BackstretchMotorsports.com

November 6, 2007

News Briefs: Ashley Wins NHRA ROTY, Haas Sentenced, "Driver 8" Sees Close to an Era

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Ashley Force named 2007 Rookie of the Year
Castrol GTX Ford Driver Joins List That Includes Bernstein, Line, Hight and Todd

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Ashley Force, 24, applied a measure of positive energy to a difficult season Monday when she accepted the Automobile Club of Southern California’s 2007 Road to the Future Award as the professional Rookie-of-the-Year in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

The daughter of injured icon John Force accepted a check for $20,000 from the Auto Club before crediting her father, her family and her team, especially crew chiefs Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Ron Douglas, for a history-making first season at the wheel of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

Although she missed two races, one following the death last March of teammate Eric Medlen and the other after her father suffered the most serious crash of his 32-year career, the graduate of Cal State-Fullerton made history last month at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where she became the first woman to race in a Funny Car final in a national series.

In addition to her performance at LVMS, where she was beaten in the money round by newly-crowned series champion Tony Pedregon, she went to the semifinals on three other occasions, qualified No. 2 three times and finished No. 10 in the driver standings, insuring her a position, on stage, with her father and brother-in-law (Robert Hight) during Monday’s NHRA award ceremonies at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

The elder Force, who is recovering from multiple injuries suffered in a Sept. 23rd crash at Dallas, Texas, finished seventh in points even though he missed the season’s last three races. Hight, driver of the Auto Club Ford, insured his second consecutive No. 2 finish by winning Sunday’s Auto Club Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Ashley, who distinguished herself in the Top Alcohol Dragster class before moving up to the Funny Car division this year, was one of five rookie racers nominated for the award including Pro Stock drivers Justin Humphreys, Craig Hankinson and Matt Scranton. The fifth nominee was Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Barry Henson.

“For more than 100 years the Auto Club has represented integrity, commitment, and professionalism to our millions of members,” said president and CEO Tom McKernan. “The Road to the Future Award has come to symbolize these same attributes in the sport of NHRA POWERade Drag Racing.”

Ashley is only the 10th woman in NHRA history to compete in Funny Car division and only the second to advance as far as the semifinals. She was the first woman to compete in the division since Cristen Powell in 2000.

In 2002, the Automobile Club’s Road to the Future Award and the NHRA Rookie of the Year Award were combined to create one award recognizing the future stars of the sport.

Past winners include Pedregon (1996, Funny Car), Ron Capps (1997, Funny Car), Doug Kalitta (1998, Top Fuel), Antron Brown (1999, Pro Stock Motorcycle), Melanie Troxel (2000, Top Fuel), G.T. Tonglet (2001, Pro Stock Motorcycle), Gene Wilson (2002, Pro Stock), Brandon Bernstein (2003, Top Fuel), Jason Line (2004, Pro Stock), Hight (2005, Funny Car), and J.R. Todd (2006, Top Fuel).

More than 100 of the nation's most distinguished auto racing journalists annually select the winner through a voting system based on the following criteria: number of events participated, performance on and off the racetrack, participation in NHRA promotions, and relationships with fans, sponsors, and media.

In addition to the Road to the Future Award, the Auto Club is a major sponsor of John Force Racing, Inc., is the title sponsor for the Automobile Club of Southern California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Holley and the presenting sponsor for The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.

Team owner Gene Haas gets two years in prison in tax fraud

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A NASCAR team owner was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of more than $34 million in taxes.

Gene Haas, the 54-year-old owner of Oxnard-based Haas Automation and NASCAR's Haas CNC Racing, was ordered to begin serving his term on Jan. 14, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Haas pleaded guilty in August to a felony conspiracy charge for orchestrating a plan to list bogus expenses that could be written off as business costs and save Haas Automation millions in taxes. The company makes computerized machine tools.

As part of his plea agreement, Haas paid a $5 million fine, plus more than $70 million in back taxes and interests.

"Mr. Haas has now paid the government more than twice the amount of taxes he attempted to avoid paying," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said in a statement.

"This huge monetary penalty, as well as the two-year prison term, should reassure law-abiding citizens that tax evasion can and will be rooted out, and that there are significant ramifications for those who attempt to cheat the government," he said.

Dale Jr. Sees The End of an Era Drawing Closer; Phoenix Holds Many Good Memories

"It's really getting down to the end of a great era. I can't explain how much fun I've had working with these guys on my team. That's one of the bad things about moving on (to a new team) at the end of the year. I'm looking forward to my new deal, but it's also really tough to leave these guys. We've done it twice before at Phoenix when we needed a win and we need one now. Our Car of Tomorrow program has been superb, so we expect to go in there and be fast like we have been everywhere else. I'd like to keep my streak going (Dale Jr. has won a race in seven consecutive seasons but has yet to score a victory this year), but most of all I want to win one for my fans and for these guys. It's been a rough season to get out of the car at the end of each race and know everyone poured everything into that car but we've still not won one."

His victory in 2003 was a long-overdue win at the one-mile oval, but the 2004 victory at Phoenix was more dramatic for several reasons. It was the sixth and final victory of the Bud team's most successful season, and marked their second win in the inaugural Chase for the Championship. Dale Jr. led 118 laps, but had to fight back to the front from 11th place after a late pit stop based on fuel strategy which paid-off. However, the win came one week after a late-race crash at Atlanta when Carl Edwards took out the Bud car, essentially ending their bid for a championship that season. The tension within the team was very high (and would later be cited as a key reason for the disastrous decision to "swap" teams for 2005), yet they pulled together to grab a victory and - mathematically at least - keep themselves in the hunt for the title. Dale Jr. would end-up a career-best third place in points at the end of the 2004 Chase.

It also marked the second year of what had become a Phoenix -ahem- "tradition" of enthusiastic female fans providing a live version of "Girls Gone Wild" for Driver #8 and the assembled media... When the first 'incident' took place in 2003, Dale Jr. paused and then delivered a line with the dead-on accuracy of a veteran comic... "I guess the NASCAR demographics are changing...," he muttered to a stunned media corps who responded with uproarious laughter.

Dale Jr. always dislikes the long flights to the west coast, and only victory makes it tolerable: "It's that long trip out here and back. If you don't bring home the trophy, it's a long ride home. When we come to the west coast we want to showcase our abilities and our talents out here. It's just great to win here. The team did a great job. I was really surprised at how good a racecar it really was. There at the end, to get by those guys was effortless. The car was just awesome. I just had to make sure I didn't get run into or spun out or do anything foolish like I did last week. I had a great car and we won the race and I'm real proud of my team. I can't say enough about this effort. I'm really proud of my team. I'm really lucky to race and make a living with people I enjoy being with."