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Tony Pedregon and Eric Medlen, his replacement
at Force Racing, are the only two top-10 Funny
Car drivers who haven't won in 2004. But Tony
said he's consistent because "Dickie and Kurt
(assistant crew chief Elliott) are doing a great
job at making the right calls. I feel real good
about what we've put together. We just need
to hold the momentum with a little more focus
on race day."
Never mind trying to mesh data from two separate
aerodynamic packages at the beginning of the
season. Venables had to make sure his newly
assembled crew was operating in synch. Fielding
a new team always generates a few problems.
However, two of the six men Venables hired never
had worked for a racing team of any kind, and
one had helped only part-time on a Pro Mod crew.
"I looked more at a person's personality, trying
to get a group of people together who got along.
The team aspect was important to me," Venables
explained. "These guys have to travel, eat,
and room together. It's hard enough to get these
cars to work right, but if people don't get
along, you're going to have problems.
"You can teach anybody anything," he added.
"None of this stuff is magic. A lot of times
they'll turn out better. They don't come with
bad habits."
Venables credited the Quaker State team's early
success to "having good people." He said, "We've
done better than everybody thought but not as
well as we want to. You always want more. I
have high expectations, and so does Tony."
The two of them are grateful that media and
fans are making fewer comparisons to John Force
Racing and have stopped overanalyzing their
breaking away from the Castrol team to form
their own.
"It has definitely calmed down," Venables said,
adding that he didn't smuggle out any Force
secrets. "There are certain things I've carried
over from the business side. I worked for John
Force for four years, but I've been doing this
for 20. You can't help but learn from
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people
like Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly and John
Medlen and Jimmy Prock. But I've gathered a
lot of information from a lot of places.
"People think I brought all their technology
over here, and that's not the case," Venables
said. "I would like for people to understand
that."
The Quaker State Racing team uses different
cylinder heads, supercharger, and clutch system
from the trio of Force Ford Mustangs, and it
has from the beginning. Venables said that while
working for Force, he often had wondered if
different set-ups or parts would have resulted
in improved performance but never was in a position
to test his theories . . . until this year.
They're still using the same key components
on the Monte Carlo as they did in the January
test sessions. So, what Venables imagined has
worked. "If I was going to copy everything from
John Force Racing, I would have done it by now,"
he said.
Goodyear's newest compound, which Venables
said is similar to the one they raced on last
year, represents yet another crucial variable.
"They're trying to make everything safer, and
you can't knock that. But I've had to deal with
three or four tires in this short time, and
it's not like you just put them on and go. They
require different set-ups," said Venables, who's
soloing as crew chief for the first time.
"I've had the most trouble with this last tire,"
he said, "but it has benefited other teams.
I don't really have an answer about what Goodyear
should do or what NHRA should do.
The 85-percent nitro rule will kick in at the
July 23-25 Seattle race, which will feature
a new, untested track, as well. Cooler temperatures
will play a role at Denver and Seattle, before
the western swing ends with normally hot conditions
at Sonoma, Calif.
"It's going to be a challenge, for sure," Venables
said. That also is true for veteran tuner Cerny.
It includes the new fuel-mix limit of 85 percent.
"I'm not real concerned about it," he said.
"When we went from unlimited to 90 percent,
I probably was more concerned. The cars seem
to run better with less, and five percent less
isn't going to hurt us too much. We were running
a little less anyway."
Venables said he knows crew chiefs will compensate
for the fuel rule by tinkering with other power-making
devices: "We have a lot of other knobs that
will make us more power. It's not like everybody's
going to be content. They'll try to make up
for what's been taken away."
Something no one can take away is the fact
that the Pedregon brothers, together, are starting
to flex their muscles.
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