NHRA: Mike Edwards spins out on burnout
23 October 1999
In today's first qualifying session, MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO PERFORMANCE CAMARO Z28, winner of the last two events, spun sideways during his burnout, which oiled the track extensively, delaying what was to be a quick and fast session to reach the heat of the day. Edwards is No. 15 qualifier at this time, 6.934/198.50. EDWARDS: "The oil pressure relief valve came out of the oil pump, and it shot the oil everywhere and completely oiled the tires and the underneath of the Camaro. I'm glad it happened right there insted of at 200 mph. It would have taken me into the retainer wall. I'm really thankful. I'm sorry for the guys who were behind me because it was the best session, it messed it up for them. I didn't want to do it, I wanted to be as fast as they were going. That was a pretty serious oil-down for a Pro Stocker, I have to admit it. I told them I bet that will make (National) Dragster. There's not much you can do when you have oil on your tires, sliding around. It didn't hurt the engine, it just pumped all the oil out underneath the car. It didn't run long enough to hurt it, it had plenty of oil still left in it." PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 -- FIRST ROUND ELIMINATIONS LARRY KOPP, SPEEDCO TRUCK LUBE CHEVY S-10, defending event and Winston Champion, was eliminated in the first round by MIKE COUGHLIN, JEG'S MAIL ORDER CHEVY S-10. Both had excellent reaction times, but it was Coughlin with a quicker elapsed time and reaction time who took the win, 7.539/177.79, .416 R/T for Mike, 7.614/177.27, .421 R/T for Larry. KOPP: "I had a .420 light and I was late. A .420 would have been hard to beat, that's a seriously good light. This whole weekend we missed the combination to get this clutch right to get down the track fast, we just missed it. We ran good enough speed with this to run a tenth quicker than we were going. We thought we could run a .54 or a .53, but we didn't. We're hoping thsat it's something we can find that's easy, like a shock problem. We ran decent here. This was a fast field, we qualified 12th. Twelfth out of 38 isn't bad. It's hard enough to make the field here. The last session we started out sixth and wound up 12th. We have enough power under the hood of the Chevy S-10 to get a .55 or .54, but we didn't do it. For some reason we can't get a hold of the track like we're supposed to, and I don't know why. We did well in Topeka and Memphis, but here we're not running well on the first half of the track. NOTE: It's an all-Chevy S-10 field following the first round, as the only Dodge (Craig Eaton) was defeated by VINNY BARONE'S CHEVY S-10. SECOND ROUND: The championship chase is heating up with one race remaining in the Pro Stock Truck series following this weekend's event. MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, who led the standings from the second race of the season through the 11th, was defeated by his former teammate, TIM FREEMAN, driving Ruben Celedon's Chevy S-10, on a holeshot advantage: 7.628/176.26 for Freeman, .476 R/T; 7.563//178.35, .612 R/T for Osborne. He is now virtually out of the running. OSBORNE: "I don't know if the sun was worse when Randy (Daniels) ran three minutes behind me. I couldn't see anything on the left side. My guys, Greg Rogers, Philip Surface and Tommy Lee, and the main dude, Jim Kessinger, have given me every chance and opportunity that there is to be the Pro Stock Truck champion, and Mark Osborne himself didn't take full advantage of the situation, no doubt about it. I want to thank RCL Components, Kessinger Motorsports, Ace Racing Clutches, and all the other people who stood behind me in my drive to be the champ, and of course the two most important, the GM Raceshop and the Chevy S-10 brand team." ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP: "If Jeter loses I can get second, but I don't think I can get first. I should never have put myself in this situation. I had a 115-point lead, we had some personnel problems, this and that -- I'm not blaming anyone for that. I have super guys here now, we're ready to bounce back next year and do what we should have done this year. We will be the truck to contend with next year, and so will Stevie Johns' Chevy S-10, and his crew." BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10, advanced to the third round after defeating BRIAN SELF'S CHEVY S-10 in the first and GREG STANFIELD'S CHEVY S-10 in the second round. Jeter moves into second in the championship, behind BOB PANELLA, whom he'll face in the third round. JETER: "I knew it was a very, very, very important round. I think the pressure was on myself, Bobby Panella and Mark Osborne. We all knew that that round was very critical. I was late on the tree, but my Chevy S-10 saved me. The crew did a hell of a good job. Eight thousandths of a second, and we have lane choice going into tomorrow. I think it's going to be a very important part of determining this race tomorrow. We've been trying to put round wins together and so far so good, and I hope that we can get past that semifinal tomorrow, that's going to be awful tough. It's going to be a hell of a battle, you can't take anything away from him. He's going to be on his game, I hope to be on my game, we're going to duke it out and see who goes into the final round. It's a points game. Hopefully we can take him out and I know he'll try just as hard in the other lane to take me out. The crew has worked hard and stuck behind me and gave ma a great Chevy S-10 to race here. It pulled away at the other end. The guys at Grumpy Jenkins' shop did a great job too." RANDY DANIELS, DANIELS MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, set a new national speed record today with his 179.14 mph pass in the second round against BOB PANELLA. He lost that round to Panella's 7.578/177.13, .440 R/T, although he was quicker with his 7.540/179.14. His .497 reaction time resulted in a holeshot advantage for Panella. DANIELS: "The driver just went brain dead. The sun was bothering me, I got ready to stage and I couldn't see if he was pre-staged or whatever. I got ready to stage, I kept looking trying to tell if he was staged or not. After I finally realized he wasn't staged I finally staged, and my whole train of thought was broken. I just missed the tree, I was just late. I just want to crawl into a hole somewhere and hide. This Chevy S-10 has been so fast all weekend long to lose on a deal like that. Setting the national speed record will help to ease the pain, it will be nice to have bragging rights for the winter and going into Pomona with that. I'm going to go even faster in Pomona."