|
"I never keep track of points, I never have," Romine claimed.
"I honestly thought he had won the deal when we got down here.
I was truly surprised to learn we’d won after all."
Crew chief Clayton Harris said he’d explained the points situation
in detail to Romine back in the staging lane, "but he must not
have been listening too closely," Harris said. "I told him
not to pedal it if it lost traction because if we oiled the track, the
penalty (10 points) would have cost us the whole deal. So there was
a little luck involved, too."
Two days after winning the title, Romine announced he is joining his
team with Doug Herbert’s operation for the 2001 season, leaving Harris
the odd man out.
"My first love is Top Fuel," Harris said. "But I would
certainly work on a Funny Car if the right opportunity was there. You
could say my resume is in the mail."
A FATHER’S LOVE
 "Tricky"
Rickie Smith performed what may have been his trickiest feat yet at
Saturday’s Pro Mod qualifying sessions at Rockingham. After placing
his ’63 Corvette 12th in the 16-car field with a 6.389 at 222.80 mph
pass during the day’s first session, Smith had to make a hasty exit.
"My daughter was getting married at 3 o’clock in King, NC, which
is about two hour’s driving time from here," Smith explained. "I
couldn’t make it ridin’, so I had to rent a little Cessna plane from
a guy up home to come down and pick me up."
He said he left the track at 1:10, got to the Rockingham airport at
1:30, and took about an hour to fly home.
"So I got there right at 2:30 when I got in the car and it’s a
good 15-minute ride to my house. Luckily the church where she was getting
married is just about a half or three-quarter mile from my house,"
he said. "I had to stop and get my tux on and when I got to my
house it was 13 minutes to three. When I walked in the front door of
the church to walk her down the aisle, it was four minutes to three.
So it was cuttin’ it close, but it was a good deal."
Everything went well for Smith at the church, where his daughter Amanda
tied the knot with John Mathis. "Then I had to get back here and
it was the same rush, but first I wanted to watch her dance, so we didn’t
leave there until about quarter to five and landed back here at 25 minutes
after five, in plenty of time for the next round" the proud papa
said.
Smith got bumped out of the field as the quicker evening session progressed,
but was scheduled to be the last Pro Mod car making a qualifying attempt.
He made it count, going 6.353 at 223.43 mph to improve to 11th in the
quickest Pro Mod field in history, but lost to Ronnie Hood in Sunday’s
first elimination round.
"I’ve got sponsors and people who help me on this deal and I feel
bad if I don’t get out there and try to run every time I can for them,"
Smith said. "But she’s only going to get married hopefully this
one time, so I didn’t want to miss that."
|
