 |
What does it take to run the full Federal Mogul schedule?
"What's happened is that we've got another business in Tacoma, Wash.
That's kept us real busy and that's why we've had to hire the full-time
crew member. When we say full time, it means we're going to as many
races as we possibly can. We would certainly like to win a world championship
again, but our main goal is to win as many races as we can."
Is there more flexibility in your schedule running in the Federal
Mogul Category than running the full 24-event schedule?
"To be quiet honest with you 24 races for us is way too many. We
would like to be able to do that, but on our kind of scale it would
take $600,000 or $700,000 to run that many races, and it would be
hard to accommodate a sponsor for a program like ours. We go through
a lot of clutch parts, and the maintenance on the cars is overwhelming
nowadays. Plus I have a couple of kids and a wife that I want to spend
time with - family is the most important thing to me. My kids are
in baseball now, and all kinds of different sports activities, and
my wife is very busy so I think anywhere from 12-15 races a year is
going to be max for us. If we can't win a world championship or win
as many races as we would like in that amount of races then so be
it."
With all the great drivers in Federal Mogul Funny Car, just how competitive
is it?
"I'll tell you what has really happened here, since the screw compressors
have come out, which are the blowers that we run, the horsepower has
picked up tremendously over the last eight years. During that time
we've had a heck of a problem of shaking and spinning the tires, and
the racing went from being real close each round to one guy that shook
the tires and the other guy making it down the racetrack. We've been
working really hard trying to get that figured out during the last
eight years. The racing hasn't been very enjoyable when you go out
and shake the tires all the time. Since the Hoosier tires have come
along, that has made the racing more side by side. You now have eight
or nine guys within five hundredths of a second in qualifying. You're
also seeing races such as the one last weekend in Chicago where everyone
is running in the 5.60s. I can't recall any race that I've been to
where that many cars ran in the 5.60s, let alone the 5.80s. It's all
because the manufacturers are producing a better part, and we're getting
smarter with that part. We are still going to shake the tires, and
we're still going to have some runs where we don't get down the racetrack,
but the margin of error is a lot less now than what it was back then."
With 71 wins, is setting the all-time record something you'd like
to accomplish someday?
"Being real honest with you, I've never looked at how many wins and
how many championships a guy has. We've won 71 national-event jackets
and never in my life have I wore one of those jackets. They come in
a box and I put them in my closet. I've never looked at it as though
I have this many wins because we're not finished yet. When I'm all
said and done as a driver, when my dad's all said and done as a team
owner and my brother is done as a racer, we'll look at each other
and say 'we did a heck of a job.' But at this point in time I don't
look at that because I'm not ready to say it's over. When it's all
over then I'll sit back and ask myself, "how'd we do?"
Do you have any aspirations to return to the Fuel categories?
"Not at this time. The reason for that is I have a family to raise,
and my kids will come before my race car. That's why I'm walking what
I consider to be a very fine line right now. I want to raise my kids
the way my dad raised us. I feel he did a wonderful job, and I've
got so many wonderful memories with my family that I want my kids
to have those same memories. I want to spend the time with them in
their sports, and go camping and fishing with them because when they're
all grown-up and in college, I'm not going to have that much time
to spend with them, so it's very important to me not to lose those
memories. If I can lay out a schedule to be able to accommodate Valvoline
and Pontiac, and keep our name out there, keep racing, and winning
races, plus spend time with my kids, then that's an accomplishment."
What are you striving for this year?
"I feel that this is hopefully going to be the best year we've had
since we took on our Top Fuel program and divided the teams up. My
goal is to get back and do a great job for our sponsors: Valvoline,
Pontiac, Hoosier tires, Flowmaster and ProMax. I want to win races
so I can promote the products and do a good job so they will continue
to help us race. I want to build that tradition of winning races so
maybe someday when we are finished, and we count all the races we've
won, we can say we were the winningest racer in NHRA history. I'm
having a blast this year, and I'm more excited and determined about
the race car than I've been in a long time. It's been a fun experience.
My dad's health is back and that's more important than anything. He
went through bypass surgery over the winter and that was a big concern
for all of us. The most important thing for me is that everybody has
their health, and we can race the car and enjoy ourselves the way
that we used to. This year we've done that and that means a lot to
us."
|
