Zizzo Falls to Ashley in SummerNats Final, Qualifies 10th for Big Go at Indy

CLERMONT, IN – After a record-tying 48 days, the final round of the Lucas Oil NHRA SummerNationals was run at last Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway. Unfortunately for TJ Zizzo and the Rust-Oleum Rocket crew, they ran runner-up to fellow first-time NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel finalist Justin Ashley. Both cars had issues during their respective passes, but Ashley was able to move past Zizzo’s 4.056-second lap at 276.75 mph with a run of 3.958 seconds at 267.96 mph.

While appreciating and enjoying the ride to his first-ever final round, Zizzo was to the point after returning to the Rust-Oleum pit.

“We’re going to find out what broke, I’m sure something broke to cause this thing to go ka-boom, it’s just disheartening,” he said.

Despite a schedule of only three or four races per season, Zizzo Racing meets twice a week every week to work on the race car. Adding in almost full-time hours for himself and the team just on the car and all holding down full-time “day jobs,” the volunteer squad works as hard as their NHRA peers for far fewer races.

Zizzo was uncharacteristically muted after the loss.

“You know, I’m not at a loss for words very often,” he said. “I enjoy what I do, I enjoy the team my dad and I have gathered. They work hard regardless of the outcome. We know this is part of the outcome sometimes, right? But I’ve never been defeated with a fireball at the same time. I guess if you’re going to lose, you might as well do it spectacularly.

“It’s just all disappointing,” Zizzo continued. “We work awfully hard at this. People don’t know. You sometimes wonder, you really do, why. Why do I spend time away from my kids, my wife, things that are dear to me, sometimes I wonder that. It’s hard.”

While not the way he wanted to finish Saturday’s on-track action, Zizzo gets a rare second chance to win his first Wally on the same weekend. The Rust-Oleum Rocket qualified 10th for the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA US Nationals Sunday. He faces the No. 7 qualifier, Antron Brown.

Zizzo By The Numbers:

Q1: 3.769 seconds at 327.43 mph
Q2: 9.116 seconds at 76.96 mph
Q3/SummerNats E4: 4.056 seconds at 276.75 mph, loss to Justin Ashley’s 3.958 seconds at 267.96 mph

Eliminations for the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA US Nationals kick off Sunday at 10 a.m.