A tough weekend at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Nationals wrapped up for Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team with a first round exit against Shawn Reed. Competing at Route 66 Raceway for just the second time in his career Hart was unable to duplicate his 2023 success that saw him race to the final round. After four rounds of qualifying Hart entered race day as the No. 12 qualifier facing No. 5 qualifier Reed in a battle of independent Top Fuel operations.
Hart was first off the starting line with a solid .064 reaction time, but Reed quickly moved past Hart, who smoked the tires as he began to pick up speed. Hart had to watch as Reed posted a 3.948 second pass for the win while he powered the R+L Carriers Top Fueler across the finish line with a time of 8.585 seconds at 86.28 mph. It was Hart’s slowest elapsed time of the weekend well off his qualifying pace of 3.803 seconds at 319.98 mph.
In spite of the tough result on race day Hart and the R+L Carriers team will regroup and head to Epping, New Hampshire in two weeks for the New England Nationals. The two-time Top Fuel national event winner is in the midst of his toughest slump as a professional team owner and driver, but he knows that every season has peaks and valleys.
“We are an extremely resilient team and I feel like we go through hard things in life and it’s how we deal with them,” said Hart. “Usually that is how the strongest teams are built and when you can survive the storms we are going through now. I feel like drag racing is all about peaks and valleys and obviously we are in a valley, but we will be fine. This team is strong, and we will keep moving forward.”
The R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster will be back on track May 30 – June 2 at the NHRA New England Nationals. The event will feature two rounds of qualifying on Friday and two more sessions on Saturday. The quickest 16 Top Fuel dragster will run for the historic Wally trophy on Sunday, June 2. The race will be televised nationally on FS1.
This story was originally published on May 20, 2024. 
