TASCA AND MOTORCRAFT/QUICK LANE TO START SEVENTH IN SUNDAY'S NHRA WINTERNATIONALS

Phoenix, AZ., February 21, 2009 – In two words, Bob Tasca III announced his goal for the NHRA Winternationals. Conquer Phoenix.

Just one month ago in testing, Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team made eight passes down Firebird Raceway. The team eagerly returned to Phoenix on Friday with those test passes fresh in their minds.

On Saturday afternoon, Tasca piloted his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car to a seventh place qualifying effort in 4.10 seconds at 301.94 miles per hour. Tasca will face Jerry Toliver in first round eliminations on Sunday at Firebird Raceway.

“It was a great day today. We qualified seventh with a time of 4.10 seconds, knowing that definitely put us in the show,” said Tasca. “With a solid run early in the weekend, we knew we would have the opportunity to try some things that crew chief Chris Cunningham wanted to try on our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang. We learned a lot today. We smoked the tires in the first qualifying run today but we had some real promising data for the first 60 feet before the car smoked the tires.”

“We had great passes this weekend. I credit last year, off season testing and the hard work of Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and all the guys on this Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, for our success in Phoenix so far. We’ve got some good data under our belt that we can use to capitalize our performance this weekend.”

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series can be seen on Sunday, Feb. 22, on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD for three hours of final eliminations at 7 p.m. (ET).

Qualifying Order – Funny Car

1. Ron Capps; 2. Mike Neff; 3. John Force; 4. Del Worsham; 5. Robert Hight; 6. Tony Pedregon; 7. Bob Tasca III; 8. Matt Hagan; 9. Jim Head; 10. Jerry Toliver; 11. Jack Beckman; 12. Ashley Force Hood; 13. Cruz Pedregon; 14. Tim Wilkerson; 15. Gary Densham; 16. Jeff Arend. DNQ – Bob Bode.