BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 13, 2008) – With the theme of the season being to take it one step at a time for Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Custom Accessories Shelby Mustang team, the rookie heads into this weekend’s NHRA race at Bristol Dragway eager to capture his team's first win.
“This weekend is a real important race for us,” said Tasca. “If you look back at the last few races; in Vegas we qualified our season best in the No. 3 position, Atlanta was our best showing with making it to the semi-finals, and St. Louis was hands down our most consistent performance of the season with getting the quickest ET of my career. So you can just see that at each race, we establish a new high point for the program.”
The one step at a time approach has allowed the team to put together a solid collection of data through the first seven races of the season, and to successfully make more and more consistent runs down the track.
“Going into Bristol, you kind of want to pull it all together,” said the Rookie-of-the-Year contender. “We want to qualify in the top half of the field, we want to have an extremely consistent car throughout qualifying and we want to go to the finals and ultimately win the race.”
While taking a one spot drop in the points after the series’ most recent event in St. Louis, Tasca’s team did pick up three spots in the Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship, jumping to sixth in the standings.
“I am real pleased with where we’re positioned right now. We may be 22 points out of 10th in championship points, but I think we’re only like 50 points out of being in the top six or seven, so it’s real tight. If we can go out and run off a win or a final round in Bristol, that will move us solidly into the top 10. It’s just about getting yourself in the top 10 to make the playoffs.”
During last week's off week, Tasca announced the contract extension of crew chief Chris Cunningham, which runs through the next three seasons.
“I’m really excited about making that announcement on Chris' extension,” said Tasca. “Clearly, he’s established himself as a force to be reckoned with out there. At the end of the day, I’m only as good as my crew and my crew chief, and Chris and the guys have given me a great car.
“We are 100 percent focused on performing well going into Bristol. We’ve got a car that can win, period. We just need a few things to go our way to get this thing up in the field. We’re as dangerous as any team out there to win this race.”