Nitro Funny Car driver/owner Bob Tasca III announced Thursday morning he will make his 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Series debut March 27-29 at the Four-Wide Nationals.

“I’m looking forward to getting back out there seeing the fans, and being around the racers,” Tasca said in a press release. “Those are the two things you miss the most, the fans and racers, they become part of your family. As for the race, we have the best parts, I have a great team to work on my Shelby Mustang and as long as I didn’t forget how to drive you just might see the NewAutoParts.com Shelby Mustang in the winner’s circle.”

According to Tasca, he plans on competing in three to four races, but wouldn’t name any other specific events he will enter except the Four-Wide Nationals.

Tasca’s primary sponsor at Charlotte will be NewAutoParts.com.

“I was introduced to NewAutoParts.com about a year ago,” Tasca said in the press release. “I was so impressed with how they manage their operation that my family made a major investment in their business model. Currently NewAutoParts.com sells new Original Factory Replacement parts for Ford, GM, Hummer, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Mazda, Volvo, Lincoln and Nissan with more brands to come.”

NewAutoParts.com is based in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.

“They are looking to grow their brand and we are going to do three or four races with them,” Tasca said. “I think this is a brand that fits very well with the NHRA family. We will hopefully get a lot of business that we can attribute through motorsports.  As it grows, so can our race schedule.”

Tasca, a factory Ford Funny Car racer, raced full-time in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car class from 2008-2014. He won four national events and had a career-best finish of fifth in the 2010 point standings. Tasca last won a race at Dallas in 2012. Tasca was 11th in the points a year ago.

Tasca isn’t racing full time this season because Ford, as of the end of the 2014 season, was no longer sponsoring teams in drag racing.

“I have received thousands of comments from fans expressing their confusion and disappointment about Ford dropping their Funny Car support,” Tasca said. “My opinion of what took place is simple the head of Ford racing has very little interest in drag racing. As a result the message that got to the top of the house within Ford’s senior management was drag racing was no longer a good fit for their future marketing strategy. Well, we couldn’t disagree more. NHRA has seen growth in TV ratings, attendance and strong investment from Toyota, Dodge and now GM. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Ford fans that supported Ford within the sport for more than 60 years! It was a mistake and I believe down the road the senior management team within Ford will realize that drag racing is alive and well. However, my loyalty is with the Ford fans and the Tasca family will do what we can to maintain a significant Ford presence for all those loyal Ford fans of NHRA. My first and foremost loyalty has always been with the Ford brand.”

Although Tasca isn’t running a full season, he’s confident in the team he will have working for him.

“All my key guys stayed with me back at the dealership, so I have a good core group of guys who I can go to the track with,” Tasca said. “I’ve always wanted to get more involved on the tune-up side of the car so we have made a lot of changes to our tune-up strategy based on some struggles we had last year. We are making some significant changes to when the car ran much more consistent at different points in my career. We may go back to the future on some of the setups that we had on the car. My car chief, Tom Leskovan, who has been with me since day one, is going to take over the primary tuning responsibilities, but I’m going to be very involved with the tune-up calls on the car. I don’t know what I’m looking more forward to, driving or getting involved more in the tune-up. We’re going to hit it hard and see what we can do.”
 
 
 

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