The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Tasca III pulls off rare triple holeshot win at Las Vegas
Bob Tasca III recorded just the third triple holeshot win in NHRA history on Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, picking up his second career four-wide Funny Car victory at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
Tasca drove 3.915 seconds at 329.75 mph in his 1Ford Mustang in a final quad that featured Austin Prock, reigning champ Matt Hagan and Ron Capps. Tasca’s time was the slowest of the foursome, but his .034 reaction time made the difference, as he slipped past all three by a razon-thin margin to claim his first win of the season and the 16th in his career.
It was the first triple holeshot win in Funny Car history, and Tasca needed every bit of his startingline advantage.
“I knew I hit it good.” Tasca said. “I didn’t know how good, but it was a great light, great car, great setup, and it’s exactly what we needed to do this weekend.
“When you put together a final round where there’s one Ford, one Dodge, one Toyota, one Chevy, that why we do it. It’s the only reason we come out here to win for all our Ford fans all around the world. That’s going to go down as one of the best final rounds in Funny Car history. We’ve got a team that can compete for the championship and I promise you we will.”
Prock, who took over as the points leader, finished in second, followed by Capps in third and Hagan in fourth
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) also won at the fourth of 20 events on the NHRA schedule.
Kalitta was dominant in outracing Tony Stewart, points leader Justin Ashley and Steve Torrence for his 53rd career victory.
Coughlin, a five-time world champion, earned his first win in nearly four years and 66th overall by edging out points leader Erica Enders, Jerry Tucker and Brandon Foster.