NHRA: Briston Showdown Chevy S-10 Notes and Quotes
10 July 1999
PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 Pro Stock Truck drivers qualify for the Winston Showdown under regular NHRA qualifying procedures. BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10, is No. 1 following two qualifying runs: 7.757/173.25. JETER: "I have raced here in Bristol for several years. It's quite a difference from the last time that we were here in 1997. The air is pretty much the same, the track is a whole lot better, everything is better. We just tuned from (what we learned) from similar conditions earlier in the year, some things I learned back in the old days racing here, applied that to what we are doing right now and it seemed to like it." WILL YOUR TIME HOLD? "I probably could have gone a .73 tonight. I'm not going to say it will hold up, but I hope it will. I'd like to thank Winston for their support, but I'm here to take their money." DID THE TRACK CHANGE BETWEEN SESSIONS? "Our Chevy S-10 really seemed to like the cooler air (tonight), and the track is better. I'm sure it's 25 degrees cooler this evening than it was this afternoon. It probably helped the performance." ANY DIFFERENCE IN LANES? "I don't think there's any different lane to lane. They did a good job preparing this track." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE NO. 1? "I said earlier in the year I didn't particularly like to be No. 1, but once you're No.1 you kind of expect yourself to be No. 1 every time. It's very important and it gives you a better outlook on race day when you go in No. 1. If I can keep it on top, come Saturday night we will definitely be a contender." TIM FREEMAN, BLUEGRASS TRANSPORTATION CHEVY S-10, is a local boy from Roan Mountain, Tenn., approximately 27 miles from the track. He's No. 6 qualifier, 7.828/172.23. FREEMAN: "I live about a 30-minute drive away, not very far at all." ON THE BRISTOL DRAGWAY: "We raced plenty of times on this track with IHRA, but the new track is awesome. It's great. It's a real nice facility. It's great to be out here. It's nice to sleep in your own bed and have a national NHRA event in your backyard. It's also real nice that they included the trucks in the Winston Showdown. I'm sure it will be better as time goes on, as they get to improve it and work on it and have everything together. The surfce is real nice and smooth. The trucks don't see to have any problem. I think the quicker Pro Stock cars have a little bit of a problem. The track is new, it needs time to get a little more rubber on the surface." ON QUALIFYING NO. 6: "It's really not so good to be that far back at my 'home' track. I just made a bad run in the night session, hopefully tomorrow night I can do better and challenge Brad Jeter for the pole and my teammate Stevie Johns." STEVE JOHNS is driving Mark Osborne's RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, while Mark competes in Pro Stock. Johns is one of six employees of legendary Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins as the shop foreman of the engine shop, and is a former Competition category champion. He's been with Grumpy since 1981. He is driving a Pro Stock Truck for the first time. Of course, both Freeman's and Osborne's Chevy S-10s are equipped with Jenkins-built Chevy 358 cu. in. V8 engines. Steve is also on pins and needles as his wife Rose is due with their second child at any moment, back in Mountville, Pa. Steve is No. 3 qualifier, 7.771/173.12. JOHNS: "These truck are sensitive to driving, tht's for sure. It's also giving me another good viewpoint as to what they do on the track when it comes to building the engines and running them on the dyno. Tim even said that it would be good to get in there, with all the feedback I get from the other guys. This is just a one-race deal, however." ON NOT BEING HERE IN CASE HIS WIFE DELIVERS: "Jim (Kessinger, team owner), gave me too good an offer, he made it too easy. I talked to Rose about it and she said do it." WILL YOU DRIVE A TRUCK AGAIN? "Probably next year. It would be a good opportunity to do this, I couldn't pass it up." WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK FOR GRUMPY? "Interesting. It's actually pretty neat with his enginering background and then I think he needs several common sense kind of guys around him, and that's how the rest of the guys in the shop are. That makes for a nice mix. We wouldn't be anywhere without him."
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