Mike Ashley Helps Missouri Family with $250,000,
Teammate Melanie Troxel Grab No. 1 Qualifying Spot
He's used to hanging around drag racing tracks, but not to presenting
$250,000 to anyone. But that was one of the good things that happened to Mike
Ashley Friday before he even went to Gateway International Raceway to begin
qualifying for the O'Reilly Midwest Nationals.
"Everybody has been asking me how I feel about that," he said of the large
check given to Amanda and Wesley Michno of St. Clair, Mo., Friday morning.
They were the fortunate family chosen to receive the top prize in Lend America'
s "Homefree Mortgage Giveaway."
"It felt great to be able to help the Michno family. They had a 100 percent
mortgage on their house and they weren't able to refinance. They called
(Lend America) and we entered them in the "Homefree Mortgage Giveaway." They
were one of 30,000 people -- imagine those odds -- and they won. It was so
great to see them with their three beautiful children. They were so happy to get
that money.
"There was a lot of attention around it," continued Ashley. "It's going
to be on 'Inside Edition' Monday night. But at the end of the day, the truth
of the matter is it's with God's help that we were able to do that. It
felt really good."
That good feeling continued when qualifying began, especially when he was
able to help Melanie Troxel take the first-day Funny Car qualifying lead.
Ashley, co-owner of Gotham City Racing with Roger Burgess, pointed out that
his decision to step into the Lend America/Gotham City Racing Dodge R/T Funny
Car at Gateway is already beginning to show results. Ashley was 13th with a
best of 4.923 seconds and made his run before Troxel.
"First, I am confident my Funny Car will qualify Saturday," he said. "This
is exactly why we run two cars. I went down the track and we got some
information. We were able to relay that information to her team before her run and
Melanie was able to parlay that in to the No. 1 qualifying position.
"I've always said that we have the best team out here and there is something
special about a team that goes through real tough times and shows their
character when they get up off the canvas like that and qualify No. 1."
Ashley and Troxel will be back on the track Saturday for their final two
qualifying runs.
-credit: www.GothamCityRacing.com.
