Chevy Racing Notes & Quotes -- NHRA Dallas

ENNIS, Tex. ( SUNDAY, OCT. 24, 1999)

PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28 -- ELIMINATIONS

BOTH CAMAROS DEFEATED IN FIRST ROUND

No. 16 qualifier MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO PERFORMANCE CAMARO Z28, winner of the last two events, both times on holeshot advantages, was defeated by polesitter Warren Johnson in the first round today: 6.860/201.16, .470 R/T, for Warren to Mike's 6.899/199.20, .439 R/T. Edwards is one of the best launchers in the sport, he had the better reaction time, but it wasn't
enough. Edwards won the Topeka event this year from 16th spot, the first
time that's happened in the Pro Stock class.

EDWARDS: "I should not have been in that position to have to run him first round. I'm just fortunate to qualify 16th, with all the trouble we had all weekend in qualifying. It's unfortunate, but I am still happy wequalified. If there was a way that we could somehow beat him I figured I could win the race. Usually, if you are going to win a drag race in Pro Stock you have to beat one of the Johnsons (Warren and Kurt), and Warren is the toughest one. But there are two more races left for Mike Edwards."

 
WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU'RE PAIRED WITH WARREN? "I don't even think about it. It's just another competitor next to me when I get in the car. I just focus on the car and do the best I cn do. I do both things on this Camaro. I worry about the car setup too. I'm thinking more about the mechanical aspects of the Camaro and the track than I am about my driving. Driving just comes naturally for me. I don't mean to sound arrogant when I say that, but that's how I feel."

KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, recorded the fastest run of his Pro Stock career in the final quaifying session, 202.02 mph, bettering his previous personal best speed of 201.94 mph. Unfortunately, he lost in the first
round to Troy Coughlin. Kurt's Camaro made a hard move toward the
centerline, forcing him to shut off. The race for second place in the
championship remained tight as Kurt's rival Jeg Coughlin Jr. also lost in
the first round.

KURT: "We adjusted the clutch one-quarter turn and moved four pounds of
ballast after qualifying. With those minor changes, the car practically
went out of control. Why? What happened? We don't know. We tested in
Atlanta and Memphis and made 12 runs without a hint of tire shake, then we
come here and lose in the first round with unbelievable tire shake. The
tires were distorted as soon as I left the starting line, the clutch was
locked up, and that was it."

FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28

ONLY TWO CAMAROS IN FIELD ADVANCE TO SEMIS

Both Camaros advanced to the semifinal: RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, defeated Dale Creasy Jr. in the first round, then eliminated Cruz Pedregon in the second. WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, disposed of Cory Lee in the first round and his archrival Tony Pedregon in the second

The semifinal will see a classic Chevy vs. Ford battle, as Ron Capps faces newly-crowned champion John Force. Bazemore meets Pontiac driver Tommy
Johnson Jr.

(SATURDAY, OCT. 23, 1999)

PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28 -- FINAL QUALIFYING

KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, is No. 4 qualifier, 6.844/202.02. He and his dad Warren, No. 1, were the only Pro Stock qualifiers to run 202 mph this weekend.

MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO PERFORMANCE CAMARO Z28, squeaked in a No. 16 qualifying position set in the fourth and final round, 6.916/199.86. The team is not concerned, as Mike has already proven that he can win from No. 16, which he accomplished in Topeka just two races ago. He went on to win two in a row in Memphis, the previous race on the NHRA circuit.
EDWARDS: "I had a problem this morning, which put us behind today. I
missed a good session this morning but there was another one tonight.
Unfortunately, we were first pair out, we just didn't make a very good run.
We are real lucky to be in. Other than getting in the field, it's been a
pretty miserable day." WERE YOU BITING YOUR FINGERNAILS IN THE LAST ROUND? "I hung on for dear life. I guess that's how you describe Pro Stock, hero to zero." ON RUNNING POINTS LEADER WARREN JOHNSON IN THE FIRST ROUND: "He's probably going to have to make a big mistake for me to win, because he's running awesome, so is the whole field. It really should have been an.89 or .88 bump. It's usually anywhere from six to seven thousanths of a second difference and it's almost a tenth, fortunately for us."

Note: Edwards has met Warren three times this season: Edwards beat him in
the semis in Houston and in the second round in Sonoma. He and Warren
faced off in the final here in May, with Warren taking the victory.

FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28 -- FINAL QUALIFYING

WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, is No. 3 qualifier, 4.904/303.43, the second quickest pass of the day.
BAZEMORE: "You always try for a perfect run, but I really don't think it
exists. Invariably something will surface during the run that prevents the
car from running better. For example, this morning's pass was a good one,
quickest in that session, and second quickest for the day. That's pretty
good, but naturally we wanted more. Then tonight, I think the Kendall
Camaro team was again looking to improve, but, unfortunately, we shook the
tires. Still, we ran well in three of the four sessions, which puts us in
a good position for tomorrow. We have an unpredictable opponent in Cory
Lee. You never know what that car might run, so we'll have to be on our
game right at the start. In addition, we have to be consistent. That will
be important if we hope to do well tomorrow."

RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, is No. 4 qualifier, 4.908/298.01.

CAPPS: "Everything is great. We put our brand new Camaro body on, which
we just did some work on from what GM learned in the wind tunnel. And
obviously with Dale Armstrong being here every run he gets the Camaro down
the track is something he can file away as information for the future on
the Funny Car. If you know Dale Armstrong you understand what he's done in
the past. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what he's capable of.
It's going to be a fast Funny Car for the rest of '99. In 2000 it will be
a fresh car, and we're excited. To come here and run 4.9s (4.950, 4.908,
4.94) three rounds in a row and run a 4.908 in the heat of the day is very
cool. We actually expected to run a mid .80 in the last round but it had
some things that went wrong and I clicked it off early. It has the
potential to do it and it's going to be a fun race tomorrow. The Camaro is
just an animal to drive. Thank God we have the downforce on the new body.
The way Dale sets up this car it's an animal to drive, but it's a lot of
fun. It's just wild and crazy, things flying, front-end in the air, just
havoc going in in the cockpit to keep the car going straight. That's the
way you have to run these cars if you want to run a 4.80; they have to be
on the edge every run, that's what we have to do. We're going to go to the
wind tunnel and find some more downforce and go down the track even better.
It goes hand in hand."

(SATURDAY, OCT. 23, 1999) -

PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28

MIKE EDWARDS SPINS OUT ON BURNOUT

In today's first qualifying session, MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO PERFORMANCE CAMARO Z28, winner of the last two events, spun sideways during his burnout, which oiled the track extensively, delaying what was to be a quick and fast session to reach the heat of the day. Edwards is No. 15 qualifier at this time, 6.934/198.50.

EDWARDS: "The oil pressure relief valve came out of the oil pump, and it
shot the oil everywhere and completely oiled the tires and the underneath
of the Camaro. I'm glad it happened right there insted of at 200 mph. It
would have taken me into the retainer wall. I'm really thankful. I'm
sorry for the guys who were behind me because it was the best session, it
messed it up for them. I didn't want to do it, I wanted to be as fast as
they were going. That was a pretty serious oil-down for a Pro Stocker, I
have to admit it. I told them I bet that will make (National) Dragster.
There's not much you can do when you have oil on your tires, sliding
around. It didn't hurt the engine, it just pumped all the oil out
underneath the car. It didn't run long enough to hurt it, it had plenty of
oil still left in it."

PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 -- FIRST ROUND ELIMINATIONS

LARRY KOPP, SPEEDCO TRUCK LUBE CHEVY S-10, defending event and Winston Champion, was eliminated in the first round by MIKE COUGHLIN, JEG'S MAIL ORDER CHEVY S-10. Both had excellent reaction times, but it was Coughlin with a quicker elapsed time and reaction time who took the win, 7.539/177.79, .416 R/T for Mike, 7.614/177.27, .421 R/T for Larry.

KOPP: "I had a .420 light and I was late. A .420 would have been hard to
beat, that's a seriously good light. This whole weekend we missed the
combination to get this clutch right to get down the track fast, we just
missed it. We ran good enough speed with this to run a tenth quicker than
we were going. We thought we could run a .54 or a .53, but we didn't.
We're hoping thsat it's something we can find that's easy, like a shock
problem. We ran decent here. This was a fast field, we qualified 12th.
Twelfth out of 38 isn't bad. It's hard enough to make the field here. The
last session we started out sixth and wound up 12th. We have enough power
under the hood of the Chevy S-10 to get a .55 or .54, but we didn't do it.
For some reason we can't get a hold of the track like we're supposed to,
and I don't know why. We did well in Topeka and Memphis, but here we're
not running well on the first half of the track.

NOTE: It's an all-Chevy S-10 field following the first round, as the only
Dodge (Craig Eaton) was defeated by VINNY BARONE'S CHEVY S-10.

SECOND ROUND:

The championship chase is heating up with one race remaining in the Pro
Stock Truck series following this weekend's event.

MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, who led the standings from the second race of the season through the 11th, was defeated by his former teammate, TIM FREEMAN, driving Ruben Celedon's Chevy S-10, on a holeshot advantage: 7.628/176.26 for Freeman, .476 R/T; 7.563//178.35, .612 R/T for Osborne. He is now virtually out of the running.

OSBORNE: "I don't know if the sun was worse when Randy (Daniels) ran three
minutes behind me. I couldn't see anything on the left side. My guys,
Greg Rogers, Philip Surface and Tommy Lee, and the main dude, Jim
Kessinger, have given me every chance and opportunity that there is to be
the Pro Stock Truck champion, and Mark Osborne himself didn't take full
advantage of the situation, no doubt about it. I want to thank RCL
Components, Kessinger Motorsports, Ace Racing Clutches, and all the other
people who stood behind me in my drive to be the champ, and of course the
two most important, the GM Raceshop and the Chevy S-10 brand team." ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP: "If Jeter loses I can get second, but I don't think I can
get first. I should never have put myself in this situation. I had a
115-point lead, we had some personnel problems, this and that -- I'm not
blaming anyone for that. I have super guys here now, we're ready to bounce
back next year and do what we should have done this year. We will be the
truck to contend with next year, and so will Stevie Johns' Chevy S-10, and
his crew."

BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10, advanced to the third round after defeating BRIAN SELF'S CHEVY S-10 in the first and GREG STANFIELD'S CHEVY S-10 in the second round. Jeter moves into second in the championship, behind BOB PANELLA, whom he'll face in the third round.

JETER: "I knew it was a very, very, very important round. I think the
pressure was on myself, Bobby Panella and Mark Osborne. We all knew that
that round was very critical. I was late on the tree, but my Chevy S-10
saved me. The crew did a hell of a good job. Eight thousandths of a
second, and we have lane choice going into tomorrow. I think it's going to
be a very important part of determining this race tomorrow. We've been
trying to
put round wins together and so far so good, and I hope that we can get past
that semifinal tomorrow, that's going to be awful tough. It's going to be
a hell of a battle, you can't take anything away from him. He's going to
be on his game, I hope to be on my game, we're going to duke it out and see
who goes into the final round. It's a points game. Hopefully we can take
him out and I know he'll try just as hard in the other lane to take me out.
The crew has worked hard and stuck behind me and gave ma a great Chevy
S-10 to race here. It pulled away at the other end. The guys at Grumpy
Jenkins' shop did a great job too."

RANDY DANIELS, DANIELS MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, set a new national speed
record today with his 179.14 mph pass in the second round against BOB
PANELLA. He lost that round to Panella's 7.578/177.13, .440 R/T, although
he was quicker with his 7.540/179.14. His .497 reaction time resulted in a
holeshot advantage for Panella.

DANIELS: "The driver just went brain dead. The sun was bothering me, I
got ready to stage and I couldn't see if he was pre-staged or whatever. I
got ready to stage, I kept looking trying to tell if he was staged or not.
After I finally realized he wasn't staged I finally staged, and my whole
train of thought was broken. I just missed the tree, I was just late. I
just want to crawl into a hole somewhere and hide. This Chevy S-10 has
been so fast all weekend long to lose on a deal like that. Setting the
national speed record will help to ease the pain, it will be nice to have
bragging rights for the winter and going into Pomona with that. I'm going
to go even faster in Pomona."