NHRA: Chevy Notes: Randy Daniels wins Three in a row
8 May 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTESADVANCE AUTO PARTS NHRA SOUTHERN NATIONALS
NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES
ATLANTA DRAGWAY
COMMERCE, GA.
SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2000
PRO STOCK TRUCK: RANDY DANIELS WINS THREE IN A ROW
RANDY DANIELS, BAILEY TRUCKING CHEVY S-10, won his fourth race of the season, his third straight, as the Bob and Randy show continues. Randy defeated BOB PANELLA JR., PANELLA TRUCKING CHEVY S-10, on a holeshot advantage with his .427 reaction time to Panella's .465. Daniels won with a 7.661-second elapsed time at 177.93 mph to Panella's 7.628/177.07. This was the pair's third final-round meeting this year. Panella has two wins this season and consistently has the quickest pickup truck on the circuit, but Randy is demonstrating a knack of knocking Panella out when it counts. They are the only two drivers to win this season. Panella has won twice.
DANIELS: "All I know is that I've had maybe two years of making mistakes is finally paying off. Mistakes are not so bad, as long as you learn from them. The only thing about being the underdog is the other guy has to make the decision on lane choice. You know what you are going to have to do. We already softened up our S-10 to get down the lane, and I knew I had to have a good light. I just went out to try to red-light. I tried as hard as I could to red-light. Sometimes you get past them, sometimes you don't. It's like Las Vegas, you have to gamble. It's nice to come out in two races and beat the other guy in less than a hundredth (of a second). This weekend it was five thousandths, last weekend it was three thousandths. It's good, close, tight drag racing. I didn't know I had won, I don't think he knew we had won either. He was ahead of me most of the race track." YOU ARE NOW JUST 11 POINTS OUT OF THE LEAD: "I don't want to jinx it right now. We are going rounds, we are winning races and we are as happy as we can be. We have three weeks off now and we have big plans. We're going to thrash our engine combinations, go testing and see if we can learn some things with the Chevy S-10."
PANELLA: "I'm tired of having no luck. How can a guy have luck like that all the time? I had my best light of the day, and he had his best light of the day and it wasn't enough. It should have been enough. An alcohol dragster in front of me left clutch dust down the race track and it wasn't cleaned up. I'm not making excuses, I just know if I had gotten down the track the way I should have there wouldn't have been an issue. Even Randy should have run better than he ran." COULD YOU HAVE CHANGED LANES? "I could have, but there's no doubt the left lane is better. Both had a little bit of clutch dust on them. Unfortunately we drove through a little bit of it." HOW MUCH SLOWER WERE YOU? I lost by five thousandths (of a second). I should have done a .58, no problem. I was ahead of him in second gear until it started shaking. I made up all the reaction time by second gear and than it went away. The S-10 kind of rattled, it was like driving on gravel. It's not really scary, but there's no traction. I told Randy, maybe I will get a little luck in the second half of the year, hopefully starting in Chicago. I started my roll there last year, maybe I can do it again."
PRO STOCK TRUCK POINTS:
1. Bob Panella Jr., Chevy S-10 586
2. Randy Daniels, Chevy S-10 575
3. Greg Stanfield, Chevy S-10 407
4. John Coughlin, Chevy S-10` 318
Rick Jones, GMC Sonoma 318
PRO STOCK: KURT JOHNSON OUT IN SECOND ROUND
KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, was ousted in the second round, when he was eliminated by Troy Coughlin (7.080/196.22 for Kurt, 6.998/197.25 for Coughlin). Kurt lost lane choice in the first round after defeating Greg Anderson with a less-than-stellar 7.162/1889.84 pass, and was relegated to the undesirable right lane for his match-up with Troy. Kurt is eighth in Winston Championship points.
KURT: "In the first run it went right at the starting line and I got it back and thought it was in the groove, and I got the right rear tire out of the groove just a little bit and it kept on pulling me and pulling me and pulling me. I had the wheel at 6 o'clock trying to get it back and it was just like dog-tracking down there. It started to bounce and then it was just a mess. I was trying to get it under control, and I over-wound it trying to get into high gear because I was trying to get it under control before I put it in high gear. I didn't want to bring it back with no paint left on it, so we got it through that. We came back in the second round and the Camaro just didn't want to go down the middle of the track. It's like the tires are square. We've got a different clutch in the car, and it seems to be pretty happy on a good race track, but when the sun comes out, it's just a mess down track." YOU WENT OUT EARLY AT YOUR HOME TRACK: "It would have been a lot more disappointing going out in the first round, but the whole year has been frustrating. We have that new car sitting at the shop so we're going to put a lot of effort into it, and try and get it ready for the end of the week and come out here and run it. Maybe we can turn this thing around and run as well as the Jeg's cars. They seem to be running two hundredths (of a second) quicker than anyone else out here. A lot of the cars had problems in the right lane, but in this morning's run we should have run well enough to get lane choice in the second round and that's where our biggest problem came."
Note: Kurt Johnson's national top speed record has been disallowed by NHRA: "Upon further review the NHRA has determined that the speeds Kurt Johnson ran during qualifying were not legitimate. Kurt's car was inspected and it was determined that the front nose of the vehicle had more travel than the average car. It is possible that the car's nose triggered the finish line beam prematurely. After further review of Johnson's incremental times and speed, the two high speeds were ruled incorrect."
FUNNY CAR: CAPPS REACHES FOURTH FINAL ROUND IN 2000
RON CAPPS, U.S. TOBACCO CO. CAMARO Z28, reached the final round for the second straight event, the fourth time in 2000. He now has four runner-up finishes this season, as he lost to John Force, who outran Ron even with a slower reaction time of .541 to Ron's .479. He faced Force in a Chevy-vs.-Ford, Camaro-vs.-Mustang contest for the 20th time in his career. Force took the win by three thousandths of a second (4.929/289.14 for Force, 5.023/291.70 for Capps). In final rounds, Force's win gives him an edge, 4-2. Capps' last win over Force came in Seattle in 1998.
CAPPS: "You wait for some of those guys ahead of you in points to falter and they just keep going rounds and we just keep going rounds. We did gain points on the leader (Jerry Toliver), so that's the silver lining. We are extremely disappointed we lost. We really thought we could beat them, but, at the same time, we have to realize this is the consistency it takes to win a championship. We keep running like we are and getting to the finals, we're going to win some races."
WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/MATCO TOOLS CAMARO Z28, defeated Scotty Cannon's Camaro in the first round with a 5.011/304.32 (.504 R/T) lap to Cannon's 5.027/307.58 (.519 R/T). In the second round Whit faced Todd Paton and was eliminated in a race that saw another margin of victory of .02 of a second. Whit launched first with a .509 reaction time to Paton's .515, but it was Paton first at the finish line with a 5.016/283.85 pass to Whit's 5..046/300.40.
BAZEMORE: "These were two very close races, against two good competitors. Scotty Cannon is starting to figure out this fuel racing and NHRA racing and he's a tough guy. You can't take him lightly. Paton's team has been running good all year. The other driver they had was good, this driver is good. You can't take them lightly either. We were fortunate to be on the winning end of a close race and tough to lose like that. We're just trying to cut good lights. I think I did OK. We just had some mechanical problems with the Camaro and got outrun a bit."
FUNNY CAR POINTS:
1. Jerry Toliver, Camaro Z28/Firebird 589
2. John Force, Mustang 559
3. Ron Capps, Camaro Z28 528
4. Tony Pedregon, Mustang 465
5. Jim Epler, Camaro Z28 389
Text provided by JUDY STROPUS
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