ashley said he needs to maintain the same approach from the regular season to the playoffs. He added that “the biggest mistake you can make once the playoffs come is to change what actually got you there.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the FallNationals, he is still leaving no doubt about going all in to win. <\/p>\n

“Make no mistake about it, we want to win,” said Ashley, who has six career Top Fuel wins. “We\u2019re going to do everything we can to win.”<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the Plainview, N.Y. native is trying to keep it as simple as possible. He said there’s highs and lows to a season, but to have success, he needs to keep a level-headed approach.<\/p>\n

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Justin Ashley. Photo courtesy of NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

“You don\u2019t want to ride that emotional rollercoaster,” Ashley said. “You want to stay as linear as you can because at the end of the day, that\u2019s going to give you the best chance to win.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Top Fuel standings remain tight, with Brittany Force 30 points back along with Mike Salinas (-35) and Antron Brown (-43) to round out the top five. The margin of error is thin and Ashley hopes to maintain on top through the end of the weekend. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interview with Justin Ashley:<\/h3>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Justin-Ashley.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Michael Haag  ENNIS, Texas \u2014 Despite being the youngest driver competing in NHRA\u2019s premier Top Fuel Dragster category, Justin Ashley has proved his name to be among the best. Ashley sits atop the standings ahead of the NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex.  The 27-year-old holds a 14-point lead over 2021 Top Fuel world champion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":40549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,117,787,626,6,50,328,879,878],"class_list":["post-40546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","tag-antron-brown","tag-brittany-force","tag-justin-ashley","tag-mike-salinas","tag-nhra","tag-steve-torrence","tag-texas-motorplex","tag-texas-nhra-fallnationals","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Justin-Ashley-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-axY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40546"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40553,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546\/revisions\/40553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}