NHRA: Pro Stock Trucks: Greg Stanfield No. 1 for first time
8 October 2000
GREG STANFIELD, BDP ENTERPRISES CHEVY S-10, qualified No. 1 for the first time in his Pro Stock Truck career, setting track and national elapsed time and speed records with his 7.438-second lap at 180.69 mph. He will receive 20 bonus points if he is able to hold on to the elapsed time record throughout eliminations. Cold 50-degree temperatures benefited Stanfield, but adversely affected favored top qualifiers BOB PANELLA JR., PANELLA TRUCKING CHEVY S-10, and RANDY DANIELS, BAILEY TRUCKING CHEVY S-10. The 16-truck Pro Stock Truck field is the quickest in NHRA history, and the first all-7.4 field: from Stanfield's 7.438/180.69 to Brian Self's 7.494/178.66. STANFIELD: "I think we hit on the right combination for this track. Luckily we have been able to use these conditions where you have way more power than you have track to our benefit. We were also able to run pretty close to the same elapsed times in both lanes." ON FIRST NO. 1: "It feels good, but I would trade No. 1 qualifier for going a few rounds tomorrow. I've been in a slump. Everybody on the crew has got the same goal, to get our Chevy S-10 up front. It looks like we've done it." WHAT DID YOU DO RIGHT? "I think my combination for this particular weather suits our truck. And I've got a lot of experience on this track. I raced here a lot of years in the Sportsman ranks. It's been pretty good to me." ON ELIMINATIONS: "When you have a performance advantage you don't want to get screwed up on the starting line. I'm not worrying about tomorrow. I'm just going to do my job, cut a (good) light and go straight and hopefully win a round." ON THIS TRACK: "It has a real narrow groove. The track is really good at about 200 feet out, and it's really loose out on the track in both lanes. We will go out and look at the track in the morning. Our setup is real conservative, so it should go down pretty well. The driver just needs to do his job, or he's going to get fired." PANELLA (No. 9, 7.470/179.25): "It's frustrating. It's just too much power. The guys who have high horsepower can't get down the track. Randy and I have more power than anyone here and we can't get down the race track. It's real hard to harness. We shine in hot weather, but we come here and the race track is freezing cold and the horsepower is tremendous and we can't control it. When the weather takes the power away it's easier to control this S-10. Here we are getting more horsepower than we need. It's hard for me to accept it, that's the problem. I'd like to tell myself I'm smarter than that, that I can figure it out, but it's tough, it really is." ON STARTING NINTH: "I won Indy from ninth. That's a good place. I can't wait to get back where it's hot and sunny. In the meantime we will do our best; that's all we can do." DANIELS (No. 6, 7.464/179.68): WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FINAL SESSION (15.270/52.66)?: "What a day. All I can say is that I was luckier this time than I was at Indy. At least it didn't wait to break in the first round. It's a rear-end this time, the ring-and-pinion. It's like a repeat of Indy. You leave the starting line real hard, with the wheels up in the air, and it doesn't go very hard, it just rolls over. It's like you slammed on the brakes and your body heads for the windshield. At least we're racing and now maybe with a new fresh rear-end it will get me through four rounds of competition." TOO MUCH HORSEPOWER? "I didn't get to find out. I didn't get very far. I wouldn't say that having too much horsepower is a problem. Maybe it's not having the handling for the race track figured out." PRO STOCK: KURT JOHNSON NOT QUALIFIED; FIRST TIME SINCE E'TOWN IN '99 KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, failed to qualify for the first time since Englishtown, N.J., in 1999. Kurt struggled all weekend to get down this cold track, but could only muster 20th spot with a 6.905/200.41 in the quickest Pro Stock field in NHRA history: from Scott Geoffrion's 6.809/201.43 to Darrell Alderman's 6.880/199.79. Only one Camaro Z28 made it into the field: RICKIE SMITH, BUCKS COUNTY KAWASAKI CAMARO Z28, in 10th, 6.845/200.35. KURT: "I don't know what's going on. There was too much traction this morning and tonight the track was so cold it was just spinning and shaking. I haven't made a good run all weekend. The Camaro has not been smooth. I was down on power the first run, and then it didn't seem to want to run last night. I changed carburetion around and didn't get the run in this morning because it shook. I think we had an electrical problem yesterday. We changed all the electrical stuff. It seemed better today. This morning it was out of control. Tonight it was running 6.90 down a lane that nobody could get down." ON FIRST NON-QUALIFYNG SINCE LAST YEAR: "I want a provisional. We are fighting for No. 2 in points. It hurts, but it's not going to kill us. We won't know for four races. This Camaro has been doing well, but the conditions here are so unique. We haven't run this car under these conditions all year and we are not the only ones having problems shaking out there. There is so much traction under these conditions. If I would have been in the left lane I would have been in the show." FUNNY CAR: FOUR CAMAROS IN, FOUR CAMAROS OUT Four Camaro Z28 Funny Cars qualified in the 16-car field: * WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/MATCO TOOLS CAMARO Z28, is No. 3, 4.876/302.21 * RON CAPPS, U.S. TOBACCO CO. CAMARO Z28, is No. 4, 4.893/302.89. In the final session Bazemore and Capps had a close side-by-side run, both posting their lowest elapsed times of the weekend. Capps' Camaro suffered a small fire at the finish line. * SCOTTY CANNON, MAD SCIENTIST CAMARO Z28, is No. 7, 4.920/308.85 * JIM EPLER, WWF RACING 'STONE COLD' CAMARO Z28, is No. 11, 4.971/295.53 Not qualifying were: * PHIL BURKART JR., TEAM GERONIMO CAMARO Z28, No. 17. * LOUIS SWEET, CAMARO Z28, No. 18 * BOB GILBERTSON, TRICK TANK CAMARO Z28, No. 19 * CRISTEN POWELL, BAZEMORE RACING'S NITROFISH CAMARO Z28, No. 20. CAPPS: "It exploded right at the finish line. We're not sure why. It was running pretty good until then. We thought it would run better, but the track started to cool down so fast. You get to a certain point where the track conditions get too cold and you always hear that the crew chiefs like it to be cold; but that was beyond it. We're very happy. We're fighting for second place with Jerry Toliver. If we both make a pass in the first round we will meet in the second round and that will be pivotal. It's the kind of thing you look for as a driver: three races left in the season to try to finish as strong as you can. That's what we're trying to do right now."