FUNNY CAR

Bob Tasca III earned every bit of his fourth career win in a dramatic final-round pedalfest with fellow playoff spoiler Matt Hagan at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex.

Tasca turned on the win light with a 4.826-second lap at 197.59 mph in the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang to Hagan’s 5.025 at 188.15 after defeating Alexis DeJoria, Ford teammate Courtney Force and Cruz Pedregon in the early rounds.

“To put Motorcraft and Ford in the winner’s circle where they belong, I tell you, it’s long overdue for our team,” said Tasca, who wore the track’s signature trophy cowboy hat to the media center. “We just kept fighting. It wasn’t pretty. There was some driving that had to be done out there, but we got it done. We got a win, and hopefully this is the momentum we need to finish the year strong.”

It was Tasca’s fourth career NHRA Full Throttle Series Funny Car win and his first since Englishtown 2010. Both he and Hagan, the defending Series champion, narrowly missed the cut for the sport’s Countdown to the Championship playoffs and are happy to play spoiler.

“I think we’re more determined now than ever before,” Tasca said. “Not making the top 10 was a lot of heartache for the guys on this team. I said to my team, this will be a defining six races, because I want to see what we’re all made of. Me included. Are we going to roll over and just play dead these next six races, or are we going to come out with some fire in us and take this thing to Pomona, and let everyone know we may not be in this year, but watch out next year? I think this weekend was a defining weekend for our team.

“I took Hagan back to his pit twice today on my scooter, and I said Matt, it really sucks that we’re not in the Countdown, but let’s make it miserable for everybody. He and I are going to go out there and run as hard as we can run.”