NHRA NEWS: Midseason Teleconference Transcript

DEAR MOTORSPORTS MEDIA:

 

Some highlights from Wednesday's NHRA POWERade Series midseason
teleconference ...

 

Top Fuel Points Leader Melanie Troxel: "I think it's great to be getting
some outside recognition (as a result of being nominated for two ESPY
Awards), not only outside of drag racing, but outside of motorsports in
general. I mean, it's great for our sport."

 

Funny Car Points Leader Ron Capps, who announced that crew chief Ed
"Ace" McCulloch had "more cancer in him": "I called him (Tuesday) night.
I'm scared right now. I'm really scared. He's in surgery now (Wednesday
afternoon). I'm just hoping everything goes all right."

 

Pro Stock Points Leader Greg Anderson: "I think the (Western) Swing will
make or break a lot of people's seasons."  

 

Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Angelle Sampey: "Lots can change from
the middle to the end of the year. But at least being in the lead, you
do have the advantage going into the second half of the season. We're
hoping to hold on to it."

 

Complete transcript below or online at http://media.nhra.com
<http://media.nhra.com/> .

 

Michael Padian

NHRA POWERade Series Communications

http://media.nhra.com <http://media.nhra.com/> 

O: 626-250-2217

C: 626-278-0312

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

What: NHRA POWERade Series Midseason Teleconference

Date: June 28, 2006

Moderator: Michael Padian (626-250-2217)

Drivers: Melanie Troxel, Ron Capps, Greg Anderson, Angelle Sampey

 

MODERATOR:  NHRA would like to welcome the members of the media
participating in today's teleconference which will include the four
POWERade Series points leader at this midway point of the 2006 season
(12 of 23 events complete).  

 

This will be the second of three scheduled teleconferences during the
2006 season in what has become a continuing effort on our behalf to make
NHRA and its drivers accessible to media not just when we are in town
but throughout the course of our 23-event season.  To that end, if
there's anything we can do to make your season-long coverage of NHRA
POWERade Series easier, please don't hesitate to call.  

 

NHRA featured some incredible points races in 2005.  2006 has the
makings of an impressive encore performance.  The average lead in the
four NHRA POWERade Series categories is a mere 24 and a half points, and
there are a total of 15 drivers within 120 points or six rounds of first
place.  

 

 

MELANIE TROXEL

 

THE MODERATOR: Which brings us to our first driver on the call, Top Fuel
points leader Melanie Troxel.  Melanie has a 24-point lead over Doug
Kalitta.  Melanie has led the POWERade Series standings wire to wire
this season with two wins and seven final rounds in 12 events.  Melanie
also became the first female in the 40-year history of the Driver of the
Year Foundation to win one of its quarterly or year-end awards.  This
week she was nominated for ESPY awards for Best Driver and Best Female
Athlete.  

 

Let's start there, Melanie.  What were your initial thoughts when you
heard about the ESPY nomination?  

 

MELANIE TROXEL:  You know, it's been such an incredible season, I feel
like I've said that so many times already.  Just to come out and perform
the way we have on the racetrack is always the goal of every team out
here.  So really these things have caught me completely off guard.  I
hadn't even considered getting that kind of recognition.  I'm honestly
floored by it.  It's been really exciting.  (Husband and Funny Car
driver) Tommy (Johnson Jr.) and I are right now making our plans to go
out there for the ESPYs and, like I said, it's just very exciting.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Questions for Melanie.  

 

Q.  What do you attribute your successful year this year so far to?  Any
one thing you can point out?  

 

TROXEL:  No, I don't think -- certainly not in our case -- there's not
any one thing.  It's a combination of many, many different things that
goes from Don Schumacher giving us everything we need to run the team,
(crew chief) Richard Hogan, his ability to adapt to different conditions
out there, and the guys that work on the team. It is so many different
things.  Everybody playing their part to make things work as well as
they can.  

 

Then there's always that intangible part that even when you have all the
right people and all the right parts, you don't necessarily go out and
run as well as you would like.  We just have been very fortunate that
things are going well for us.  

 

Q.  With the ESPY recognition, you really are becoming a crossover
artist where you're becoming known outside of drag racing to the general
sports public. Are you getting more of that sort of celebrity notice?
Have you had any contact with Shirley Muldowney?  What are your
impressions of her?  Did you watch her when you were growing up?  

 

TROXEL:  Well, I think going back to the beginning of your question,
that sounds like a lot of pressure, being a crossover artist.  Sounds
like something you refer to musicians as.  

 

But, no, I think it's great to be getting some outside recognition, not
only outside of drag racing, but outside of motorsports in general.  I
mean, it's great for our sport.  I think just in general this year,
since the beginning of the season, running as well as we have, certainly
our team is getting a lot more attention and therefore we have a bigger
following, a lot more fans stopping by our pit area.  

 

I can't say that we've quite reached the level where I can't go out to
eat or anything yet.  But certainly we are getting more attention.  

 

Q.  Have you had any contact with Shirley?  

 

TROXEL:  Yeah, I mean, I've been around Shirley for many years.  In
fact, I think I raced against her in 2002 or '03, maybe it was 2003.
While I don't remember specifically as a kid watching her race, I was
aware she was out there, that there was a female out there racing.  

 

Shirley and I aren't close friends or anything, but I certainly respect
what she did in the sport.  

 

Q.  Getting off to a start like you did, is that necessarily always a
good thing or a bad thing?  Can it also be bad to get off to a fast
start, where maybe you get overconfident, eventually things start to
slip away from you as the season goes along?  

 

TROXEL:  Well, just speaking from our experience, this is the first time
for myself and I think for our entire team to be leading the points like
this.  I can only speak from this one experience.  

 

I could see theoretical situations where it might not be a good
situation.  I don't think it's been bad for us.  There's a lot of
attention and maybe some additional pressure that goes along with being
the points leader.  

 

I really don't think -- I won't say that it hasn't had any effect on our
team whatsoever.  I mean, there may be some ways that that pressure has
affected us negatively.  But I think, in general, we've done a really
good job with dealing with that.  If anything, I think it's kind of
given us an opportunity to get accustomed to that.  

 

I would much rather come out and have that additional pressure for the
first time, leading the points for the first time, early in the year,
get it out of the way, get used to it so that come late in the season,
we can battle it out for the championship and not have that pressure
thrown on us late in the season like that.  

 

I think that would have a much more negative effect than having it early
in the season.  Early in the season, there's not quite as many
expectations.  It's early enough that you know a lot of things can
happen.  I think, like I said, if anything, it's given us an opportunity
to actually get more comfortable with that.  

 

Q.  You had a huge lead in the points early on in the season.  Kind of
fallen back a bit.  What has been the problem?  Missing the setup?  What
has been the problem?  

 

TROXEL:  Well, I think we were on a roll early in the season.  We were
obviously doing a very good job and having a certain amount of luck
involved in there.  I don't think since then -- I don't think we're
doing that poorly.  We're just not having as good a season as we were
early in the year.  

 

We're working on that, trying to step our program back up.  I think
right now we just see (Mac Tools Top Fuel driver) Doug Kalitta is on a
roll.  He struggled a little bit earlier in the year.  They've figured
something out.  I'm kind of looking at it that it's just kind of -- you
know, that everyone is going to have a period of time when they're
running well.  I think we'll be able to pick our program back up.  Doug
has done very well.  At this point we're still leading the points (by 24
over Kalitta and 110 over Brandon Bernstein).  

 

I don't think we've dropped that far off.  I think we've just had some
different conditions.  We've had a change in the weather where we've
come into some of the hotter tracks and maybe we're not quite as good
with that setup, but we're working on it and we're continuing to get
better.  

 

I think it's just something that you're going to throughout the year
have certain conditions that you run better in and other conditions you
don't.  It's just something we keep working on.  But I don't think it's
been a matter of any major thing going wrong or any major change in the
team.  

 

Q.  (Don Schumacher Racing teammate and two-time defending POWERade
Series champion) Tony (Schumacher) got his win on Sunday.  Was it a
little tough or did you feel a little uncomfortable when you were doing
so well and Tony was struggling?  

 

TROXEL:  Well, no, actually it just felt pretty good.  I won't lie to
you.  They've had their fair share of success out there.  They are our
teammates and we don't want them to struggle that much, but knowing
that, coming into the beginning of the season, everybody would have to
have said they were the team to beat.  I mean, you need to get every
point you can build up against them.  

 

Certainly I think we were all surprised to see them struggle as long as
they did.  As our teammates, we wanted to help them out as much as we
could, until it comes to racing each other on Sunday.  That's kind of
the way that deal works.  

 

I think the emotion was more surprise, just really surprised they
struggled that much.  I think everybody knew they would eventually get
their program sorted out.  It certainly looks like they have.  

 

Q.  Going to do anything with your time off here?  

 

TROXEL:  Actually, we're spending the first week or so just at home
getting caught up on things, being home bodies.  I think the plan might
be to go hang out with some friends on a houseboat down on Lake
Cumberland the second weekend.  See how that works.  It's getting pretty
crowded with different things, going to the ESPY awards.  I think we
have to be out there Monday for that.  

 

Our time off is shrinking up, as it usually does.  

 

Q.  You have this time off now, but you're coming into that tough
western swing of back-to-back races.  Are Denver and Infineon good for
you?  Points lead has slimmed down to 24 over Kalitta.  

 

TROXEL:  I don't know personally that I have good or bad racetracks.  I
grew up in Colorado, so Denver is my hometown track.  I do have a
special place for that track.  I've done well at Seattle and Infineon in
the past, not in Top Fuel, but in Alcohol Dragster.  

 

They're not bad tracks for me by any means.  I think the bigger issue is
whether or not they're good tracks for Richard Hogan, whether or not he
has past data on those tracks.  That's a big part of the equation, is
that if he's run there before with similar equipment.  

 

For the driver, a lot of the scenarios out there are the same.  I mean,
you either have a really good track and the car goes down the track, or
if you have a bad one, you're going to pedal it.  There aren't that many
different things we can do.  You react to it and you hope you did a good
job reacting to it.  

 

Richard has the job of trying to work with the new tire and anything new
they've put on the car and different track conditions.  We came on board
with Don Schumacher Racing at Denver last year.  We should have some
data, but we do have a new chassis and some different parts on the car
and stuff.  I think that's going to be the big factor, is whether or not
Richard feels comfortable with the information he has to draw from.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Melanie, was Seattle significant for you for Top
Alcohol?  Did you get a first win there?  

 

TROXEL:  Yeah, Seattle was my First National event win in Alcohol
Dragster.  I believe I've won divisional events there as well.  I've
always enjoyed that track.  I'm looking forward to going back there.  

 

 

RON CAPPS

 

THE MODERATOR:  We'll go ahead with funny car points leader Ron Capps
now, who has already won a career-high five events in 2006.  Ron has a
44-point lead over John Force.  He's the points leader now for 11
consecutive weeks.  Ron has finished second three times in his career,
but is still looking for his first POWERade Series championship.  

 

Ron, I know you've tried to sort of steer clear of the talk of points
and championships.  Do you think that's going to be more difficult as we
move into the second half of the season now?  

 

RON CAPPS:  No, I don't mind talking about the points.  I've been here
before.  You just don't want to start concentrating too much on them.
We know they're there.  We know that's the topic of conversation.
That's why I'm on here.  That's what's going to make the fans come to
the racetrack because there's going to be a battle.  We know it's Force
and I out front.  Any one of these other guys can catch fire.  

 

It's funny, we went to Chicago, kind of lost a little bit.  People said,
'Oh, maybe this could be it.'  We went to Englishtown, won, put it back
up over a hundred points.  We struggled last weekend, back down to a
little over two rounds.  I'm really looking forward.  I'm enjoying this
more now than I did at the end of last year when it came down to the
end.  I was so engrossed in it.  

 

This year I'm having a better time enjoying it.  I'm really looking
forward to battling Force down to the end.  We've already shown we can
run with him and beat him and his whole team for that matter.  There's
so many other good cars you got to watch for, especially coming into
some of the races we're going to.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  We'll take questions for Ron.  

 

Q.  How much different of a driver are you?  How much did you learn from
going through that epic points battle last year?  Are you approaching
things different than last year?  

 

CAPPS:  Yeah, you always learn something from it.  Throughout my career,
even when I was a crew member, ironically when I became a driver, the
first person I went to to ask questions was Ed ("Ace") McCullough.  It
was in Seattle I remember the first year I got my Top Fuel license.  

 

I've always tried to take a piece of everything I could, whether it's
hanging around Dick LaHaie, Dale Armstrong, Don Prudhomme, working with
Ace, the guys I've gotten to work with, just kind of take things here
and there that you can use.  I think any athlete will tell you that.
You can't think that you know everything.  Somebody can always,
especially with experience, offer something to you.  

 

I think Don Schumacher, there's just a lot of people around, a good
support group that I can always feed off of.  Last year, like (the
moderator) said, I've been in the championship (chase) - I've been the
runner-up three times in the championship. (So I've) kind of been there.
Last year I was really close to winning it.  I took a lot from that.  I
was getting sick on Sunday mornings.  In fact, it made me drive better.
I never faltered when it came to the starting line.  

 

Yeah, I did learn a lot from it.  Ironically, you know, I got asked
about it yesterday and this morning, so the word is out, Ace, they found
some cancer in him again.  As we speak, he's under the knife in surgery
right now in Indianapolis.  They just found a little bit more on the
other side, so they're hoping to go in and get it out.  But it's kind of
de'ja vu.  It was this time last year that he had the cancer in the
first place.  

 

To answer your question, what I learned last year, there were so many
other things going on, especially with his cancer, still going to the
track, getting chemo in between the races, it really pushed everything
aside.  It really made it a strange trip down to the end.  

 

The racing, here we are about to win a championship possibly, and the
racing was really secondary.  I can't really attribute a lot to what
happened to the end of the year to what we're going through now.  

 

Q.  You mentioned Ed, what he's gone through.  How much more inspiration
or something would that be to win this championship for Ed?  Does it
inspire you to try harder for him?  

 

CAPPS:  It's everything for him.  I mean, obviously it's for Don
Schumacher as well.  Don and I talked.  I've known about them finding
the cancer since before -- right around Bristol.  Of course, Ace didn't
want anybody to know.  We kept it quiet.  Don didn't find out until
Englishtown.  We didn't want it around to fog up any mission we had.  

 

I even said last year, all my guys on the crew, we all wanted to win it
for Ace.  To be honest, I thought he won a championship, at least one or
two.  I was kind of dumbfounded when they told me he never won one.  I
kind of prided myself in knowing the history of drag racing.  I thought
he already won a championship.  He won just about everything in sight.
I was surprised.  Then it was kind of a mission to win it for him.  

 

I hope I got a lot of years left in me, but right now we're really
concentrating on this is our best chance to get him a championship ring.


 

Q.  Ron, is Ace the biggest difference between being with Snake and
being with Schumacher?  

 

CAPPS:  Biggest difference?  

 

Q.  Biggest plus, just the way your career has really blossomed.  Is he
the big factor?  

 

CAPPS:  Yeah, I think so ... It was neat for me because at Snake's
(former team owner Don Prudhomme), when Ace got let go, it crushed me.
I mean, I was in my room the night of Sonoma when he got let go.  I sat
in my room and cried because he had been such an influence on me.  Every
time I went to the starting line, I wanted to do everything perfect for
him.  When it didn't work out, I was crushed.  

 

When he was announced as the crew chief on the Brut deal (to begin the
2004 season), I really looked at it as this is my chance to work with
Ace again.  He's been a huge influence.  We've really -- the
relationship has really grown a lot between him and I on the track and
off the track, but especially on the track.  Going to battle him on
Sunday morning, as you know, he's a gamer.  I really am thriving on
learning how to race from the guy.  

 

Q.  Did he hold off on the surgery for the start of the summer break?  

 

CAPPS:  Yeah.  We kind of knew about Ace's deal prior to Bristol.  He of
course doesn't want anybody to know.  He was trying to get through and
do the same thing last year, get the surgery done right after St. Louis.
We had the break.  He's so driven, he had it all planned out.  He's so
meticulous about everything.  He had a plan, get the surgery done, have
time to heal, go on the plane, go to Denver.  

 

We had the car -- brand-new car we were going to run in Denver.  It's a
car we've been running to be front-halved after St. Louis.  That was
another one of his plans.  Almost like he had all these planned out.
Get the car front-halved, have a brand-new car for Denver, I'll get my
surgery done, everything will go perfect, we'll have a couple weeks off.
So, yeah, he definitely had a plan.  Anybody that knows him knows how he
plans everything to a 'tee'.  

 

CAPPS:  I called him last night.  I'm scared right now.  I'm really
scared.  He's in surgery now.  I'm just hoping everything goes all
right.  

 

Q.  What kind of cancer does Ed have?  

 

CAPPS:  Colon cancer they found last year.  He went in for his checkup.
They found a little polyp I believe on the other side of his body there.
Just a tiny bit.  Precautionary, they want to go in and definitely take
care of that, just make sure everything else is good.  

 

We don't know what they're going to do, if they're going to do chemo
again afterward or he'll be fine with what they get out.  We're waiting
to hear.  He's in surgery as we speak in Indy.  We'll probably know
Friday when he goes home, go from there.  We're not sure yet.  

 

Q.  Down the road, coming to Sonoma, what are your thoughts about that
track?  Is it a track you look forward to coming to?  Is it a challenge?


 

CAPPS:  Infineon has always been -- it was kind of a home track.  I
lived in the Bay Area, going to school.  I lived up there, met my wife
up there.  I lived up there about eight or nine years.  That was a home
track.  

 

Besides the fact that when I was growing up, my dad, when he raced, we
went to Fremont and Sonoma all the time, Sacramento for that matter as a
kid.  The Bay Area has always been kind of a home track for me.  

 

Seattle I've won I think twice, Funny Car once, Top Fuel.  That's always
been a great place for me.  Denver, we've done so-so.  Like Melanie
said, you never know if it's you or the crew chief.  Sometimes a driver
goes to the track and he just does well.  Sometimes a crew chief goes
and he does well.  

 

The Western Swing has always been a good place in my heart.  We're
camping right now in central California at a lake for a couple weeks,
then I take the family on that Western Swing.  That has another add-on
to why I love the Western Swing.  Especially with Bruton Smith, what
he's done with the track at Infineon, it's turned into one of the most
favorite tracks we all go to.  

 

Q.  Where about are you camping?  

 

CAPPS:  We're at Lake San Antonio.  I grew up in San Luis Obispo.  Used
to come here as a kid.  Last four or five years, we come up here.  In
fact, I just ran into some Doug Herbert Snap-On distributors parked next
to us with some boats.  It's cool.  A way to get away.  At the same time
we run into some fans.  We're going to hang out here for a couple weeks
with the kids, ride skidoos and boats and stuff.  

 

Q.  If you compared golf majors to drag racing points championships, are
you the Phil Mickelson of your sport?  Do you feel if you can get one
out of the way, it could be the start of something really cool?  

 

CAPPS:  You're always coming up with these bitchin', intellectual
questions.  You crack me up.  Yeah, I guess.  Hey, to be compared with
Phil would be awesome.  Just to be a contender.  If I had to quit right
now with what I've done, I'd be more than happy with the career I've
had.  But definitely we'd like a championship.  To always be a
contender, that's all you can ask.  

 

Last year hurt.  That eight points, losing it.  In the big picture, the
Oakley team winning it, they were a big part of this team as well.
Everything was perfect.  I don't want to go another year as another
runner-up.  If I have to,  it beats third or fourth.  I can only do so
much as a driver.  The team, a lot of young guys.  I'm hoping to keep
the team together for a long time.  If we can win a championship, it
would be unbelievable.  

 

Q.  Five for five in finals this year.  How do you explain that?  

 

CAPPS:  Ace and the guys.  Believe me, staging the car.  A couple of
those, I was thinking, man, I don't know if we got it today for this run
right here.  Ace would pull it out.  We've been winning as a team and
losing as a team.  I've made some mistakes.  The first guy to pat me on
the butt was Ace and the crew guys.  They help keep my spirits up.  Vice
versa.  I'm able to win a few on holeshots, which is always good for a
driver.  

 

Those finals, beating Force when we've beaten him, as Melanie talked
about, the points, down to (44), but those are points we put in our
pocket for a reason.  If we didn't do well at the beginning of the year,
we'd be behind right now.  You try to just show up at each race and get
as many points as you can.  That's all we can do.  

 

Q.  Why do you think that no No.1 qualifier in either Top Fuel or Funny
Car has won yet in 2006?  

 

CAPPS:  You know, I've said it time and again, you really have to look
at our qualifying.  We've won from 14th, 15th.  I think it's just
coincidence, to be honest with you.  Those are good teams qualifying No.
1.  You know, I'm looking and hoping that NHRA will change something
with our Friday night qualifying.  Maybe there's a way to lock in the
top four for Friday night, have the other two runs.  It's too much
dependent on all the Nitro and Pro Stock classes on the Friday night
run.  I really believe that. If you have one bad run, Dell (Worsham) in
Topeka, you can go on a big team that struggled, have something go wrong
on a Friday night run, you're up the creek.  Very rarely is the weather
going to be any better on a Saturday.  If you don't get that run in,
that's usually where the field is going to end up.  We don't see those
conditions ever again during the weekend.  

 

Those teams that have been No. 1 are the teams that really go for it on
Friday night.  That's where it ends up.  That's just kind of I think how
it's ended up where those teams maybe don't run as well when it does
heat up on Sunday. 

 

Q.  Now with the Western Swing coming up, is this more difficult than
the ones you went through?  

 

CAPPS:  Yeah, a little bit, only because Denver is so hard on parts.
It's a difficult place to go.  It's pretty close.  The Chicago,
Englishtown, St. Louis thing was pretty brutal with conditions changing,
hard on teams.  This one will be as well.  

 

I think they're pretty close with the exception of Denver and having to
really lean on your parts because you're a mile high.  You know, I think
for a lot of the teams it's a little more relaxing.  They're closer
together.  This last one was very hard.  You have to remember these guys
jumping in these trucks, having to drive race to race.  I think that's
probably the most difficult difference of the two.  

 

Q.  You're 4-1 against Force this year.  At least one of them was on a
holeshot.  To know you beat him off the line, to you, is that almost as
impressive leading the points?  

 

CAPPS:  Standing back, if that was somebody else's record, I would be
impressed.  

 

I just get up for the guy.  I try to get up for everybody.  That just
tells you how big a deal he still is in the sport.  I've said it before.
If you can beat him to the hotel in a rental car, qualifying, final
round, whatever it is, it's going to be a big deal.  

 

Anyhow, yeah, I'm impressed with it.  I'm impressed with my team, what
they've done.  I just try to do the same thing every time.  I get up for
the guy like you can't believe.  We just had a great car every time.
You know, as soon as you get out of the car, I'm shaking my head
sometime in disbelief of how good we've done.  You expect to be able to
do that.  When it happens, keep reeling those wins off, I'm impressed
myself.  

 

Q.  You consider Infineon your home track and your teammate Gary Scelzi
also considers it his home track.  Are you going to take him in the
Funny Car?  

 

CAPPS:  Well, we were in the final round together last year.  I've been
in several of them there.  I've won there before.  Gary is from Fresno.
That's pretty close.  I lived up there for a while.  Gary and I are
great friends.  We do the go-kart thing to raise money for Speedway
Charities, have a fun time with that.  It's always been a fun track for
me and I know Gary as well.  If we can both get in the final again, that
would be unbelievable.  I love that place, everybody at that track, what
they do.  They welcome you.  Just everything.  You can ask any team,
that's a great place to go.  

 

I've had great success.  I don't want to jinx myself.  I always think
when I go to a good track, I don't want to talk too much about it.  It's
always been great to me.  I'm hoping I can just repeat.  

 

Q.  You said you lived up there.  You lived in Cupertino.  

 

CAPPS:  Yes.  My wife, I met her, she lived there.  I lived in Mountain
View, Palo Alto, a couple different spots when I lived up there.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Ron, thanks for your time.  You are all set.  

 

RON CAPPS:  All right, man, thanks.  

 

 

GREG ANDERSON

 

THE MODERATOR:  Greg Anderson, winner of the last three Pro Stock World
Championships.  He's back in first place again.  He's in first place by
two points as we reach the halfway in the season over teammate Jason
Line.  

 

You won the first event this year.  You've led the series wire to wire.
Can you talk about Pro Stock this year.  It's been crazy.  Eight
different winners to start the season.  You have six drivers right now
within six rounds of first place.  Seems like you throw a dart every
week.  Can you shed some light on that class, why it's been so close
this year?  

 

GREG ANDERSON:  It is pretty incredible.  The best way I can describe
it, there's been a lot of teams really, really step up their program in
the last year.  It's funny.  We as racers, usually we can get a feel by
the time we get to Sunday morning who has the best chance of winning the
race.  We can't do it any more.  There's so many good cars right now.
You don't know who is going to qualify No. 1.  It's a crapshoot who
makes the best run of the dozen cars that are capable of it.  The same
thing on race day.  If you qualify on race day, you absolutely have got
a great shot of winning.  There are so many great cars right now.  

 

It's kind of been tough on us.  Everybody is so even, we don't have the
advantage we had over the last couple years.  We're pressing harder,
trying to make that perfect run every time, which we didn't necessarily
have to do before.  Usually when you do that, you make a few mistakes.
Everybody is pressing hard in this class right now.  Everybody is
running well, but at the same time making mistakes along the way because
the competition is so tough.  You're pressed to make that perfect run
every time out there or you're going to get beat.  

 

It's really, really interesting right now for the fans, for the media.
It's also creative for us as drivers and as a team, and especially me
coming up the last couple three years where we had kind of a cushion on
the field.  We don't have that cushion any more.  Now it's down to we
have to execute perfectly.  Bottom line is we haven't executed perfectly
since Pomona.  We're lucky to still have that point lead to be honest
with you.  Too many first- and second-round losses where either I didn't
do a good job driving or the car didn't perform like it should have.
Any time you're going to make a mistake in this class right now, you're
going to get beat.  It would be easy to say everybody is screwing up and
nobody wants to take the points lead.  It's not necessarily that.
Really a lot of guys are doing a great job, so many guys doing a great
job, everybody is able to beat anybody any more.  It's just wild right
now.  I guess that's what everybody wanted.  They want parity.  We have
parity in this class right now.  It should be very exciting for
everybody, except for us the drivers.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Greg, talk about the Western Swing.  Very favorable to
you in the past.  Talk about your mindset going into these next three
events.  

 

ANDERSON:  It's been very good to me.  Really, we've passed the halfway
point in the season.  Got 12 races down, 11 to go.  Before you realize
it, you're past halfway.  You come into the Western Swing which is very,
very tough on everybody.  Three really very different racetracks.
Denver, which is completely a one-off deal.  By the way, I'm up here in
Denver right now testing.  I think there's about a dozen Pro Stock cars
up here right now.  We're all testing for the race here because it's so
different, it's so tricky to figure this place out.  Through the western
swing, you have three completely different races.  You come here, it's a
one-off deal.  Then you go back to sea level at Seattle, cool
temperatures.  Then you go to Sonoma where you have sea level
conditions, a lot of times 90 degrees.  Just completely different
scenario every time.  

 

It really comes down to crunch time now.  It's too late to wait any
longer to make your run.  It's the time to make your run.  If the guy
can come out of the Western Swing with a points lead, if you look at
stats from years past, he's probably going to be the guy with the best
chance of winning the championship.  

 

Two years ago we swept the Swing.  I think we won only one of the three
races last year.  Still we started running good on the Swing last year
and really that was what propelled us to perform well the rest of the
year.  Very, very important.  That's why we're at Denver right now
testing.  I think the swing will make or break a lot of people's
seasons.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  We'll take questions.  

 

Q.  You went from a dominant (three) year (stretch) to looking over your
shoulder.  Did all these guys catch up or have you slowed down?  What do
you attribute the parity to this year?  

 

ANDERSON:  In reality I guess if I look at it, we've been trying to
figure that out all year, too.  Basically the rest of them have caught
up.  It's so tough in this class to keep your technology to yourself.
We probably broke through to a few things that other people hadn't in
the last couple years.  We were able to hang on to those secrets, those
breakthroughs for a while.  

 

It just seems like you can't keep it to yourself forever.  Things leak
out.  The more things leak out, I lost a key engine shop guy, my head
engine builder I lost in the middle of last season, went across town to
(Erica Enders') Victor Cagnazzi team; he brought a lot of technology,
secrets with him that we had.  Now you have those things to another
team.  Things leak from that team to other teams.  That's how things
happen.  You just have to be able -- if you look at Pro Stock cars,
people laugh at why we always cover things up.  We cover our engines up
all the time.  We cover the backs of our cars up, our suspensions up all
the time.  We have covers over our intake manifolds.  People think,
'What are you crazy, why do you have to do that?'  It's so tough and so
dog-eat-dog, you have to be careful with all your stuff.  Any
breakthrough you make, any secret you find, you have to hang on as long
as you can before it filtrates through the class.  Really we've had a
lot of that filtration in the last six months and it shows.  Everybody
stepped up to basically the same level performance-wise, power-wise, and
now it comes down to executing on the racetrack.  They've also raised
their game.  They've paid a lot of attention to our team, how our team
operates.  I think I have a very professional team with a lot of great
guys working on it, a couple of great crew chiefs.  People can kind of
sit back and watch the formula and see how it works out, a lot of them
have copied that formula.  A lot of people have bolstered their teams
with key people, they have learned how to work together as teams.
That's kind of what we showed them.  I guess we created our own worst
enemy.  We showed everybody how to do it, now they're doing it.  It's
really up to us to find a way to make that breakthrough again and get
back ahead of the pack.  Right now we're a little bit stagnant it seems.
They've caught us.  It's up to us to find another way to put some ground
on them.  

 

Q.  What areas are you working in now that you feel can give you the
advantage that you had last season?  

 

ANDERSON:  Well, obviously our generation three engine, we're still
working on that.  We still haven't debuted that.  We still have high
hopes for that.  Haven't been able to spend enough time on it because of
the way the season has gone.  We haven't been able to abandon the
current engines we have and just pay attention to the new ones because
we're in such a tough points battle.  We have to keep chiseling at that.
If we get that up to speed, I think we can make some gains again.  We're
probably going to debut another new car when we come out here to Denver.
I debuted a new car here last year at Denver.  That's when things kind
of took off for me last year.  Hopefully we can make that jump in the
next month or so, maybe even on this western swing, and never look back.


 

Q.  As tight as it is, there's not much room for experimentation.  

 

ANDERSON:  There's not.  That's the tough part.  You can't abandon the
things you've got that have gotten you this far.  You can't slip up at
all.  You get in kind of safe mode, think we're going to have to execute
better, do a better job of driving.  We haven't done that so far.  We
have to change that, make better car runs with our race car, got to do a
better job of driving, both (teammate) Jason (Line) and myself, chip
away at that new engine.  Hopefully in another month or so we'll have an
edge back.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  I'll let you get back to testing.  Sounds like you need
every minute you can have out there.  

 

ANDERSON:  Pretty interesting.  About a dozen of us up here.  Like every
national event, every doggone team is within 3/100ths.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Good luck.  We'll see you in Denver.  

 

GREG ANDERSON:  Thanks.  

 

 

ANGELLE SAMPEY

 

THE MODERATOR:  Angelle Sampey, you currently have a 28-point lead over
Andrew Hines, who is the current and defending series champion,
obviously coming off of a critical victory over Andrew last week in St.
Louis.  Some notes on Angelle.  She has won three of seven events this
season.  Angelle has won 40 career events, that's first among females in
NHRA POWERade Series history, tied for eighth among all drivers in NHRA
POWERade Series history.  Angelle is currently second and five wins shy
of catching Dave Schultz for Pro Stock wins in NHRA POWERade Series
history.  She's also won championships in 2001, '02 and '03.  

 

Angelle, that's my question for you right there.  How far do you allow
yourself to look ahead this season?  When will you start thinking about
adding a fourth POWERade Series world championship?  

 

ANGELLE SAMPEY:  We came into the season thinking about that.  It's been
like the past couple of years, I wanted to get my fourth championship.
But this is the first season that we actually start the season off the
way we need to, to finish it off No. 1.  

 

The last few years we've had a rough beginning, caught up somewhere in
the middle, did really well at the end.  By that time, it was just too
late to get the points.  I mean, we've lost the championship in the last
couple of years by just a couple of rounds each time.  We're trying
really hard not to let that happen this time.  Anything can happen.
Lots can change from the middle to the end of the year.  But at least
being in the lead, you do have the advantage going into the second half
of the season.  We're hoping to hold on to it.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Eight events left in Pro Stock Motorcycle Series.  Where
are we going to see the differences?  What are kind of the things you
should look for that are going to separate yourself from Andrew or Chip
Ellis in the second half of the season?  

 

SAMPEY:  Well, first of all, in Denver, it's going to be really tough
for us.  That's just like Greg was saying, it's a tough tuner's race,
even more so for our Suzukis.  We still aren't running the fuel
injection like we wish we would have been by this time of the year.
We're not ready for it.  That high altitude -- it's a lot easier for the
Harleys with their fuel injections to get what they need to get done to
win the race.  

 

We're going to be struggling at that race, hopefully not as bad as we're
expecting to be struggling.  I'm sure we will be a little bit.  We're
going to try to race better like we have in the past couple of years.
That's how we've won races, by racing better instead of having more
performance or more of a horsepower advantage.  

 

I think when we get to Sonoma, it's going to get back -- being back a
little bit to a better of a level playing field for us.  Our Suzukis
should run really fast there.  If the weather conditions are right, you
should see quite a few sixes, both with the Harley and also the Suzukis.
After that, it should be pretty cool, pretty normal for all of us.
Reading, Pa., we always do well.  That happens to be the best racetrack
for me for some reason.  I think I've won like six or seven out of the
10 years I've been there.  

 

It's mainly just staying consistent, trying not to hurt any engines.
It's really hard when you do break something, our crew chiefs have
worked on them for so long, try to get them right.  If we break
something, have to start all over again.  That's been important to us,
not push too really hard, so we don't break anything, we can keep
running for the rest of the year, just racing well.  Of course, as you
know, battling these red lights, trying to keep it green is going to be
a good key in who is going to win this championship as well.  

 

THE MODERATOR:  Getting off to the fast start this year, three wins in
seven events, what do you attribute that to?  What has been the biggest
reason for the turnaround this season?  

 

SAMPEY:  I think we actually came into the season a little bit more
prepared than we have the last few years.  That has a lot to do with my
crew guys.  They worked really hard this off-season getting the bikes
ready.  What they actually did was took both motorcycles and completely
stripped them down to the bare frame and started all over again like
they were building brand-new motorcycles.  They came up with lots of
wonderful ideas of how to avoid little stupid accidents, wiring
problems, mechanical problems that are some little piece that breaks.
They redesign lots of things, just put all new stuff on the bike, came
up with ideas to make things easier for us to fix during a race if we're
having a problem.  

 

I think them going back to the basics is really what made the
difference.  Everybody's looking for that extra one horsepower every
day.  I don't think a lot of people go back and just -- back to the
basics and rebuild.  

 

We had lots of wiring problems last year that caused us to lose races.
Little, bitty actually funny wiring problems.  We went back and we saw
that the body was pinching one of the wires, caused a short.  We lost
two races because of it.  It was something so stupid and so minute.  We
never took the time to go back and look at all those little things that
you don't think might be a factor in winning or losing.  So we did that.


 

I'm riding an older motorcycle, but it's like a brand-new bike because
of what they did to it.  

 

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