Ashley navigates to No. 3 at Mile High Nationals

MORRISON, Colo. (July 14, 2007) - After a day of dodging rain clouds and struggling with the extreme racing conditions of Bandimere Speedway just outside of Denver, Colorado, Mike Ashley and the Torco Race Fuels Dodge Charger blasted to the No. 3 position heading into eliminations at the Mopar Mile High Nationals.

In the Friday night qualifying session, Ashley ran a 4.889/311.34 with the expert tuning of his crew chief Brian Corradi and the added boost of new blowers developed in-house under the direction of Ashley's former Pro Modified crew chief Chuck Ford. Saturday qualifying saw Ashley make runs of 5.058/290.51 and 4.904/298.67, gathering data and preparing for racing on Sunday.

"There's no other track like this on the tour, and to be sitting number three after qualifying says so much for this crew. Other teams have two and three cars to gather data, but we're working on our own, and we are still running well," Ashley said.

"After that run last night, we knew we could use today to get information and prepare for Sunday, and I have to say we're really confident about where we are," he said.

Currently No. 3 in POWERade points, Ashley knows that every round is critical to be positioned in the top eight come the US Nationals in Indianapolis. With 690 points to his credit coming onto this weekend's event, Ashley is just one round win ahead of former champion Tony Pedregon, and the two are slated to meet in the opening round tomorrow.

"This is the time championships are made - when each round counts, and we all know that we have to keep our heads down and stay focused to advance. Tony is an awesome driver, so I know we'll have our hands full, but I feel really good about our warm-weather, high altitude tune up. We're ready for whatever happens tomorrow," he said.

Eliminations are scheduled to begin at noon Sunday, July 15.