Update From the Drag Strip
Written by Sheila Scarborough · June 11, 2007
A busy week just wrapped up in the NHRA….
and I was pretty much out of it as I wrestled with some article deadlines. My apologies to FM readers, and I certainly plan to have it all together by the race at Englishtown.
The big news was business-related, and fortunately David Lamm was more locked in about it than I was. If you haven’t already, take a look at his analysis of the partnership between the NHRA and HD Partners, and what it means for the future of the POWERade series and sportsman racing.
The 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals wrapped up in Illinois this past weekend, with wins by Larry Dixon, Gary Scelzi, Jeg Coughlin and Andrew Hines.
Dixon’s long drought (last Wally was September 2005) is finally over, with a win over “Hot Rod” Fuller and a first victory for his new SkyTel sponsor. Fuller did regain the Top Fuel points lead, since Brandon Bernstein DNQ’d.
Pole winner Scelzi and Ron Capps battled in the Funny Car final, with the soon-to-retire “Wild Thing” pulling out the win.
“[Crew chief] Mike Neff and I were talking up there in the lounge and we said, ‘Wait a minute, Capps and those guys have been quicker than us all day long. We’ve been going down the race track and we kind of know what everybody is doing because we are all talking,” said Scelzi. “And Zippy [Neff] said, ‘Man, I hate to throw it away’. I said, ‘Who cares, we made it to the final, we’re going to be third in points no matter what happens. Let’s go and see if we can throw something at them.’ So we stepped on it from half-track on because that’s where our car normally really thumps.
“I was able to leave with Capps because he’s awesome on the tree. We were pretty equal and when we got off the concrete onto the asphalt that’s where the big dog started to eat. We were actually still a little bit conservative. We thought about going out there and trying to run a .75 and just go out there and hurt their feelings, but we didn’t want to throw it away. So, we thought, ‘Well, let’s just get after it a little bit. We’ll see if it sticks and if it does it will be a hell of a race,’ and it was.”
A surprise DNQ from Robert Hight helped to open up the field.
Jeggy Coughlin actually beat tree expert Jason Line for the Pro Stock win, and Andrew Hines put on a Pro Stock Motorcycle show for the many Harley-Davidson executives and employees at the race.
In a side note, Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps participated in NASCAR driver Tony Stewart’s charity fundraiser race at the dirt track Eldora Speedway in western Ohio; yep, they had to drive a little further than a quarter mile. The Cruzer was 19th, and Capps finished last with mechanical problems. Both actually did better than their official results would indicate, particularly in qualifying heats and the “B” consolation race.
Here’s some Q&A with Capps post-race:
Q. You beat household names such as Kevin Harvick and Juan Montoya and did a good job holding off a hard-charging Bill Elliott for a while. How did that feel?
A. I knew the talent in my heat was like a Who’s Who and I knew that those guys would be coming. It’s kind of like drag racing, you don’t know the conditions of the track, how they groomed the track in between. I just tried to hang on in each heat. The car was not as good in the second heat as it was earlier in the night. It was real loose and I had to get through that heat without spinning and wrecking, which we did.
Every year when I come back to this race it blows me away to be able to race with those guys and, not just that, to be in the relaxed atmosphere with them. It takes a lot of the pressure off, but at the same time, I have to remember that I’m racing Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya, some of the best drivers in the world. It’s always good to finish and then go to the paddock and see the guys who were behind you. That means you didn’t finish last.
Q. You have been invited to all three Preludes by track owner Tony Stewart. How important is the event to you?
A. It means a lot. The invitation alone means more than anything to me personally, and the trust that Tony Stewart has in me to race with those guys. It isn’t just a celebrity race in stock cars, these are full-fledged Late Models that are going to be racing in one of their biggest races of the year this coming weekend, called The Dream. This Prelude to The Dream is like one of these guys coming over and jumping into an NHRA Pro Stock car. It’s a pretty stout deal. The amount of faith Tony has to put a drag racer in it not knowing what experience I have, is in itself a huge compliment.
Q. Did you feel you had to prove that drag racers are racers like anyone else on any surface?
A. I kind of always feel that way. When you go there you always feel you have to prove something. But I really honestly just wanted to have a good showing every year. Every time I go do something away from drag racing, I try to represent NHRA in a very good light. I want people to know that a lot of drag racers can do more than just go straight.
Q. Will you do this again?
A. Yeah, absolutely, if Tony keeps calling every year.
Q. Without mirrors on the car, how did you avoid crashing?
A. That was the other thing that was funny. Montoya, J.J. Yeley and Jeff Gordon were talking about that exact thing. Ryan Newman got into Bill Elliott and that was a pretty bad-looking crash, and the reason was these guys didn’t have spotters like they’re used to and the cars don’t have mirrors on them. So, you have to remember what kind of car you’re in, and how big the car is around you, so it was a big adjustment. I’ve gotten used to it, but I might have an advantage because in Funny Car I have a guy in front of me backing me up, and we don’t have rearview mirrors or even a back window on our Brut Dodge charger body.
Q. How did the NASCAR drivers treat you?
A. Every year it’s been great and the best part is, a lot of these guys often talk about the NHRA race they watched the last weekend on ESPN2. How much they know about our sport is huge. Everyone treated us really good.
Q. How was it racing against Cruz Pedregon?
A. I was really proud of how he did. It was one of the first times he’s been in a Late Model, and he did a great job to represent our sport. In the B-main we were both in the front row and it was cool. I looked over and gave him a little hand-wave signal and later on he told me that that was the coolest thing in the world.
Q. Are you now more eager than ever to compete in other series?
A. Yeah, I always am. But I have to start to be more choosy about what I do. To be honest with you, I watch things like lawn-mower races on ESPN2 and I want to get in one. It’s a bad habit, I think, and I need to pick and choose my rides, because we have a championship to focus on in NHRA, and you can get hurt so easily in some of these things.
Q. How does team owner Don Schumacher feel about your detour to the Prelude before this weekend’s race in Joliet?
A. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see the show on HBO, but of course he knew I was doing it. He read a report on NHRA.com the next morning and it didn’t sound very good from what was posted. Don had a party on Thursday night at his house for all the sponsors, employees and friends, and he found out what really happened and he was much happier.
Q. What else did you want to add?
A. I’m really bummed at the way that we finished. I’ve been used to such a good finish the last two years and I was disappointed. It’s been kind of eating at me last couple of days, that’s how badly I wanted to do well. The bottom line is it was a fun event, and a great deal for me to be involved in helping Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang and the Tony Stewart Foundation. It was well worth it.
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