Tasca Confident with New Leadership 

The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Team has new leadership, Crew Chief Marc Denner, as it gets ready to compete in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Summer Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Atlanta, Ga., May 16-18.

Owner/Driver Bob Tasca III said, “We’ve got to get this thing back on track in Atlanta. That’s the bottom line.”

DEARBORN, Mich., May 14, 2014 – The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Team has new leadership as it gets ready to compete in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Summer Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Atlanta, Ga., May 16-18.

Two weeks ago, after being eliminated in the first round of the NHRA SpringNationals in Houston, Tasca Racing released co-crew chief Chris Cunningham and gave the reins of the car to the team’s other co-crew chief, Marc Denner.

“Marc has been with our team for many years,” said team Owner/Driver Bob Tasca III. “I have full confidence in Marc.

“Recent results on the track have shown that we need to take the team in a different direction,” Tasca continued.

That new direction should become evident at the 34th annual NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta.

“We’ll keep swinging,” Tasca said. “There’s a lot of racing ahead of us. We’ve got to get this thing back on track in Atlanta. That’s the bottom line.”

In addition to the change in the crew chief’s office, Tasca said, “we’ll go through the normal service of all the parts and pieces (during the long layoff between races). We’re looking at some of our blowers. We want to go through our normal routine. I hate being off two weeks and not having the opportunity to go out and run the car.”

Before the starting line smoke in Houston, loss of traction mid-run had been keeping Tasca from getting down the track in recent races.

“We went into Houston trying to chain the car down a little,” he explained. “We’ve been smoking the tires through the middle of runs lately. We haven’t smoked the tires at the beginning of the throttle all year, so we’re going to throw that out the window and chalk it up to something track-related versus something race car-related.”

The action in Atlanta gets underway on Friday, May 16, at 5 p.m. ET at Atlanta Dragway. Qualifying can be seen May 17 on ESPN2 from 10 p.m. to midnight ET. Eliminations will air May 18 on ESPN2 from 7-10 p.m. ET.

For live updates, follow the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang team on Twitter (MQL_Racing) and Facebook (click on the “Twitter” icon). Follow driver Bob Tasca III on Twitter at @Tasca3 and Facebook.

Posted by: Tim Keenan