NHRA News: Six races in seven weeks will set the tone for '04 (5/10/2004)

Six races in seven weeks will set the tone for '04

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
5/10/2004

"This team is pumped for this stretch of races. It's crucial no matter where you are in the points."
– Ron Capps

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series is on the verge of its most challenging stretch of races this season with six national events filling the next seven weekends. After consecutive races in Atlanta, Chicago, and Topeka, race teams will have just one weekend off to regroup for another trio of races in Columbus, Englishtown, and St. Louis.

Although it appears daunting from the onset, most racers welcome the non-stop action. Some look at it as a chance to brand their dominance on the season. For others, it's a great opportunity to make up ground in the POWERade points. A few merely hope to survive.

Whatever a driver's agenda may be, one thing is certain – the next two months will be a rollercoaster of excitement that could very well set the tone for each team's entire 2004 campaign.

Force says staying focused helps his team perform.
Racers Edge Photography

"I like it," 12-time NHRA champion John Force said of the tightly-packed schedule. "Racing's what I do for a living so the more racing I can do the better it is for me. My life never slows down anyway so I might as well have some fun in there.

"Bottom line, as a driver, it seems like having a bunch of races in a row helps me get in a groove and stay there. That works for the guys on the Castrol crew also. They get in their routine and stay there because there are no distractions. You get to the point where you know exactly what the car's doing and where you're at with all the parts. If you have a weekend off and a few days away, sometimes you forget things and then you have to start over."

Time crunch
Running three races in a row isn't new for NHRA competitors. The Western Swing of consecutive races in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma (or, in the old days, Denver, Sonoma, Seattle) began in 1989. But with seven more races on the schedule since the tour's first visit to the Great Northwest in the late '80s, the calendar has become very crowded, forcing multiple three-in-a-row jaunts in each of the last two seasons.

"My buddies who run NASCAR do like 20-something weekends in a row and they do say it's a bitch," Force said. "But they also say that when they do get a weekend off, it screws them up because everyone starts to wander off mentally."

Top Fuel driver Scott Weis needs to keep breakage
to a minimum to survive the next seven weeks.
Racers Edge Photography

If back-to-back-to-back races hurt any team more than others, it's the smaller organizations with limited budgets, like Top Fuel racer Scott Weis and his Virginia-based RaceGirl group. On four separate occasions this year – the most ever for the NHRA – Weis and company will have to literally load up everything they have and then pray for limited breakage along the way just to make it through these three-race stretches. That thought process will be magnified over the next seven weeks with successive trifectas on the schedule.

"It's tougher for us because of our parts situation," Weis said. "Our truck won't come home during this six-race stretch so we'll be maxed out across the board. It's a little nerve-wracking."

Weis' survival strategy includes qualifying well in the early rounds and then sitting out sessions to save components for race day.

"It's not the way we want to do it but it's the only way we can do the full tour," he said. "I've already bought more parts than ever before just to get us through June. I'm way over budget but I have to be at this point.

"As for driving more, that part I love. I work on the car myself and I get asked a lot if that distracts from my driving. I don't think it does because I'm so in tune with everything. I might miss out on some of the glamour but ultimately I'm here to drive and win rounds and races so you do what you have to do."

It's all about logistics
Budgetary concerns won't affect Snake Racing teammates Larry Dixon and Ron Capps, who have varying views on the upcoming crush of races. For Dixon, the two-time and defending series champion who currently has his powerful Miller Lite dragster in fifth place in the POWERade points, the next seven weeks reinforce his decision to move his family from Southern California to Indianapolis, near the team's new shop.

Anderson hopes more wins will demoralize his opponents.
Racers Edge Photography

"If I still lived in California, I wouldn't be very excited about all these races in the east being back to back," Dixon said. "I'd basically be on the road the whole time with my family, which would wear us all out. But living in Indy now, we'll be able to get home for at least a couple of days between each race, even driving the motorhome.

"The Indy shop really helps the guys also. Having six races in seven weeks really doesn't lend itself to testing so they know they have to have it together before we start. The parts and back-up parts are stacked up right now. We're ready.

"It's an exciting time for us because the car's been on lately and we've done well at all of these racetracks in the past. I look at this as a great chance to make up points."

For Capps, a distant and disappointing 13th in the POWERade points, the upcoming run of races might make or break his season.

"It's crucial no matter where you are in the points," said Capps, who appears to be on an upswing after recording top speed in Las Vegas. "If you're up, you want to maintain and maybe even add to your lead. If you're struggling, you're hoping to make a move, and with so many points on the table this is a great time to do it.

"This Skoal team is pumped up for this stretch of races. I call all of our sponsors Monday morning after each race and believe me, it's no fun telling them we're not in the top 10. But now, in a span of seven weeks, we could earn enough points to really improve our standing. All we need is a few breaks along the way."

Delivering death blows
The pressure is a little different for the frontrunners. Pro Stock leader Greg Anderson, a winner of five of the first six races this year, could actually take a few races off and stay in the top spot in his category having fashioned a 198-point advantage through the Bristol event. But the workaholic Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am driver instead looks at these six races as a time to completely deflate his opponents.

"If we continue on the roll we've been on and duplicate what we've accomplished in the first six races, I think that breaks a lot of backs out there," Anderson said. "The sooner we can push people into test mode for next year, the easier it will be for us.

"When you're winning races like we have been, you want to race every day. I'd imagine everyone else in Pro Stock might prefer to have a few weeks off to find some horsepower. But that's just me.

"The thing is, although I do think we've gotten in a few guy's heads and we've pushed some people to overreach and make mistakes, I think what we've done more of is to motivate everyone else to work that much harder. I think we'll have our hands full over this stretch. People are reaching a point where they have nothing to lose."

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