NHRA Driver Prepped for Gatornationals

The Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, which will be held in Gainesville, starts Thursday. The race will occur over four days at the Gainesville Raceway.

Justin Ashley, a 29-year-old local NHRA driver, discussed how he has prepared to compete this weekend.

His Career

Justin Ashley’s father raced for many years, so Ashley spent a lot of time at the race track. Through being at the track so often, he fell in love with the sport at a young age.

Ashley won the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year Award. He has also competed in 19 finals and collected 11 Top Fuel wins, including three in 2022 and six in 2023. Additionally, he finished each of his seasons ranked in the top 10, including three consecutive 4th place finishes in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

New Team

Ashley is an NHRA Top Fuel Dragster driver for Scag Racing. It is a three-car team compromised of the Scag Power Equipment Top Fuel Dragster, the Scag Power Equipment funny car and the Versatran funny car.

The other two members of his team are Daniel Wilkerson and Dave Richards.

Scag Racing is a new organization sponsored by Scag Power Equipment. While Scag is not new to the sport, they have increased their involvement and their investment in their team and in NHRA.

This is more than just a sponsorship for Ashley, and he is excited to be apart of this new team.

Going Into This Weekend

According to Ashley, the team is prepared and ready to go into the race this weekend. They have done a lot testing so far, and their cars have been running in the high 360 mph’s.

While the team has had a lot of wins so far this year, they have not had a ton of luck in Gainesville.

Still, Ashley feels really good about their car and their chances of winning this weekend and proving something when it really matters most.

Gainesville Fast-Track

However, Gainesville is a tough track to race on due it being known as a fast-track. Things like weather, good track surface, and other things, contribute to Gainesville Raceway being a faster track than other raceways.

With good weather expected this weekend, it looks like cars will be fast and the competition will be fierce this race.

Ashley says that he is expecting sold-out crowds and about 25,000-50,000 fans each of the four race days.

Up Next

The Lucas Oil NHRA Winter-nationals will take place March 21-24th in Pomona, CA.