Q&A: Mike Neff, crew chief on Gary Scelzi's HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE NEFF, CREW CHIEF ON THE HEMI-POWERED OAKLEY DODGE
STRATUS FUNNY CAR DRIVEN BY GARY SCELZI

Mike Neff, 38, is in his fourth year with Don Schumacher Racing and his
third as a crew chief. This is his 13th season as a crew member on the NHRA
circuit and he is one of the youngest crew chiefs in the NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series.

In 2001, Neff was assistant crew chief on the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Funny
Car, driven by Whit Bazemore. He was elevated in 2002 to crew chief for the
Oakley Time Bomb Funny Car, driven by Scotty Cannon.

In 2003 he was assigned as crew chief on the Oakley Dodge Stratus driven by
newcomer to the team Gary Scelzi. The pair dominated the speed charts that
year, setting a national speed record of 329.18 mph, as well as posting the
five top Funny Car speeds in NHRA history in one season.

The power pair continued its dominance in 2004 in the HEMI-powered Oakley
Dodge Stratus by becoming the first driver/team to break the 330-mph mark,
establishing a new national speed record of 330.55 mph at Route 66 Raceway
in Joliet, Ill.

Neff's career started with Larry Minor Motorsports in 1992 as a mechanic on
Cruz Pedregon's Funny Car. He was part of Joe Gibbs Racing from 1995-2000
with Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan.

The teams he worked for from 1992-2004 have so far captured 40 NHRA
national-event wins, including five wins at the prestigious U.S. Nationals.

A native of Hemet, Calif., Neff resides in Indianapolis with wife Michelle,
son Chase, 5, and daughter Chloe, 1. Michelle is a lawyer in the
Indianapolis area.

Currently, Scelzi stands second in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Funny Car points, 206 behind John Force and 21 ahead of his teammate, Whit
Bazemore, with five races remaining, including this weekend's O'Reilly NHRA
Nationals at the Texas Motorplex outside of Dallas.

MIKE NEFF:

1. HOW DID YOU GET THE NICKNAME ZIPPY? DID IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH GARY
SCELZI'S FRIENDSHIP WITH TONY STEWART, WHOSE CREW CHIEF GREG ZIPADELLI IS
ALSO CALLED ZIPPY?

A. No, I had my nickname since I was a kid, for as long as I can remember.
The coincidental thing was when I worked for Joe Gibbs on the McDonald's
Dragster from 1995 through 2001, they hired Greg Zipadelli, and his nickname
was Zippy also. So, there were two Zippys at Gibbs Racing. That was kind of
funny. I met Greg during that period and had seen him at a couple of the
Gibbs' Christmas parties and when I'd be at the shop in North Carolina.

2. YOU WERE PUT INTO THE CREW CHIEF ROLE, AFTER BEING AN ASSISTANT ON WHIT
BAZEMORE'S FUNNY CAR, FIRST ON SCOTTY CANNON'S CAR AND FINALLY ON GARY
SCELZI'S CAR. WERE YOU READY FOR THAT?

A. When Don Schumacher decided to add Scotty Cannon to the team in 2002 with
the Oakley sponsorship to run another car I had been working as the
assistant crew chief on Bazemore's car. We intended to run the cars the
same. Schumacher and Whit's crew chief Lee Beard had confidence in me and
gave me the opportunity to be crew chief on Cannon's car. We felt that would
be the best way to go because we wanted the cars to be tuned the same rather
than hire somebody else to run Cannon's car who might want to run it a
different way.

In 2003 Cannon got out of the car I was tuning and Gary Scelzi got in.
Cannon then ran his own car under Schumacher Racing that year. Basically,
Cannon wanted to do his own thing and try to tune the car himself. Putting
Scelzi into the Oakley and HEMI-sponsored car was the only change we made.

I was ready to be crew chief because I had been in the assistant position
for the two prior years, first on Cory Mac's car in 2000 and then Bazemore's
car in 2001. I felt I had a pretty good understanding of what it was going
to take to be able to do it.

There was a big benefit to having (co-crew chief) Dan Olson and Lee Beard
around to help me with their experience. If I were to get into any trouble
it was comforting to know that they were there to possibly give me a hand.

The other benefit was being with a team like Schumacher where you were able
to buy anything that you needed and test as much as you wanted. That was a
big thing because I didn't have to worry about having the best parts or not
being able to run the car when  I needed to test it.

3. DID YOU WANT TO BE A CREW CHIEF?

A. I wanted to eventually get there and then the opportunity came at the
right time, right place, and the right circumstances for it all to work out.
It was the ideal situation to jump in there and give it a shot.

I am thankful to Don Schumacher for giving me the opportunity.

4. NEARLY TWO YEARS LATER, HOW DO YOU JUDGE YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE?

A. I think our performance is good and I feel that we've steadily made
progress and we continue to get a little bit better all the time. And as I
learn more and get more familiar with things and get more experience I'm not
so prone to make the same mistake twice. I'm pretty satisfied with where we
are in our second year with Gary, in particular because he is a new driver
in Funny Car more or less, and I'm a relatively new crew chief. I'm
definitely satisfied with our performance.

5. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR BEST ACCOMPLISHMENT?

A. Our best accomplishment is probably setting the speed record three times
in a row. That was definitely a pure performance factor and being able to do
that was definitely a highlight and something we were all proud of. Being
the first ones to run 330 mph - after setting the record at 328, 329, then
at 330 - was very rewarding. Winning our first race (Sonoma 2003) was a huge
accomplishment as well.

6. YOU ARE ONE OF THE YOUNGEST, IF NOT THE YOUNGEST, CREW CHIEFS ON THE NHRA
PRO CIRCUIT. WHAT DO YOU THINK IT TAKES FOR A CREW MEMBER TO MOVE INTO THAT
POSITION?

A. A crew member needs to be in the right position where he is able to learn
and see all the moves that are being made and be in the discussions of what
to do for whatever situation. He needs to see everything that's going on and
start thinking about it, like what he would do if he were going to have to
make the calls. He has to put himself in that role in his own mind. It's
kind of what I did. I'd like pretend, OK, I would do this, I would do that
and see what the crew chief would do, what move he would make, and just kind
of get a feel for it.

7. IT TAKES A UNIQUE PERSONALITY TO WANT TO HAVE THAT RESPONSIBILITY. DO YOU
FIND THAT NOT ALL CREW GUYS WANT TO MOVE INTO THAT POSITION?

A. That's the tricky part. It's hard to get the opportunity with a team with
a big sponsor because of the pressure that would exist to perform at a top
level immediately. A lot of people would like the opportunity to see if they
could do it, but some guys wouldn't want to have all the responsibility that
goes with it. That was the hard part for me. I'd be laying in bed at night
when the car wasn't running well, worrying about it all the time. You get
yourself caught up in it so much that you start worrying about, if I don't
get this thing turned around I could lose my job, or the team owner will get
somebody else. Failure wasn't really an option for me. I was going to have
to make it work, no matter what, when I took that position. I was going to
work as hard as I could and do whatever I had to do to make sure that I
could succeed at it, because failing would have turned my life upside down.

8. YOU HAVE TUNED SCELZI'S HEMI-POWERED OAKLEY DODGE STRATUS TO RECORD SPEED
RUNS. WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?

A. In order to run fast I think it comes down to horsepower. You have to
make a lot of horsepower and in a Funny Car you have to have a good
aerodynamics package that doesn't have too much drag. And your engine has to
run really, really clean. It can't be hurting pistons or putting out
cylinders. It has to be really efficient and keep pulling all the way up the
track until the driver shuts it off, in order for the thing to keep carrying
and picking up speed.

9. DOES THE DODGE STRATUS BODY HELP?

A. I believe we have a great aerodynamics package. (Dodge Motorsports
Aero-Thermal Development Engineer) Terry DeKoninck and the Dodge engineers
continue to work really hard on the aerodynamics and we have spent a lot of
time in the DaimlerChrysler wind tunnel to try to improve the aerodynamics.
We learn something every time we're in the wind tunnel.

10. YOU'RE NOT TAKING CREDIT FOR PRODUCING THE POWER. IS IT JUST THE
EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE?

A. Well, no, because I'm the one who has to make sure the engine is running
properly, that it's got just the right amount of fuel volume, etc. That's my
responsibility. There is a combination of many things that make the power
and one of my main priorities is making sure that we don't hurt parts and
that the engine runs clean. I guess I have to take the credit for making it
run fast, because that's my job.

11. HOW DIFFICULT HAS THE TRANSITION TO 85 PERCENT NITROMETHANE BEEN FOR YOU
AS A TUNER?

A. It's been very difficult. The first time we ran the car in Seattle on 85
percent it ran a 5.40-second ET at 260 mph. I can remember just laughing and
thinking, Oh, Man, we're in big trouble. And then we came back, made a bunch
of big moves to it and in the next run it ran 4.99. I felt a little bit
better about it, but it just required really big changes to try to get the
power level back up.

Another challenging factor at the same time was the new tire that NHRA
brought out that had less traction than the previous tire.

At this point of the year, I feel we've got the power level close to what we
had before. I think the tire is going to limit us from running quicker than
we have before, at this point. I think possibly we can overcome the tire,
but it's going to take some really good track conditions in order to be able
to get back to the low 4.70s.

I think the speeds are going to be down for quite a while because this tire
doesn't grow as much as the other tire did, which limits you. You don't get
the same gear ratio that you got with the other tire because the current one
does not grow as much.  There is a couple of inches difference in the
roll-out on this tire.

I'm sure eventually we will, but it's going to be a while, I believe, with
the tire that we have now, before we run 330 mph again.

12. DID YOU EXPECT TO BE BATTLING FOR THE FUNNY CAR CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR,
OR EVEN LAST YEAR?

A. I knew we had all the tools and all the people to do it. Last year I knew
it was going to be a big challenge with our being a new team and my still
being inexperienced. I know Gary is a champion. I knew he could do it. And I
know my crew can do it. I guess it was just up to me to be able to
orchestrate everything and not make mistakes and to keep the performance of
the car at the top level.

I felt that we underachieved last year and this year I feel good about where
we're at and I think we'll be better next year. I got us in trouble early
this year with testing stuff and trying different things. Had I just stuck
with what I had and worked with that more I think we would have done better
at the beginning of the season. I got caught up in wanting to be the first
one to run 4.60 and run a 330 and I let the consistency get away because I
tried too many different things early on in the year. Once I aborted all
that stuff and just started racing what I knew, we started to become more
consistent, and that's when we started moving back up in the points.

If I can keep myself from doing that again, we'll be better next year than
we were this year.

13. WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GARY SCELZI?

A. It's great. He's a great guy to work with and he's a great driver. I have
a lot of respect for him and he's a strong part of our team. We're also good
friends when we're not at the track. We talk all the time, we golf together.
We have a really good relationship.

14. WHAT IS YOUR GOAL FROM THIS POINT TO THE END OF THE SEASON?

A. Our goal is to be in the next five finals and take whatever we can get
out of those. That's what we're shooting for. I'd like to win at least three
of them and be in every final. Beating John Force would be great. We can't
control what he does but we have to beat him every time we race him, from
here on out.  We're going to have to win probably at least four of the last
five races and he's going to have to go out early a couple of times. He's
going to have to go out in the first round at least twice and we have to go
on to win for us to have a chance.

15. SCELZI HAS THE WINNING EDGE (7-5) OVER FORCE. IS THAT NERVE-WRACKING FOR
YOU?

A. No. Actually it's not. The way I kind of view it, we're the underdog any
time we have to race him. So, if we lose to him then I know that, hey, we
lost to the best guy out there. It's more nerve-wracking for me to race guys
that we should beat and that everybody expects us to beat. When we don't,
then it's more of a screw-up. I look at it more like we don't have anything
to lose when we race John Force, so we can just race him hard and take a
whatever-happens-happens attitude.

16. WHAT ARE THE PLUSES AND MINUSES TO WORKING WITH THE LARGEST NHRA TEAM?

A. The pluses are you've got a lot of resources, a lot of good people to
work with and share information with, and other cars to gain data from. The
negative is it can get too distracting. There is so much stuff going on, and
sometimes there is too much drama.

17. HOW HAS THE RELATIONSHIP WORKED WITH THE OTHER CREW CHIEFS, LEE BEARD,
DAN OLSON, ALAN JOHNSON?

A. It's worked well. Dan and I work close together. Lee's car is set up
pretty close to our car, but he does his own thing and I do mine. Alan
Johnson has been a real big asset to me this year. In my opinion, he's the
baddest guy out there, and has been for years. We've got a great
relationship. He's been very open with me, showing me how he does things and
we talk about things and things to try.

18. IF YOU HAD YOUR DRUTHERS, WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BE PERFECT?

A. To be perfect, I would like to be kept more isolated from the
distractions at a race, where I could sit and think by myself.

19. ARE YOU STILL GLAD YOU BECAME A CREW CHIEF?

A. Yeah, very glad. It's been a great experience. It's been very challenging
and it's just been a lot of fun.