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"We knew it was going to be a battle from the minute we
let the clutch out at the first round," Marnell said. "I was lucky enough
to get off the clutch pedal first. Just getting to the final round was
a real accomplishment -- pulling it off ... very exciting stuff."
He said against Yates, "I looked over right at the finish
line and he was right there. I looked up and saw the win light -- and
then I lost it. I went crazy. I was yelling and screaming."
That puts him in a completely new position: points leader.
"Walking into Phoenix with No.1. That's pretty awesome," he said. "I've
never been No. 1 in the points before, so this is exciting for me."
Marnell dedicated the race to crew member and friend Bill
Smith, a fixture in the Pro Stock pits who passed away last Thursday
in Las Vegas. "He was right there with me the whole day, helping me
out. We did it. We got the job done." For the last five years, Smith
was in charge of team transportation, and his job on the crew was to
work on the back half of the car.
THE KLOEBER CONNECTION
Clay Millican made it to the Top Fuel semifinals and gave
winner Larry Dixon a decent scare before becoming one of his victims.
Ironically, it was Millican's crew chief, Mike Kloeber, who boosted
Dixon's career.
"Mike hired me at Prudhomme's back in 1988," Dixon said.
"I was just a grunt, a gofer, washing parts. Who knew it would turn
into this? I owe a lot to Mike. He taught me a lot and gave me shot
when nobody else (did)."
FAST BUT NO CIGAR
Gary Densham went fastest but not farthest.
Although it was nearly sundown when he set the national
Funny Car speed record with a 326.87-mile-an-hour pass, the former teacher
called Saturday "one of the proudest days of my life." It dissolved
into another ordinary day of racing when Densham beat Cruz Pedregon
in the first round, then lost in the quarterfinals to finalist Del Worsham.
Densham had backed up the mark by running his Ford Mustang
324.44 miles an hour in the previous qualifying session. He was third
on the starting grid as Force Racing swiped three of the top four spots.
Boss John Force, who earned his 107th career top-qualifying
position, owns the other end of the record. He established the national
elapsed-time speed record last October at Reading, Pa., with a 4.731-second
run.
GWYNN RELIVING HIS YOUTH
Top Fuel Team owner Darrell Gwynn said his newly realigned
New York Yankees Dragster program is "still in the humble stages." But
in Friday's second of four qualifying sessions -- in his first full
run for Gwynn/Steinbrenner Racing -- Andrew Cowin put up some flashy
numbers.
Cowin did more than set an elapsed-time track record with
a 4.490-second pass at 324.98. He also became only the sixth driver
in NHRA history to record a sub-4.5-second pass in grabbing the No.
1 qualifying position.
The 22-year-old Sydney, Australia, native, had said he
didn't want to be cocky "because then I might shoot myself in the foot."
He must be prescient as well as precocious, for he lasted 4.490 seconds
when it counted, victim of the first opening-round upset. Little did
he know when he said the experience has been "a big kick in the pants
for me" that he would be on the receiving end of one Sunday from John
Smith.
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