GAINESVILLE, FL – Starting Sunday in the quarterfinals, Joe Welch and his Joe Welch Racing Dodge Drag Pak picked up the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown victory at the season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway taking down Chevrolet COPO Camaros and Ford Mustang Cobra Jets along the way.

Welch would take the final round win from No. 1 qualifier Aaron Stanfield and his Janac Brothers Chevrolet COPO Camaro. Welch ran a 7.638-second pass at a Factory Stock Showdown speed record of 185.18 mph to defeat Stanfield’s 8.308 at 134.70 after he shut off early.

“I get to the finals so few times, you have to give it all you got. I am usually a little nervous, but not really too bad. I couldn’t explain why my car started darting around today but the guys figured it out. That last run it was straight as an arrow,” said Welch who has been to the finals three times in his career and picked up victories each time. “Aaron’s a good friend of mine and a great competitor. I knew that he’s good. I just knew I had to give him my best. The chips were going to fall where they may and this time the win light came on for me.”

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GAINESVILLE, FL – For the seventh time in his career Aaron Stanfield and the Janac Brothers Chevrolet COPO Camaro earned the No.1 qualifying spot. The two-time Factory Stock Showdown world champ captured the top spot Saturday at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in front of a sellout crowd. He would run a 7.655-second pass at 179.49 mph before picking up two round wins in the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown, a class that pits Chevrolet COPO Camaros, Ford Cobra Jets and Dodge Challenger Drag Paks against each other in heated competition.

“We only tested for a couple days so getting off to a good start was important for us,” said Stanfield, who still has the $1,000 Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Bounty program target on his back as the winner of the season-ending Texas NHRA FallNationals. “Friday we learned a few things on our runs and today it came together. This whole group is working really hard. We won the last race last year but that didn’t really give us momentum coming into this race. We just really put a lot of work in over the off-season and it looks like it has started to pay off this weekend, we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

In the first round, Stanfield would go 8.659-seconds at 175.73 mph to send Ingram home for the weekend. Stanfield followed up the victory with a 7.738 pass at 178.54 driving around Ricky Hord’s 8.016 at 167.24. Stanfield will have AJ Berge waiting for him on Sunday.

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GAINESVILLE, FL – The Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown once again begins its season at historic Gainesville Raceway, March 10-12 for the 54th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. After a lengthy off season, the heated competition between Chevrolet COPO Camaros, Ford Mustang Cobra Jets and Dodge Mopar Challenger Drag Paks will be front and center at a total of 10 NHRA national events in 2023. Last season David Barton dominated the end of the season to capture the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown championship winning two of the final three races of the season.

“It’s been a productive off-season for our team. We took some time to celebrate the championship, but we also made some improvements heading into 2023. We want to start this season at the same high-performance level we left with at the end of last year,” said Barton, who collected three wins in five final round appearances in 2022. “There’s heated competition in this category, we may not get enough credit for that, but there are guys out here going after it every weekend, not just one or two either but everybody. Now, this year, with 10 races to prove who deserves the title, it’s going to be even more exciting. I know I’m looking forward to it and where better to kick things off than a historic track like Gainesville.”

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