NHRA: Indy NHRA Chevy PST Qual Notes
5 September 1999
Following a two-month hiatus from Pro Stock Truck competition, the Chevy S-10 Pickups are back in dominating form, with MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, leading the pack after three qualifying sessions (7.623/176.58, both track records). Chevy S-10s hold the top eight positions, with two qualifying sessions remaining. BOB PANELLA, PANELLA MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, is second (7.643/176.42), and JOHN COUGHLIN, JEG'S MAIL ORDER CHEVY S-10, is third (7.663/175.55). OSBORNE: "It feels great to be back on track. We put together a superb team while we weren't racing. We took on a new guy, Ron Richards, who used to be crew chief for the Jeg's team. And Greg Rogers, who was with Mike Bell's Motown Missile Pro Stock car. Ron's come on as team manager, and we still have the doctor (Philip Surface, orthopedic surgeon), and the rest of the crew we had before. And we still have (Bill 'Grumpy') Jenkins' engines, which supply great power. Point blank, that's the key to the whole team." ON THAT RUN TO THE TOP: "I was the last truck in line to run. I knew the bump was 7.70 and I was sitting on the outside (not qualified with a 7.715). I knew I had to make some kind of run to get back in the show. We tested here last Tuesday and Wednesday. Tim (Freeman, teammate) ran a .64, and we ran a .64. The air and the clouds, it was overcast, were just like it is now. We knew we could do it. Tim may have hurt the motor tonight. We will get him repaired and get him in by tomorrow evening, hopefully. He's 19th right now." WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE TWO MONTHS OFF, BESIDES BUILDING A NEW CREW? "I went motocrossing with my son Zack for half a month, worked in my business the rest of the time (Earth Energy Inc. -- trucking and excavating), and did a lot of testing. Jenkins worked on the motors and he's really got this Chevy S-10 running good. Zack came in second in the nation out of 900 kids in the AMA National Motocross series. I'm very pleased. I hope he will have a good career racing motocross." PANELLA (who was No. 1 before Osborne made his pass): "I didn't know who had run or who hadn't run, I was just happy to have run that good. It might have a couple of more (hundredths of a second) left, I have to look at the computer. I might have missed a gear. The tuneup for tomorrow will be better. Maybe this is our best run, I don't know." WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE TWO MONTHS OFF? "We worked a lot on getting everything fresh and tried to test at the end, but the Sacramento track wasn't really conducive to doing too much on it. We just kind of put it back where we thought it would be and came here. We worked a lot on engines, but we didn't get to do as much testing as would have been nice. I didn't even think about going to Sears Point, Sacramento is usually pretty good. I didn't want to change my whole program for that place and come here and be in left field." ARE YOU GLAD TO BE RACING AGAIN? "Definitely. It hasn't been a big transition coming back. I thought I might be rusty, but everything seems to be going OK." RANDY DANIELS, DANIELS MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, is No. 7, 7.667/175.05. Daniels was No. 1 for two sessions. DANIELS: "We were just trying to make changes, we're hoping tomorrow will be the best pass of the weekend. We learned what not to do, we haven't yet learned what to do. In the first two runs we felt like we were doing real good, but we were disappointed with that last one. The track was a little better than we anticipated." WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR TWO-MONTH HIATUS? "We worked. We got a brand new motor together, but it turned out to not be better than what we have been running, so we're staying with Old Faithful." # # #
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