Bob Tasca III recorded just the third triple holeshot win in NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series history on Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, picking up his second career four-wide victory at the 24th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) also won at the fourth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Funny Car’s Tasca went 3.915s at 329.75mph in his Ford Mustang in a final quad that featured Austin Prock, reigning world champ Matt Hagan and Ron Capps. Tasca’s time was the slowest of the foursome, but his 0.034s reaction time made the difference, as he slipped past all three by a razor-thin margin to claim his first win of 2024 and the 16th in his career.
It was the first triple holeshot win in Funny Car history and Tasca needed every bit of his starting-line advantage to pick up a memorable victory in an incredible final round that is certainly one of the most thrilling in four-wide history.
“When I’m sitting here in lane one and looking at those grandstands full of people, it gives you butterflies because that’s why we do it,” Tasca said. “I knew I hit it good. 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.”
No. 1 qualifier Prock, who is also now the points leader, finished as the runner-up in his third trip to the finals this season, while Capps was third. Hagan, who posted the quickest run of the weekend in the category with a 3.895s at 328.54mph, was fourth.
In Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta was dominant on Sunday en route to his career four-wide win, going 3.715s at 333.58mph in his Mac Tools dragster to roll past Tony Stewart, Justin Ashley and Steve Torrence. Kalitta put together the quickest run in each of the three rounds, following up his No. 1 qualifier with a trio of spectacular runs on Sunday. It gives Kalitta 53 career victories and plenty of early-season momentum following his first championship. He picked up wins in each of the first two quads to advance to the loaded final round and, staying in the first lane all day, put together another great run to pick up another milestone first in his impressive career.
“That was a hell of a run and I was really happy to see that win light come on,” Kalitta said. “Obviously, those other three teams are all hungry and all running pretty strong. It was a super close race for all our cars and the fans got their money’s worth, and we came out with a win.