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Justin Ashley qualified No. 11 in Top Fuel with a 3.799-second pass at 320.74 mph and faced No. 4 qualifier Tony Stewart in the first round of eliminations. Ashley delivered the quickest reaction time of the entire Top Fuel field on race day with a .035 light. Ashley crossed the finish line in 3.826 seconds at 320.74 mph, but Stewart\u2019s 3.712-second run at 336.91 mph was enough to advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed we fell short in the first round, but there\u2019s a lot to feel good about leaving Sonoma,\u201d said Ashley. \u201cWe made three consistent runs down the racetrack. That\u2019s important for us. Now we can take this information and tinker with it to get us where we\u2019d like to be. There are three races before the countdown. It\u2019s critical that we use this time to get our Scag Power Equipment dragster running well when it matters most. That\u2019s our goal for all of the SCAG dealers, distributors, and employees who support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Richards qualified his Bluebird Turf Funny Car No. 11 with a 3.966-second pass at 329.50 mph and was set to face No. 6 qualifier Spencer Hyde in the first round. After completing his burnout, Richards\u2019 Funny Car was unable to engage a gear, resulting in a timeout before he could stage. Hyde advanced by default.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one definitely stings because our Bluebird Turf team had a race car capable of making some noise today,\u201d said Richards. \u201cSometimes this sport throws things at you that are completely out of your control, and unfortunately today it happened at the worst possible time. I hate it for everyone on this team because they work incredibly hard, along with all of our SCAG dealers who were here supporting us all weekend. We\u2019ll put this behind us, get back to work, and show up in Seattle ready to race.\u201d<\/p>\n Top Fuel rookie Will Smith qualified No. 13 with a 3.840-second pass at 326.32 mph and was scheduled to race No. 2 qualifier Shawn Langdon in the opening round. However, an ignition issue developed Sunday morning in the pits, forcing the Bluebird Turf team into a frantic thrash that ultimately included an engine change. Despite the team\u2019s efforts and assistance from teammates across the SCAG Racing organization, Smith was unable to make the call for first-round eliminations, allowing Langdon to advance.<\/p>\n \u201cTough day here in Sonoma,\u201d said Smith. \u201cUnfortunately, we missed first round this morning after chasing an ignition issue that developed in the pits. Our Bluebird Turf team worked relentlessly trying to diagnose the problem, and when we made the decision to swap engines at the last minute, we simply ran out of time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge disappointment because everyone on this team pours their heart into giving us the best chance to compete. I can\u2019t thank our entire Bluebird Turf crew enough for never giving up, and a big thank you to all of our SCAG Racing teammates who dropped what they were doing to come help us thrash. That\u2019s what being part of this SCAG organization is all about. To all of our SCAG dealers, customers, and fans who came out to Sonoma, I\u2019m truly sorry we weren\u2019t able to put on a show for you. We appreciate all of your support, and we are proud to have you on the team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll take what we learned, regroup, and get ready for Seattle in a few days. We\u2019ll be back.\u201dSCAG Racing now heads directly to Pacific Raceways for the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, where the team will look to build on Wilkerson\u2019s runner-up finish and carry its momentum into the second race of the Western Swing.<\/p>\n This story was originally published on July 22, 2026. The post Daniel Wilkerson Leads SCAG Racing to Final Round at NHRA Sonoma Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Daniel Wilkerson and his SCAG Power Equipment Funny Car team turned in one of their strongest performances of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season so far on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, driving the Ford Mustang Funny Car to a runner-up finish to lead SCAG Racing at the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. Wilkerson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Will-Smith.jpg\")
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