Ashley Force Hood battled the heat, rain and a host of strong Funny Cars as she raced to a runner-up finish at the 12th annual United Association NHRA Rt. 66 Nationals today. In the final she and eventual winner Tony Pedregon left almost simultaneously but Force Hood’s Castrol GTX Mustang smoked the tires about 200 feet from the starting line. Force Hood pedaled quickly hoping to regain the lost momentum but Pedregon pulled away from her for the win.

Ashley Force Hood battled the heat, rain and a host of strong Funny Cars as she raced to a runner-up finish at the 12th annual United Association NHRA Rt. 66 Nationals today. In the final she and eventual winner Tony Pedregon left almost simultaneously but Force Hood’s Castrol GTX Mustang smoked the tires about 200 feet from the starting line. Force Hood pedaled quickly hoping to regain the lost momentum but Pedregon pulled away from her for the win.

This was Force Hood’s third final round in five races and she moved within two points of Tony Pedregon who advanced to second place in the Full Throttle point standings.

“I think we did great this weekend. You always want to win and you are bummed when you don’t. Sometimes you do have to push it and roll the dice. You are not going to win championships being timid. We took a chance and maybe it didn’t work out for us this time but I bet it will work out another time. We will just keep trying. Our Mustang is running really well in all kinds of conditions.

“This has been a challenging race for me. I don’t know what it was about it. I had a lot of issues with thinking about things and changing routine. I was maybe trying a little too much. That can sometimes push you backwards,” said Force Hood.

“That we got to the final with me having a weird weekend might not be noticeable from the outside but sometimes you just have those weekends. It doesn’t come so easy. I felt like I was battling a little bit. I am very happy with this weekend. I know the guys will be too when they get past tonight. We have been to three finals in five races. We did a pretty dang good job this weekend. This wasn’t a random weekend. That is a great feeling to go to semis and finals one after another. We’ll just keep trying to do that.” 

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