Nitro Dogs Racing

Ashley ready to go out in style

Englishtown, pre-race: On the heels of announcing his departure from the cockpit for the season, Mike Ashley is preparing for his final scheduled race of 2008 in the Lend America Dodge Charger R/T this weekend at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Ashley, from Long Island, New York, considers the venerable quarter-mile his hometown track and plans to celebrate the weekend with family, sponsors, and employees and guests from his company, Lend

America, where he is chief business strategist.
 
“The decision to make this my last race of the season is because of my intense desire to put myself completely behind the things I do - and right now, in the current state of the economy, I am focusing on growing Lend

America,” Ashley explained.
 
Taking the top two qualifying spots at the last NHRA event in

Chicago, the team has proven its ability to perform in a variety of weather conditions, and with Gotham City Racing lead driver Melanie Troxel winning one event already this season, Team Gotham is staged to enter the top 10 and make the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
 
“The 24-race season in drag racing is grueling, truly a marathon, and despite entering the season knowing I was going to be racing part-time, it’s really too distracting for me to be away from work right now for any length of time. As a team, we’ve been able to get Melanie into a position where she can win races and perform very well, and collectively, my partner, Roger Burgess, and I agreed that this was a good time for me to step out and let the team focus on Melanie,” he said.
 
“I love coming to Englishtown because I started my drag racing career here, and it’s like home for me. We’ll have a lot of people joining us this weekend, and I’m really confident that we’ll put on a great show for the fans.
 
“Our goal for the weekend is to repeat the qualifying effort we had in

Chicago with the 1 and 2 spots and work our way to the finals. One lap at a time, uno ala

volta, like Roger Burgess says,” Ashley added.
 
With forecasts calling for high 70s and low 80s with a mix of cloud cover, Ashley said the racing should be “really fast.”
 
“In the past couple of years, we’ve had really hot conditions, so if things are a little cooler and the track doesn’t get too hot, I think you’ll see some great side-by-side racing all weekend long,” he said.