NHRA: St. Louis Chevy Qualifying Notes
26 June 1999
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
SEARS CRAFTSMAN NATIONALS
GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
MADISON, ILL.
NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES
FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1999
PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28 -- FINAL QUALIFYING
KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, is back on top, as No. 1 qualifier, with
a 6.932-second pass at 198.20 mph, in the final qualifying session. His
e.t. is a track record.
KURT: "We came here last week and made 11 test runs, we got a good clutch
combination to go down the race track. We came out here for the first run
(Thursday), we were really on a good run, but we broke second gear in the
transmission. We left it alone for the night session. We went from Point
A to point B and qualified second with a 6.97. We were happy with that. I
>guess testing paid off. We put a little more bite in the car this morning,
and it didn't like it. It's a combination we've run before. The Camaro
just doesn't seem to be consistent lately. There is no reason it should
not have gone down the track this morning. We came back tonight and put a
little stiffer wheel on the car. It was something we ran last year, a
little heavier. We didn't shake tires at all last year. I couldn't
believe it when I let the clutch out. It was one of the smoothest runs I
ever made. Maybe the last two months have just been a nightmare. Maybe
we've been struggling just because of something that we thought would have
been better. When you set the national record, win a couple of races and
you're leading the points you know you think things are right. But
obviously it just gradually caught up with us. Hopefully -- we won't know
'til tomorrow -- we will come out here and be consistent and duplicate. If
I can let the clutch out, we know we have the power, the crew and our
sponsors are behind us. We should be able to run a mile tomorrow and win
this thing."
MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO SALES CAMARO Z28, did not qualify. He's No. 21,
7.038/197.02.
EDWARDS: "Three letters, that's all you have to put down: Mike Edwards,
DNQ. It slipped the clutch. The track just got a lot better than I
thought it would. There's a lot of difference between the lanes on the
clutch. I didn't run over there (left lane) since the first session
yesterday and neither lane was too good that time. The left lane got a lot
better than I estimated for the clutch and it slipped too much."
DO YOU LIKE RACING AT NIGHT?
"It's fine. I think it's fair for everybody to get
two night sessions, I really like it. I just wish both lanes were just
closer together. I would really have liked to race Saturday night. It's
got to be a lot better for the fans, racing under the lights. It's cooler
for them. I would think they would enjoy it. I would rather sit in the
stands in 75-degree weather than 100-degree weather."
TOM HAMMONDS, WINNEBAGO/MAC TOOLS/KENDALL OIL CAMARO Z28, also failed to
qualify. He missed it by one thousandth of a second with his 7.024-second
run, at 195.79 mph on Thursday night. He's No. 18. Going into the final
qualifying session, Tom was still in the field. However, he was on the
bump.
HAMMONDS: "I thought we were in good shape, especially after the first two
runs. But this session I looked at the time slip and the front-half
numbers were pretty good numbers. But the Camaro didn't run any speed or
any numbers on the back half of the track. That means we have a problem
somewhere else. We've got to go over the whole car again and double check
some things and get it figured out. It's encouraging that we came out in
the second race and ran a lot better, now we want to take it to the next
level."
HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT THE TRANSMISSION PROBLEM?
"That problem is behind us but, just like Pro Stock racing is, a new one pops up.
That's just the nature of this sport. You fix something, something else gives up.
You fix it and you keep going. We will get this Chevy Camaro straightened
out sooner or later, hopefully sooner."
ON SHIFTING IN PRO STOCK THIS YEAR:
"These transmissions are working perfectly. They're pretty much the
standard transmission that 95% of the Pro Stock guys run. I think a blind
man could shift this transmission. It's just a nice, smooth piece. One
thing about the air shifters last year, once you pushed the button it had
to go through the air lines and then had to go through all the mechanisms
to finally plug it into gear. But now when you manually shift it once you
put it in second gear and it's in second gear. There's no delay at all,
not even a thousandth of a second. You have to adjust that with your
clutch and with your chassis setup."
PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 -- FINAL QUALIFYING
Chevy S-10s hold the top six qualifying positions, with BOB PANELLA JR.,
PANELLA MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, leading the way with a track record e.t.
and speed: 7.633/176.12, set in the final session. He's followed by MIKE
COUGHLIN, JEG'S MAIL ORDER CHEVY S-10, BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10,
TIM FREEMAN, BLUEGRASS TRANSPORTATION CHEVY S-10, GREG STANFIELD, CHEVY
S-10, and MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10. This is Panella's
second pole of the year.
PANELLA: "I think that,judging from our first run when we were No. 1 in
the left lane, I knew when I got back to the left lane it had potential.
When we got here to St. Louis I figured I could run a .63 or .64, but it
took me to the last run to do it. I'd be lucky to stay in the left lane
all day long, that would be to my advantage. Sometimes you make mistakes
over there and get stuck in the right lane. It seems like I've got
everything put together over there pretty well tonight. I hope we can do
it four times more tomorrow and try to repeat like in Chicago. Obviousy
we've got a little bit of horsepower advantage, or it seems so. All I've
got to do is keep repeating and mayb everything will fall into place."
JETER (Jeter held No. 1 qualifying spot until the final session): "I'm
just not making real good runs right now. We're working on it every run to
try to get it there. We tried some things this afternoon that didn't work
out too good."
DO YOU LIKE THIS EVENT AND RACING AT NIGHT?
"Oh, yes, most definitely. It's a whole lot better than a 4-day event.
I definitely like racing with the rest of the pros. When it's real hot
it would't bother me a bit to run at night. It makes it a little bit
tricky to tune for the night conditions. I think we should be a little
closer for tuneup at night because of the match racing we do because that's
all done in the evening and at night. I think we will be ready tomorrow.
We've still got our string going, we've qualified no worse than fifth.
We would like to be No. 1, but we ended up No. 3."
YOU USED TO SAY YOU DIDN'T WANT THE PRESSURE OF QUALIFYING NO. 1:
"Now we're getting used to getting that $1500 check to start out the weekend,
that makes things a little easier."
LARRY KOPP, SPEEDCO TRUCK LUBE CHEVY S-10, didn't qualify, for only the
second time in his Pro Stock Truck career, the first time this year. His
7.757-second e.t. at 172.67 mph was good only for No. 19.
KOPP: "This is the second DNQ of my illustrious creer. We've got a
problem and can't find it. What it is, I don't know. We'll probably take
the motor out and run it in Jerry Haas' Chevy S-10 on Sunday or Monday."
AND IF IT RUNS FINE?
"Then we've got to go to the S-10 to find the problem. There's something in
the truck that's throwing us a curve. Whether it's the motor, a component that
we haven't changed, haven't touched, I don't know."
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
"How would you feel if it happened to you? It's just a big let-down for
Chevrolet. I'm supposed to be doing something for them and I'm not doing it.
And the people from Speedco are here and they're not seeing me qualify.
That's not good. I hope they understand that we are going through a
problem and we can't find it. You can't take the hood off and say there's the
problem, you have to dig and find it. It's obviouslyy not an easy fix or we
would have fixed it three races ago. Whatever the problem is we have had
it since Englishtown. It's not the end of the world, but it is today. Next
week it won't be. I will go home and see my dogs and Granny and I'll be fine. "
("Granny" is Larry's wife Susan's mom, and the dogs are Buster and his daughter Brandy.)