Daniel Wilkerson and the SCAG Power Equipment Ford Mustang team earned their first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the season on Saturday while qualifying for the American Rebel Light Beer NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, just outside of Richmond.
Wilkerson faced off against three-time world champion Ron Capps in the final round of the challenge and powered the SCAG Mustang to the quickest pass of the third qualifying session – 4.038 seconds at 320.74 mph. Capps put down a clean but slightly slower run of 4.063 seconds at 315.12 mph.
“I’m just so proud of this whole SCAG Ford team,” said Wilkerson, who picked up three bonus championship points and a cash prize for the win. “I feel like I’ve hosed this a couple times, and my team has been working through it so well. I’m so blessed, I’m so lucky to get to work with SCAG Power Equipment, Summit, Ford. My family isn’t here; they were there in Bristol. I put them through a lot of crap doing this and I’m sad they aren’t here, but I guess it just means we have to win the thing again next week in Norwalk, Ohio.”
Earlier in the day, Wilkerson opened the challenge with a rematch of his Thunder Valley Nationals semifinal against Paul Lee. Wilkerson laid down his quickest pass of qualifying – a 4.022 at 320.36 mph – to advance past Lee, who shut off early and coasted to a 4.521 at 191.43 mph.
Heading into Sunday eliminations, Wilkerson is qualified No. 4 and will face his teammate Dave Richards, who is seeded 13th after a 4.267-second pass in qualifying for the BlueBird Turf / Versatran team. In Top Fuel, the SCAG Toyota dragster driven by Justin Ashley is qualified No. 9, and will take on Doug Foley in the first round.
Eliminations begin Sunday at 10:00 a.m. CST at the Virginia Nationals. Fans can catch qualifying coverage on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) at 1:00 p.m. CST, with eliminations airing on the FOX Broadcasting Network at 3:00 p.m. CST.
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