The three-car factory SCAG Racing team ended competition at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in the first round of eliminations.
Fresh off winning the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, Justin Ashley, in the SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel dragster, pedaled his way to a 4.685-second pass at just 174.14 mph. Langdon would have his quickest and fastest pass of the weekend at 3.743 and 327.74 to take the win. Ashley leaves heads to the Sonoma Nationals sitting fourth in points.
“It was certainly disappointing to exit early here in Washington. We expected to perform better for SCAG, Toyota, Phillips, KATO and all of our partners, but it’s important to put things in perspective. We all are very blessed and appreciative that we get to do what we love with people that we love,” Ashley said. “We picked up an important Mission Foods Challenge win and some much needed championship points on Saturday so that’s a major positive. All our focus and energy now shifts to Sonoma in just a few days.”
Driving the SCAG Power Equipment Ford Mustang Funny Car, Daniel Wilkerson made his all-around best pass of the weekend going 3.918 seconds at 330.23 mph in the first round. Unfortunately, Cruz Pendragon also had his best performance with a 3.895 at 315.49 for the victory.
“We got a little behind in qualifying this weekend, but we weren’t nervous at all on Sunday,” Wilkerson said. “We gave it a solid crack this morning and came up short as the grass we cut on Monday. This is a good SCAG Ford Mustang so we keep our heads down, keep working and go to Sonoma hungry.”
Dace Richards and the Versatran / BlueBird Funny Car team went on a wild ride in their first round of eliminations against Matt Hagan. The car would smoke the tires at the starting line and then make an abrupt right turn sending Richards nose first into the right guard wall. Richards was unharmed in the incident.
“The car came loose and made a hard right turn pretty much immediately. It happened so fast, I tried to correct it, but it kept moving on me and I couldn’t get it straightened out before we hit the wall,” Richards said. “Luckily and most importantly, I’m fine. We’re working on getting ready for Sonoma, we have other bodies, so life goes on and we’ll be back next week. I have to say thanks to Versatran and BlueBird Turf, they give us everything we need.”
The two-race Western Swing continues with the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway July 26-28.
This story was originally published on July 22, 2024. 
