Clay Millican's crew chief Mike Kloeber commented,
"We've changed everything on this car; engine
angle, driver position, everything, so we're
just trying to master the first 300 feet, so
the quality of this track hasn't entered into
it."
When Don Prudhomme was asked his opinions on
the surface he asked that his initial word not
be printed, but commented something like, "Lousy!"
Later, in a conversation overheard on the starting
line between Kalitta Racing crew chief Jim Oberhoffer,
Bud King crew chief Tim Richards and clutch
consultant Lanny Miglizzi from Team Schumacher,
Miglizzi pointed out the Firebird track crew
layering traction compound on the strip's cooling
evening surface, to which Richards commented,
"It's real tough to shine shit."
These testing sessions are sometimes nicknamed
"The Sixty-foot Nationals," but many teams were
testing all aspects of their new combinations
over the entire quarter-mile. If team owners
are willing to commit the vast team resources
and considerable amounts of money for testing,
then track operators like Allen need to step
up and provide a prepared racing surface equal
to that of a stop on the NHRA tour. -DH
KEEPING TRACK OF THE TRACK
Lanny Miglizzi, clutch consultant for Don Schumacher Racing, has carved a dual role for himself as a track specialist. And he put in perspective why more than a couple of crew chiefs expressed disgust about the track surface conditions.
"Once the cars get past the Christmas tree about 60-70 feet, it's a little
slipperier than we'd like. And it needs cars
to make it better," the Indianapolis resident
and 20-year
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drag-racing
expert said. "By the time we get to the 330
mark, we feel there's not much grip. So you've
really got to calm 'em down. We're kind of acting
like it's 120-degree track out there, when it's
only 85-90 degrees.
"The facility did an excellent job with the new asphalt, but new asphalt means it needs rubber. So when we get to half-track, actually 680 feet, it spins the tires quite easily," he said. "That's why we're treating the track like it's 20-30 degrees hotter than it really is. There's excess rubber from the 330 mark on. And around 400 feet they scraped some of the excess, which means we will have more surface area, but when you scrape the rubber off it's kind of green underneath and it needs more cars. A day or two from now it will show that they put in positive effort.
Maglizzi said during Saturday's session that
the Firebird staff "did put in positive effort.
It's not going to show it for a half a day or
a day. With some preparation, it honestly could
have had better grip. Short and sweet, a week
or two ago, an effort could have been put in
and you would have heard a lot less complaints."
-SW
ONE DITCHES, ONE DEBUTS
UNIQUE BODY
Darrell Russell said he doubts he'll be driving
the Wayne Dupuy-designed concave body that showed
up at a few races last year. "I'm not saying
we won't go back to that," he said, "but right
now we're going to stay with the more conventional
one. It was something cool to try. You never
know. We gave it a shot."
Millican, who was one of only four drivers
Saturday to clock a sub-5-second pass, debuted
a one-piece conventional-style body. The Tennesseean's
best pass of the weekend was 4.993 seconds at
205.38 mph. -SW
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