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NHRA: Daniels and Panella rivalry heats up as trucks zoom toward Chicago

1 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

JOLIET, Ill. - Bob Panella and Randy Daniels expect to see a lot of each other this season in the Pro Stock Truck category. So far, the two have had many battles on the track, and only a few points separate the drivers in their quest for NHRA Winston championship glory.

After six of 14 races for the pickups, defending champion Panella holds the Winston points advantage, leading Daniels by 11. Daniels, who finished fifth in the '99 final standings, leads in victories, winning four races, while Panella has won twice.

Clearly, the chase for the truck title has become a two-man race.

When Pro Stock Truck racing resumes at the third annual Prestone Route 66 Nationals, June 1-4 at the spectacular Route 66 Raceway near Chicago, the two combatants are obvious favorites for a victory in their category. The $2 million race is an NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series event, and also will feature competition for Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle categories.

Daniels, from Grantsboro, N.C., is just happy to be in the hunt, following a dreadful season-opener, where he failed to qualify at the early February event in Pomona, Calif. Since then he's unleashed a victory onslaught that has included titles at Gainesville, Fla., Houston, Richmond, Va. and Atlanta in his Bailey Trucking Chevy S-10.

"I don't want to jinx it right now," Daniels said. "We are going rounds, we are winning races and we are as happy as we can be. We have some time off before Chicago and we're going to thrash our engine combinations, go testing and see if we can learn some things with the Chevy S-10 and make it better. It's going to be one heck of a battle for the championship."

Last season Daniels was somewhat inconsistent, winning twice, but also losing five times in the first round. This season he's been to five finals in six races - posting a runner-up finish in Las Vegas.

"All I know is that I've had maybe two years of making mistakes and it's finally paying off," said Daniels, who finished eighth overall in the 1998 season, the year NHRA introduced the Pro Stock Truck category. "Mistakes are not so bad, as long as you learn from them."

Panella, who had perhaps the greatest weekend of his career at Route 66 Raceway last year, lost to Daniels at Houston and Atlanta this year. He did, however, defeat Daniels at Las Vegas, gaining some measure of revenge. "I'm tired of having no luck," said Panella, who earned over $40,000 at Route 66 Raceway last year after winning the Holley Pro Stock Truck Dominator Duel and the Pro Stock Truck portion of the Prestone Route 66 Nationals. "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."

* COUGHLIN DOMINANCE: Jeg Coughlin, driver of the Jeg's Mail Order Oldsmobile Cutlass, has dominated Pro Stock competition this season with six victories in seven races. It is the first time a driver in that category has got off to such a successful start since 1980, when the late Lee Shepherd won six of the first seven to open the season.

Coughlin, who finished second in the Winston point standings during the last two seasons, could be approaching his first championship. However, he knows that he must stay consistent to do it. Despite Shepherd's winning ways in 1980, he didn't win the Winston Pro Stock championship that year - Bob Glidden did. It wasn't until 1981 that Shepherd claimed the first of four consecutive Winston Pro Stock championships.

"Our team is filled with dedicated, knowledgeable and talented people who are all working toward the same goal of winning," said Coughlin, 29, from Columbus, Ohio, a driver who has earned NHRA victories in four different categories, including Competition, Super Stock and Super Gas in addition to Pro Stock. "We have implemented a maintenance program that has kept us from beating ourselves."

* JOHNSON LOOKS TO GET BACK ON TRACK: Five-time NHRA Winston Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson is struggling of late, trying to find the right combination to put his GM Goodwrench Pontiac Firebird back in the winner's circle. In consecutive races in Richmond, Va. and Atlanta - Johnson's home track - the 56-year-old driver suffered first round losses.

"We're still searching for a consistent combination," said Johnson, the defending Pro Stock winner at Route 66 Raceway, who has 80 career victories. "I think we're on to something. We won't know for sure until we run it at a number of tracks and see what the results are."

Prior to the event in Englishtown, N.J., Johnson trailed Coughlin by 289 points. If Johnson is to win his sixth Winston crown and make a run at Bob Glidden's all-time win mark of 85, he'll need to post a serious late season charge.

"It's just going to make it interesting at the end of the year," said Johnson, who's only victory this season came at Gainesville, Fla.

* SEELING LEADING PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLES: Angelle Seeling is off to a quick start in Pro Stock Motorcycle on her Team Winston Suzuki. With two victories, Seeling leads the point standings, a position she is very familiar with. Last season the New Orleans rider led the points chase for much of the year, only to lose the championship by an eight point margin to Matt Hines in the final moments.

Seeling hopes her experience from 1999 will bolster her championship hopes in 2000. She admits the competition overall in the category is as tough as it has ever been.

"It won't be easy (to win the Winston championship) because Matt (Hines) and Dave (Schultz) are running real well, and you can't forget about Antron Brown and Tony Mullen," Seeling said. "The entire division is so good this year that we've just got to keep going rounds and I'm going to keep trusting the bike."

* JONES MAKING PROGRESS: Noted race car/truck chassis builder Rick Jones, from nearby Galesburg, Ill., is off to the best start of his career as a driver in Pro Stock Truck. Jones, who builds chassis for several Pro Stock and Pro Stock Truck competitors, including five-time Winston Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson, was bit by the racing bug himself last year and decided to build his own racing vehicle.

Jones, who has posted a couple of semifinal efforts this season, is currently tied for fourth in the Winston point standings in his Country Motors Trailer Sales GMC Sonoma.

"I have to take my hat off to my crew and David Reher at Reher-Morrison for giving us great power," Jones said. "Overall, it's been an all-around good team effort but we just need to keep marching on. I've been known to be conservative sometimes, but we're going to keep plugging away."

Jones is definitely excited about returning to his home track, where he lost in the second round to Brad Jeter in 1999.

"The Route 66 Nationals is my hometown race and we'll have a lot of friends and family there," Jones said. "We'll work on the motor to try and step it up a bit, we'll work on some other things to make this Sonoma a better race truck. We should be better by the time we make our first qualifying run in Joliet. It's an awesome facility there, a great place to race with a tremendous racing surface and we can't wait to get there."

Text Provided By: Anthony Vestal

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