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He said that when his crew and sponsors asked him why
he was sure Cowin was the best replacement for Mike Dunn, "I told them
that I remember not too many years ago that a lot of hard work and enthusiasm
won a lot of races. I was referring to my racing back in the '80s, when
a bunch of young guys put a lot of hard work and dedication and commitment
to a race team and we went around the country and kicked some butt."
Calling the 2002 version of his operation "the Youth and
Enthusiasm Tour," Gwynn said the wholesale changes -- including an entirely
new crew -- indicated a new direction.
"We really needed this. We were in the rumor mill for
the first time in many years. We miss Mike Dunn. We miss Ken Veney.
We miss the rest of the gang (who are) not there anymore. But it was
time to move on," Gwynn said. "As we win these races, this young group
of guys will gain their confidence collectively. And we will build withthis
race team."
QUOTES
"I love this car. I'd drive it out there on the highway,
but we'd probably get in trouble for that." -- Clay Millican, the reigning
IHRA champion whose NHRA Top Fuel debut took him to the semifinals.
"I'm more excited now than I ever was driving a dragster.
You never know what it's going to do." -- Gary Scelzi, the three-time
NHRA Winston Top Fuel champion who outran Tony Pedregon in Sunday's
first round but lost to Ron Capps in the second.
"See my little girl go down the track? Cute, ain't she?"
-- John Force to announcer Alan Reinhart, after daughter Ashley made
an exhibition pass in her Super Comp dragster
"I don't need you to draw a crowd." -- Ashley Force to
father John, when he volunteered to accompany her to a Fram-sponsored
public appearance.
JOHNSON SETS POMONA SPEED RECORD WITH
SPARE ENGINE
By Rick Voegelin
The action was fast and furious in the Warren Johnson
pits when WJ and his crew performed a 23-minute engine change before
the second round of eliminations. With eight pairs of hands working
feverishly, included those of Kurt Johnson's ace ACDelco team and his
wife Arlene, Johnson swapped engines and brought his new screaming yellow
GM Performance Parts Pontiac to the staging lanes with seconds to spare.
WJ discovered a damaged valve during routine between-rounds
maintenance. With no time to adjust the clutch to the spare engine's
power curve, Johnson relied on his decades of experience to negotiate
the problematic right lane. Mid-track tire spin slowed his pace to a
6.857-second e.t. and ceded the victory to Jim Yates' 6.834, but Johnson
booming 203.12 mph top speed was the fastest run of the meet and set
the Pomona Raceway track record.
"We're going to have to work on those engine changes and
get them down to 10 or 12 minutes," Johnson laughed. "We only had to
change a motor between rounds once last season, so the team is a little
rusty. As soon as we get the rig back to the shop, we're going to start
drilling on engine changes.
"We just had too much wheel speed when I ran Yates," he
reported. "We hadn't run this particular motor on a national event track
previously, and with its power curve, it's prone to spinning the tires.
I'm not saying it's necessarily faster than the motor we replaced, but
its characteristics are certainly different."
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