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Muldowney, who has mused that if she can't race the full
schedule she at least relishes the idea of being a spoiler, got something
out of the deal. Dixon volunteered to mow the lawn at her Armada, Mich.
home when she beat Bernstein at Columbus in June. This time, he said,
"I told her I'd paint her house. She said she has siding, so I'm off
the hook. But she has four acres of lawn to mow. So that should keep
me busy."
Yates might be busy this winter, too, wondering how he
could take the Pro Stock lead three separate times, for a total of 10
of the 23 races, then DNQ at the penultimate race and hand Coughlin
his second title.
That might have been the easiest Coughlin has had it all
season. It started nothing like 2000, when he captured the championship
and won the first seven races. He failed to qualify at the season-opening
Winternationals in February and took until the 17th race -- the U.S.
Nationals at Indianapolis -- to gain the top spot.
Coughlin had a nearly perfect .401-second reaction time
to beat six-time champ Warren Johnson in the final round for his fourth
straight win and his eighth victory in the last 11 races. After recording
this third triumph at Las Vegas, he said the facility "seems like a
second home to us.
"Harmony on the team has been the key," the Columbus,
Ohio, native said. "And we've obviously made some horsepower with our
Chevrolet." He said he's "more at ease" returning to Pomona for the
Finals now but insisted he won't let down his guard: "There are still
a lot of beans on the line. And we'll have a brand-new engine."
Savoie equaled Muldowney's feat of three NHRA series championships
with her holeshot victory in the final round over longtime nemesis Matt
Hines.
"Winning on a holeshot is the best feeling," Savoie, of
New Orleans, said. "I've been having a lot to do with the losses."
She dispatched closest challenger Treble in the semifinals,
as he red-lit. "I did it to myself. You know I hate it when I can't
blame somebody!" Treble wisecracked.
Savoie said her third title in three seasons has earned
her the respect of the racing community she sometimes felt was lacking.
"I feel legitimate now. When I was honored for winning more races than
Shirley (at the July Pomona race last season), it didn't seem right.
I think if we never gained respect before this year, we sure as hell
deserve it now."
She said the 2002 schedule "has been one big test from
Day 1. . .to prove my faith and sincerity and my determination as a
woman and as a racer." Rather than enjoy the spoils of back-to-back
Pro Stock Motorcycle championships, she struggled with sponsorship woes
and self-doubt.
And she tried to explain her emotional side, which she
said has come under even more attack lately. "I'm really stressed out.
I've got a lot of things going on with my business and my personal life,
worrying about sponsorship issues. We haven't been getting paid, so
I'm hurting at home," she said. "We need to lock up a sponsorship for
next year. Mohegan Sun came through for us the last three races of the
year. They've already agreed to an associate sponsorship with us, but
we need more than that. It's just really scary. I'm not ready to get
out right now. I want at least two or three more years. This year hasn't
proved to me I'm going to have two or three more years. And I'm taking
it pretty emotionally."
As for her ready tears, Savoie said, "I'm sorry. I take
this really hard. There's so much going on this year, and I'm so tired
of feeling like I have to defend myself to everyone. I don't have to
prove myself to anybody but God. I take it so emotionally when I win
and when I lose. This is my livelihood, this is my hobby, this is my
life, this is my everything. My health and family are the only things
that mean more to me than what happens on that track."
Team Force has all the attention to itself in Pomona for
what happens on the track.
"It's really all destiny," Force said of his quest for
the first championship in the POWERade sponsorship era. Force, who was
uncomfortable with rock star Simmons (the event's grand marshal) lapping
at him like a dog during his gaudy media schmooze, was even more annoyed
by questions surrounding the unusual nature of his own down-to-the-wire
championship race with his teammate. "If my guys go up there (to the
starting line) and make a mistake, I get blamed for it. We just wanted
to get it over with," he said at Las Vegas.
Pedregon has asserted his position since the July race
in Seattle, when he won and claimed the No. 2 spot, 34 points behind
Force. "When you have a young guy like (Gary Densham crew chief) Jimmy
Prock, who's very competitive, . . . it's not so easy to tell somebody,
'Throw a race.' Contrary to what critics think, that's not so easy to
do. We're very sensitive to that issue. I race. I wouldn't do it. I
couldn't live like that. That's the way it works."
Pedregon added, "If you want to race three cars and there
are marketing advantages and you get the money for it, fine. But don't
do it just to get to race your own car so you can have a freebie. I
don't want to be part of a business that functions like that. Drag racing
has always been a very good product. These cars are pretty awesome.
It's good, close racing. You don't have to sit for three hours, just
to hope for a close race. We deliver it to you every time. To take that
away from this sport is not a good thing. I don't think NHRA would allow
that. I'm glad they have the authority to say they're not going to allow
anyone, whether it's John or anyone else, to manipulate the sport."
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