Tasca Looking Forward To Denver

DEARBORN, July 20, 2010: Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team may have left Sonoma early by just a few inches, but they plan to take those inches and get at least one more round win this weekend in Denver.

Tasca and the team returned to the strong performance they exhibited earlier this season with a semifinal appearance in Somona, providing a needed boost to the team heading into this weekend’s NHRA event in Denver. Just by qualifying this weekend, Tasca will assure himself a berth in the NHRA Countdown to 1 playoffs.

“In the last two months, we’ve had one win, two semifinal appearances and two first-round losses, but those first-round losses have asterisks by them because we had some mechanical issues in those two races,” said Tasca. “We diagnosed the issue and got our stuff pulled together. We were back in the semifinals and probably one of the top cars to beat this past weekend. With what we accomplished in Sonoma, I’m very confident heading into Denver.”

Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team look forward to the high-altitude challenges Denver presents to their Mustang’s tune-up. Tasca believes that a little bit of skill and a little bit of luck will go far in Denver.

“Denver is one of those races where you can go in with confidence but you also go in with your fingers crossed because you are in a type of air that you don’t see the entire season,” said Tasca. “Denver is 9,000 feet above sea level, and we have a new combination in the BOSS 500 engine. Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and I have spent a lot of time talking about our strategy and brainstorming ideas on what to do with this set-up at that altitude. We have a team that can put a plan together and put ourselves in a position to win.”

Tasca will rely on crew chief Chris Cunningham for the proper tune-up heading into this weekend’s NHRA event in Denver. Cunningham has more than 25 years experience working on a Funny Car and Tasca will yield to his expertise in the mile-high city.

“For the last three months, Chris has been thinking about Denver,” said Tasca. “Denver is not something you just roll in and take your stock pistons and rods off the rack and stick them in the motor. Denver is a total tune-up change – rods, pistons, compression, fuel, fuel volume, ignition and clutch. We’ve got to make the right decisions and Chris has certainly done a lot of prep work to get ready for Denver. I’m very confident that he’ll make the right decisions.”