(Photo Courtesy NHRA)
By Logan Morris
This weekend, NHRA hosts its final event of 2024 with the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, California. In Top Fuel, Justin Ashley will be seeking his first championship. This week, I had the chance to ask him what his first championship would mean to him and how he plans to keep his emotions in check.
“It would mean the world to me. Racing for a world championship is what it’s all about. It’s why we do what we do, for this very moment. Winning a championship would mean everything to me. It would mean everything to our team. The best way to keep emotions in check is to keep everything linear.”
He explained, "Some stuff is in your control, other stuff is not. We just want to treat it the same. Just doing the very best you can each and every time down the racetrack. For myself, I’ve kind of just focused on the process, detaching myself from the outcome. I focus on the process of ‘this is the way I do a burnout, this is the way I back up, this is the way I want to stage.’ You can’t always control the outcome. It’s about staying focused internally on the process and making the moment bigger than what it is, but just soaking it all in and having fun and enjoying being apart of it.“
Ashley leads the Top Fuel Standings but faces stiff competition from Antron Brown, Shawn Langdon, and others this weekend. Catch all the action on NHRA.TV or Fox Sports starting with round one of qualifying for the Nitro cars Friday at 1:30pm PST.
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