Carl Tasca of drag racing's legendary Tasca family, whose legacy in the sport dates back to the 1960s, claimed his biggest win ever as a driver at the NMCA All-Star Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. "This isn't just my biggest win – it's my only win," he modestly said. "I've won match races before, but I've never won a big event like this. I was always a test-aholic; I'd make run after run after run because I just like driving the car."

Tasca, the fifth and final member of the elite Holley EFI 7-Second Club, which is reserved for the first five Factory Super Car competitors to break into the seven-second zone at an official NMCA event, took down close friend Paul Roderick in a tight final-round match. At the wheel of a Ford Cobra Jet Mustang, the car his father, Bob Tasca I, was instrumental in developing more than half a century ago, he got the best of Roderick, who also drives a Cobra Jet powered by Holley EFI, 7.83 to Roderick's right-there 7.87. "I told Paul there's no one I'd rather race in the final round, and he told me there's no one he'd rather race than me," Tasca said. They blasted off the starting line almost simultaneously with Tasca in the lead by an imperceptible six-thousandths of a second, .064 to .070. Factoring in their reaction times, the margin of victory at the finish line was a scant 42-thousandths of a second.

The 7.83-7.87 match was the quickest side-by-side race of the entire eliminator, and Tasca's winning time was good for low e.t. of all of eliminations. Tasca qualified in the No. 2 spot behind NHRA Gatornationals runner-up Bill Skillman and easily won the first round over Glenn Pushis' '16 Camaro. Pushis broke, giving Tasca a free ride into the quarterfinals but the Tasca Ford would've been a handful even if Pushis had been in the other lane with a 7.85, low e.t. of the entire round. Following a tight second-round win over Tripp Carter, 7.87 to 7.89, Tasca, granted a semifinal bye run because he qualified so high, carried the front end off the line and eventually had to lift, coasting to a 10.37 that set up the titanic final-round clash with Roderick, who turned back Skillman in the other semifinal heat.

"The Holley EFI system responded to every little change we made," Tasca said. "We tried to get after it a little in the semifinals and it turned out to be too much – that's why it did the wheelie – but it calmed right back down for the final and ran great. It's a great system. It just does what it's supposed to do. To run that good in that much humidity was unbelievable."