Justin Ashley and the SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel dragster team picked up their fourth win of the season Sunday at the NHRA Four-Wide Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway. Daniel Wilkerson and the SCAG Ford Mustang team earned semifinal points for making it to the second final quad appearance of his career while Dave Richards and the BlueBird Turf / Versatran team had a first quad exit.
In his seventh final round of the season 32nd of his career, Ashley lined up with former champions Shawn Langdon, Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican. Well known for his stealth ability on the starting line, Ashley and the SCAG Toyota dragster crossed the finish line in 3.784-seconds, identical to Kalitta’s elapsed time but Ashley’s .043-second reaction time to Kalitta’s .068 gave Ashley the holeshot victory, the 19th win of his career, his first at zMAX Dragway and second in the four-wide format in North Carolina.
“It’s a great feeling. Obviously winning any four-wide race, or any race for that matter, is great. But to win here for the first four-wide race in the fall that NHRA’s ever had, especially where it’s positioned in the Countdown, this was a critical day for us,” Ashley said. “There are still four races left, but these races are hard to win. So, I’m a firm believer, in the fact that you have to enjoy them when they come before shifting your focus over to the next one.”
En route to the finals, Ashley had the first triple holeshot victory in NHRA history during the second round. With a stellar .036 reaction time, Ashley’s 3.788-second pass at 326.56 mph was enough to defeat Langdon’s 3.761 with a .068, Brittany Force’s 3.773 with a .066 and Tony Stewart’s 3.784 with a .073.
Ashley started the day from the No. 5 spot thanks to a 3.728-second pass at 335.98 mph that put him in a first-round quad with Toyota teammate Langdon, the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history Tony Schumacher and Doug Foley. Ashley was the runner-up after he ran 3.811-seconds at 323.81 mph to Langdon’s 3.792 at 332.10. The pair sent Schumacher’s 3.865 at 290.76 and Foley’s 4.054 at 217.42 home.
“When you look through some of those quads today, specifically when you get to those final two rounds, it’s just brutal the margin for error now in top fuel or funny car, any class really for that matter, it is so small,” Ashley said. “I’m just really happy to take advantage of every opportunity that we had today.”
Wilkerson, the No. 10 qualifier thanks to a 3.962-second pass, and Richards, who qualified No. 15 off a 4.039-second pass, lined up in the first quad with Paul Lee and Ron Capps. Wilkerson finished runner-up in the four-some with a 3.957 pass at 328.14 mph advancing with Capps (3.894 at 329.67) to the second round. Despite making their best run of the weekend, Richards came up short with a 4.023-second pass at 314.17 mph while Paul Lee went 4.020 at 310.91.
“Not the outcome this BlueBird Turf / Versatran team obviously wanted, but the car did run what we told it to today, it just wasn’t enough,” Richards said. “Luckily we’ll be able to take this momentum into St. Louis in just a few days and keep improving. Really enjoyed spending time with all of our dealers and distributors that were out this weekend. It was a huge group and I had fun watching Daniel and Justin in the finals with them.”
In the second quad, Wilkerson and Capps were joined by eventual race winner Austin Prock and veteran Bob Tasca III. Tasca would lose the quad at the start with a -.002-second red light and Capps suffered an engine explosion crossing the finish line in 4.358-seconds at 189.44 mph. Wilkerson advanced off his 4.072 run at 254.04 as runner up to Prock’s 3.930 at 328.78.
In the final lined up with Prock, Matt Hagan and Chad Green, Wilkerson’s car for only a 4.389-second pass at 195.87 mph defeating Green who was -.030-second red on the starting line. Hagan runnered-up on his 3.952 at 324.12 while Prock won the event thanks to his 3.912 at 332.43.
“I kept saying that once me and this SCAG Mustang synced up we will do great things, we were so close today before we had a drive line issue. In reality we are blessed to have a body still,” Wilkerson explained. “We had over 200 SCAG dealers and distributors here this weekend and this team couldn’t be happier that we put a good show on for them. We have a good car to take to St. Louis so I’m excited.”
The NHRA Countdown to the Championship continues with the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois just outside fo St. Louis, Sept. 26-28.
This story was originally published on September 22, 2025. 
