By Susan Wade
Photos by Ron Lewis
7/20/04
he idea of
a multi-car team is not simply to share data but rather to take advantage of
it. As the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season heads into its second
half, Cruz and Tony Pedregon finally are doing that with their Funny Car alliance.
And Dickie Venables, crew chief for Tony's Quaker State Chevrolet Monte Carlo,
said the NHRA's mandated new Goodyear slicks, minimum tire pressure and 85 percent
nitromethane shouldn't disrupt their momentum too much.
When Cruz qualified his Advance Auto Parts Monte Carlo No. 1 with a career-best 4.769-second elapsed time at Columbus, Ohio, he did more than set the National Trail Raceway record and earn his first top spot since the 1998 Finals at Pomona, Calif. He sent the message that these brothers, who have won one series championship apiece and are among the top five on the class' career victory list, form a formidable bloc.
Following that 10th of 23 races, the Pedregons qualified second and third at Englishtown and Cruz was fifth at St. Louis in the Wes Cerny-tuned Chevy. At St. Louis, Cruz advanced to the semifinals for the first time all year.
"Finally," Cruz said after that quickest-at-Columbus run. While he and Cerny struggled with ignition problems, Tony and Venables had contradicted critics by taking the No. 1 qualifying position three times and reaching the final round at Phoenix.
Tony also posted a 4.716 e.t. at 331.28 miles an hour at Chicago that, for about 40 hours, was the ultimate in Funny Car performance. And he didn't have the benefit of the aerodynamically advanced Monte Carlo until the Atlanta event, the seventh on the schedule. Their effort wasn't bad for a team whose first goal was merely to qualify for the season-opening Winternationals.
Cruz
had started eliminations from the No. 2 position at Bristol in just his third
race with the new Monte Carlo body. But he had lasted past the first round only
twice before Columbus and still hasn't cracked the top 10.
"Cerny had been really frustrated because our car wasn't running the same as Tony's," Cruz said. "The cars are set up the same and run all the same parts and really should just be running close to the same. But we haven't been running on all eight cylinders and we finally found the gremlin that had been hurting us."
Now, he said, he's optimistic. "Things are starting to come together like we planned," he said. "With the hard work and dedication of this team, our efforts are starting to show. We need to continue our strong qualifying efforts and just refine our race-day set up."
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.
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"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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