Josh Hart Wins NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Call Out In Front Of Sellout Crowd At Gainesville Raceway
Story By: NHRA – GAINESVILLE, FL – Top Fuel’s Josh Hart picked up the victory in the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout on Saturday at this weekend’s 54th Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, beating Mike Salinas in the final round to win the bonus event in front of a sellout crowd at Gainesville Raceway.
Hart, a local Ocala native, put together a run of 3.748-seconds at 331.53 in his 11,000-horsepower R&L Carriers dragster, knocking off Salinas who went up in smoke on the starting line in the specialty race. Hart beat Austin Prock and defending world champ Force to reach the final round.
Two years ago, Hart won in Gainesville in his Top Fuel debut, following it up with Saturday’s impressive showing.
“First of all, I guess I’ll just say that nice guys don’t finish last,” Hart said. “The team gets all the credit. That consistency to get it done every time makes me so very, very proud of the team. It’s a huge, huge accomplishment for our team. To go out and win a specialty race right off the trailer is pretty awesome. But I’m just the jockey that gets to hit the gas.
“I don’t think I knew I was supposed to be nervous or knew that I was supposed to have butterflies two years ago but when you taste it, and then it gets taken away from you and your sophomore season you want to get back to that place. I think we found a little bit of magic and Gainesville has always been good to us. We’ll do our best to get this thing in the winner’s circle more often.”
Eliminations for the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals begin at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Pep Boys Call Out final round-by-round results from the 54th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.
TOP FUEL ALL-STAR CALLOUT:
ROUND ONE — Josh Hart, 3.765, 331.77 def. Austin Prock, 4.564, 164.89; Brittany Force, 3.744, 335.48 def. Clay Millican, 5.247, 128.69; Mike Salinas, 3.751, 333.41 def. Justin Ashley, 3.870, 299.06; Doug Kalitta, 3.753, 330.88 def. Steve Torrence, 3.774, 331.28;
SEMIFINALS — M. Salinas, 3.763, 330.63 def. D. Kalitta, 7.924, 101.35; J. Hart, 3.757, 330.88 def. B. Force, 8.884, 74.07;
FINAL — J. Hart, 3.748, 331.53 def. M. Salinas, 10.235, 74.57.
