Bob Tasca III thanks his crew chief.  (Todd Dziadosz photo)

“This is a pretty meaningful race for me on a multitude of levels,” said Tasca, a two-time finalist in Top Alcohol Funny Car in Reading. “This was the race John Force ran my grandfather’s body on his car. This was the first race I ever hit the throttle on my Alcohol Funny Car to compete at a national event. I beat Frank Manzo here in my Alcohol Funny Car to win the Richmond race in the third qualifying session — so I don’t know if that counts against Manzo in Reading, but the man’s lost on this property to Tasca.

“For us, we don’t come out here to compete; we come out here to win. It’s about winning a championship. It’s about putting yourself to win. Someone said to me, ‘Man, you got a lousy draw. You have to run Ron Capps first round.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think it’s a lousy draw at all.’ We’re here to win a championship, and if we’re going to win a championship, we’re going to have to beat Capps and [John] Force and [Tony] Pedregon, so we were up for the fight.”

Tim Wilkerson, Tasca, Del Worsham and Force all clinched their spots in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.

Neff’s slow reaction time put him behind Tasca from the start.  (Debbie Gastelu photo)

Mike Neff raced his Ford Drive One to his second final of the 2009 season but once again he was turned away from the winner’s circle. Neff’s success on the racetrack beating veteran Tim Wilkerson, Jerry Toliver, and two-time funny car champ Tony Pedregon advanced him to within one round of clinching a spot in the Countdown to 1. As it stands he is 102 points ahead of No. 11 Matt Hagan. A racer can pick up a maximum of 118 points per national event.

Unfortunately, Neff was upset not by a performance disadvantage but rather a terribly timed sweat droplet. As Neff was staging he wiped away his forehead but in the time it took to lower his visor and stage his Ford Mustang more sweat formed and began running down his forehead into his eyes. The distraction was enough to knock the second year driver off his game and result in a terrible reaction time that doomed the Fishers, Indiana, driver.