NHRA News: Neff leads crop of young gun crew chiefs (10/6/2004)

Neff leads crop of young gun crew chiefs

Contributed by Judy Stropus
10/6/2004

Mike Neff

At 38 years old, Mike Neff is one of the youngest nitro crew chiefs on the circuit. But during his three years in charge of a 6,000 horsepower machine, Neff has proven his worth time and again, including tuning his man, Gary Scelzi, to the first 330-mph Funny Car pass.

Neff's career started with Larry Minor Motorsports in 1992 as a mechanic on Cruz Pedregon's Funny Car. He was then part of Joe Gibbs Racing from 1995-2000 with Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan. In 2001, Neff was assistant crew chief on the Matco Tools Funny Car of Whit Bazemore before being elevated to crew chief on the Oakley car of Scotty Cannon in 2002.One year later, Neff was paired with Scelzi on the Hemi-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus and the two have been working together ever since.

Overall, Neff has been a part of 40 NHRA national-event wins, including five wins at the prestigious U.S. Nationals. A native of Hemet, Calif., Neff resides in Indianapolis with wife Michelle, son Chase, 5, and daughter Chloe, 1. Michelle is a lawyer in the Indianapolis area.

In this question and answer session, Neff discusses life a crew chief, what it's like to work at Don Schumacher Racing, how to make a car go fast, and other things that enter the mind of a top-level tuner.

How did you get the nickname Zippy?

Zippy in Schumacher Racing's command center.
Racers Edge Photography

Neff: I've had my nickname since I was a kid. The coincidental thing was when I worked for Joe Gibbs on the McDonald's dragster from 1995 through 2001, they hired Greg Zipadelli, and his nickname was Zippy also. So, there were two Zippys at Gibbs Racing.

Were you ready to become a crew chief in 2002?
Neff: When Don Schumacher decided to add Scotty Cannon to the team I had been working as the assistant crew chief on Bazemore's car. We intended to run the cars the same. Schumacher and Whit's crew chief Lee Beard had confidence in me and gave me the opportunity to be crew chief on Cannon's car. We felt that would be the best way to go because we wanted the cars to be tuned the same rather than hire somebody else who might want to run it a different way.

I was ready to be crew chief because I had been in the assistant position for the two prior years, first on Cory Mac's car in 2000 and then Bazemore's car in 2001. I felt I had a pretty good understanding of what it was going to take to be able to do it.

There was a big benefit to having (co-crew chief) Dan Olson and Lee Beard around to help me. If I were to get into any trouble it was comforting to know that they were there to possibly give me a hand.

The other benefit was being with a team like Schumacher where you were able to buy anything that you needed and test as much as you wanted. That was a big thing because I didn't have to worry about having the best parts or not being able to run the car when I needed to test it.

Two years in, how are you doing?

No one wants to see this car in the other lane.
Racers Edge Photography

Neff: I think our performance is good and I feel we've steadily made progress and continue to get a little bit better all the time. And as I learn more and get more familiar with things and get more experience I'm not so prone to make the same mistake twice. I'm pretty satisfied with where we are in our second year with Gary, in particular because he is a new driver in Funny Car more or less, and I'm a relatively new crew chief. I'm definitely satisfied with our performance.

What's your best accomplishment so far?
Neff: Probably setting the speed record three times in a row. That was definitely a pure performance factor and being able to do that was a highlight. Being the first ones to run 330 mph after setting the record at 328, 329, then at 330 was very rewarding. Winning our first race (Sonoma 2003) was a huge accomplishment as well.

How does one get to be a crew chief?
Neff: A crew member needs to be in the right position where he is able to learn and see all the moves being made and be in the discussions of what to do for whatever situation. He needs to see everything that's going on and start thinking about it, like what he would do if he were going to have to make the calls. He has to put himself in that role in his own mind. It's kind of what I did. I'd like pretend, 'I would do this, I would do that,' and then see what the crew chief would do, what move he would make, and just kind of get a feel for it.

The tricky part is getting the opportunity with a team with a big sponsor because of the pressure that exists to perform at a top level immediately. A lot of people would like the opportunity to see if they could do it, but some guys wouldn't want to have all the responsibility that goes with it. That was the hard part for me. I'd lay in bed at night when the car wasn't running well, worrying about it all the time. You get yourself caught up in it so much that you start worrying about losing your job. Failure wasn't really an option for me. I was going to have to make it work, no matter what, when I took that position. I was going to work as hard as I could and do whatever I had to do to make sure that I could succeed at it, because failing would have turned my life upside down.

How did you make this car so fast?
Neff: In order to run fast I think it comes down to horsepower. You have to make a lot of horsepower and in a Funny Car you have to have a good aerodynamics package that doesn't have too much drag. And your engine has to run really, really clean. It can't be hurting pistons or putting out cylinders. It has to be really efficient and keep pulling all the way up the track until the driver shuts it off, in order for the thing to keep carrying and picking up speed.

Kindred spirits Neff and Scelzi work well together.
Racers Edge Photography

I believe we have a great aerodynamics package. [Dodge Motorsports Aero-Thermal Development Engineer] Terry DeKoninck and the Dodge engineers continue to work really hard on the aerodynamics and we have spent a lot of time in the DaimlerChrysler wind tunnel to try to improve the aerodynamics. We learn something every time we're in the wind tunnel.

I'm the one who has to make sure the engine is running properly, that it's got just the right amount of fuel volume, etc. That's my responsibility. There is a combination of many things that make the power and one of my main priorities is making sure that we don't hurt parts and that the engine runs clean.

How difficult have the rule changes been?
Neff: It's been very difficult. The first time we ran the car in Seattle on 85 percent it ran a 5.40-second E.T. at 260 mph. I can remember just laughing and thinking, 'Oh, Man, we're in big trouble.' And then we came back, made a bunch of big moves to it and in the next run it ran 4.99. I felt a little bit better about it, but it just required really big changes to try to get the power level back up.

Another challenging factor at the same time was the new tire that NHRA brought out that had less traction than the previous tire. At this point of the year, I feel we've got the power level close to what we had before.

Did you expect to be chasing the championship this year?
Neff: I knew we had all the tools and all the people to do it. Last year I knew it was going to be a big challenge with our being a new team and my still being inexperienced. I know Gary is a champion. I knew he could do it. And I know my crew can do it. I guess it was just up to me to be able to orchestrate everything and not make mistakes and to keep the performance of the car at the top level.

Neff has guided Scelzi to one victory
and three runner-up finishes this year.
Racers Edge Photography

I felt we underachieved last year. This year I feel good about where we're at and I think we'll be better next year. I got us in trouble early this year with testing stuff and trying different things. Had I just stuck with what I had and worked with that more I think we would have done better at the beginning of the season. I got caught up in wanting to be the first one to run 4.60 and run a 330 and I let the consistency get away because I tried too many different things early on in the year. Once I aborted all that stuff and just started racing what I knew, we started to become more consistent, and that's when we started moving back up in the points.

How do you get along with Scelzi?
Neff: He's a great guy to work with and he's a great driver. I have a lot of respect for him and he's a strong part of our team. We're also good friends when we're not at the track. We talk all the time, we golf together. We have a really good relationship.

How is it at Don Schumacher Racing?
Neff: The pluses are you've got a lot of resources, a lot of good people to work with and share information with, and other cars to gain data from. The negative is it can get too distracting. There is so much stuff going on, and sometimes there is too much drama.

Dan [Olson] and I work close together. Lee's car is set up pretty close to our car, but he does his own thing and I do mine. Alan Johnson has been a real asset to me this year. In my opinion, he's the baddest guy out there, and has been for years. We've got a great relationship. He's been very open with me, showing me how he does things and we talk about things and things to try.

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