At the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway, veteran Pro Modified pilot and former U.S. Nationals Funny Car champ Mike Ashley made his return to the drivers seat of professional drag racing competition, and did so by making his very first start in a Top Fuel Dragster, driving the Top Fuel Dragster owned by Dexter Tuttle and sponsored by Liquid MPG.

During the second session of Top Fuel qualifying, while paired up alongside Pat Dakin, Ashley made his presence known in exciting and butt-puckering fashion to the veteran Top Fuel racer.

After both cars charged hard to around half track, the engine in Ashley’s dragster began to drop multiple cylinders with a big flash of flame as the pair neared the stripe. As the scoreboards lit up, Dakin recorded a 3.95 at a slowing 278 MPH that put him 18th in the qualifying order, while Ashley’s quicker elapsed time was tossed after the zamboni was called upon to clean up his mess. But the elapsed times were the least of either drivers’ worries as they tossed the laundry, as Ashley’s dropped cylinders forced him toward a collision course with Dakin’s Commercial Metal Fabrications dragster. Dakin, a four-decade veteran of top Fuel racing, hardly flinched as Ashley came within feet of sideswiping him at well over 200 MPH. Ashley was quickly able to reign his machine in without incident, but it certainly made for a great television highlight, and one that’s even more intense from the onboard camera.