NHRA: Chevy Notes and Quotes, Sears Craftsman Nationals, Gateway
28 June 1999
PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 -- ELIMINATIONS JERRY HAAS, TEXAS HARLEY-DAVIDSON CHEVY S-10, a St. Louis favorite as a resident of Fenton, Mo., was eliminated by Todd Patterson in the first round: 7.742/174.03 for Haas, 7.684/174.23 for Patterson. HAAS: "The truck didn't run good. It was lazy. We have to look at it on the computer, so I can't tell you what's wrong. We just lost." ON LOSING IN FRONT OF A HOMETOWN CROWD: "I feel bad, but there's nothing I can do about it. I appreciate alL the fans in St. Louis, they backed me 100%." ON NOT RUNNING WELL HERE THIS WEEKEND: "We ran bad all weekend. We should run good at our home track. We haD a bad set of tires on Thursday, it blew the tires off (smoked the tires) two rounds in a row. From that point we just didn't run good. We didn't have a motor problem, we have a bad tune-up. I'm not blaming it on anybody, we just have a bad tune-up." HOW DO YOU LIKE RACING AT NIGHT? "There's nothing better, I love it. I think it's a great new concept for NHRA. Look at the fans, it's sold out. It's a lot of fun for the fans because they don't have to take off from work. As a shop owner (chassis builder) myself I wouldn't mind my employee taking off one hour, but taking off a whole day would not be good. With the rain today they didn't lose anything. All weekend they had a full crowd here. Gateway International is just a phenomenal raceway. With what they have done with it and what they're going to do in the future, there's no better place to race than here." JOHN LINGENFELTER, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVY S-10, was eliminated by TIM FREEMAN, BLUEGRASS TRANSPORTATION CHEVY S-10, in the first round: 7.804/172.41 for Lingenfelter, 7.740/174.75 for Freeman. LINGENFELTER: "We broke a motor last night in the last qualifying shot. What we had to put in wasn't good enough. That's pretty much the deal. It left pretty good, I had a decent light, he just drove around me. We had no steam. We have two months to catch up now." ARE YOU NOT GOING TO THE WINSTON SHOWDOWN IN BRISTOL? "There aren't any points to be earned there. I'd rather stay home and get ready for Indy (U.S. Nationals)." HOW DO YOU LIKE NIGHT RACING? "I think it's less stressful. We have more time to get ready in the morning. You don't have to stay and work all night to be ready in the morning. We actually get more rest. We will get out here early, but you don't feel the pressure. There's less mental stress, I think. It seems to be better for the crowd, more people can get here when they get out of work. I know my employees (in Decatur, Ind.) can get up Saturday morning and get here for eliminations even though it's a 5 to 6-hour drive." BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10, was ousted by MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, in the second round: 7.703/175.21 for Osborne, 7.727/174.12 for Jeter. Jeter changed engines between rounds. JETER: "Something seemed to happen in the first round. It's been kind of slowing down all weekend ever since Thursday night's pass. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Something didn't seem right in the first round, it didn't pull right in high gear. We had to change motors. I knew it would be tough in the second round (against Osborne). We knew something was wrong with the one that was in it. We got the one out from under the bench and put it in. Unfortunately, we were a little heavy on the clutch, we got beat. We will test over the seven weeks off and be ready to go again at Indy and try to close out the year. We'll go home and get some things prepared and go to the U.S. Nationals swinging." ON THE SETBACK IN POINTS: "I hope it's not a major problem. I feel we have to be really on our game at the end of the year, especially with Panella and Osborne still in. It's a letdown, yes, but I'm not going to hold my head down and pout about it. It will make us stronger, and we have to be very strong in the last five races. I felt I did my job on the Tree. Unfortunately, he was better, he ran better, he deserved to win. It brings the best out of the driver when you run Panella, Osborne or Mike Coughlin. I'm not mad that I had a .428 (reaction time). I'd take that all day long. He had a .402. He did a good job. TIM FREEMAN was defeated by BOB PANELLA JR. in the semifinal, 7.712/174.98 for Freeman,7.629/175.64 for Panella. FREEMAN: HOW DO YOU FEEL? "OK. I feel very fortunate to get to race this weekend, after my car wreck and passing the kidney stone. I don't need to be missing any races, for sure. I feel a whole lot better today. The doc's got me on antibiotics for infection. When the kidney stone goes through it rips the liner of your urinary tract and you can get an infection real easy."" ON THAT RUN: "Bob and I have raced a bunch of times and that's the biggest margin he's had over me in a while. We can't get off the starting line very good at this race track and that hurts us. The first 60 feet of the track we were spotting him three to four hundredths (of a second). That was the difference right there." SO WHAT DO YOU DO? "Well, we tried some things in the semis, it didn't help. We're going the other way in the final and hopefully it will help my teammate (Mark Osborne, who faces Panella in the final) pick up the e.t. a little bit." ON NIGHT RACING: "This is how I grew up racing. I kind of learned to drive on the Saturday night race tracks. I don't mind it, I actually did pretty well here. If it hadn't been for the rain today and we got started on time the event would have been already over (at 1 a.m.). The crowd would have got to see a really nice race in a short period of time instead of being here until 2 in the morning.
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