Winston Finals: Funny Car Notes & Quotes Friday, November 13, 1998

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Funny Car Notes & Quotes
Friday, November 13, 1998
This page will be updated throughout the evening
All reports courtesy of the racing teams

Cruz Pedregon (Interstate Batteries Pontiac Firebird), No. 1 qualifier, 4.947, 284.62:
"I said yesterday that the more this track is run on, the better the times get. That's what happened to us today. We had a great run going, but the engine wasn't running real strong at the end so I shut it off. That's why the speed was 284 and not 310. There's a lot left in the Interstate Batteries Firebird, but that was a good session for us because our goal coming into today was just to get it in the show. Wes (Cerny) and the crew did what they had to do.

"It's nice to be able to have a car that you can tweak in any direction and it responds to whatever you want it to do. We backed it down that time and it still ran 4.94. It moved over to the left on me a little. I was kind of preoccupied with the sound of the engine and how the power was transferring through the bell housing. I probably wasn't as focussed as I should have been. That's okay though. We got the elapsed time out of it and tonight we're going home the No. 1 qualifier. The big thing is that we're continuing that strong qualifying pace.

"I've always said that the wins will come if we can just keep that kind of performance up. Wilkerson made a good run in front of us. Whenever another car makes a good pass like that, it gives us a little more confidence and a little more information on where the track is. The car was wanting to run a 4.89 or a 4.90 flat, and that probably would have happened if I could have got it to the finish line. We run it as far as we can, and I feel if we can get it close to the finish line, we can still get a decent elapsed time out of it without the engine damage. That's our game plan and it works well.

"If we can get the car down there about 1200 feet and it starts sounding funny, unless it's race day it's better to shut it off. This thing makes a ton of power and you have to respect it. This car has been so good to us that we don't want to hurt it. We're happy and hopefully tomorrow we can go out and make two good passes. We'll sleep better tonight than we did last night, I can tell you that."

Tim Wilkerson (JCIT Pontiac Firebird), No. 2 qualifier, 4.968, 293.63:
"We put a hole out pretty early. I think the middle of the track is marginal so I was really impressed with what Cruz (Pedregon) was able to do. I talked to Wes (Cerny) before they ran and he said they were going to step on it a little. As soon as he said that, I knew that Cruz was going to put up a big number. We're very proud with our run though. I had to drive the JCIT Firebird around a little bit out there. We think if we can get it to go straight, we can definitely improve on the 4.96. We're happy with that at this point. This is the last race of the year and I was a little nervous about not being qualified after the first day. We're going to try and go out tomorrow and do the same thing. We only had seven cylinders from about two-and-half seconds on to the end, and it's not going to run 310 mph on seven cylinders."

Al Hofmann (GM Performance Parts Pontiac Firebird), No. 3 qualifier, 4.976, 307.58:
"Actually, the GM Performance Parts Firebird was running a little better than it did yesterday. We made a little change in the clutch, it made a big clang sound, and I didn't know what it was so I just shut it off. We have a nice setup that seems to get this car through our bad spots, and it seems to be running pretty good. That's what we've been working on out here, getting this thing ready for Sunday and next year. We're real encouraged about tomorrow morning and I'm pretty confident that we can step it up. After we got it back to the pits, we couldn't find anything wrong, so we don't know what caused that sound. We looked at the computer and at all of the parts and nothing seems to be wrong. We're just being cautious. It wasn't going to run too much better than yesterday so we sure weren't going to throw caution to the wind. We're pretty encouraged so far with the way the weekend's going, especially with the problems we've been fighting all year, so we'll come out tomorrow and give it another shot.

Dale Creasy (Creasy Racing Pontiac Firebird), No. 7 qualifier, 5.265, 271.32:
"We're doing all right but I think I might have hurt it that time. It kind of laid over a little bit, then it came back to life, so I thought the clutch was coming in, but it wasn't. All of a sudden it got real weak, wasn't pulling like it should and I started spinning the tires. We were smoking the tires and I stayed with it to the finish line. The early numbers are so good compared to the final elapsed time that something just doesn't make sense. Right now we're not doing anything wrong. We're getting this Creasy Racing Firebird through the middle just like it's supposed to do. Something's not right though and we're just going to have to figure it out."

Randy Anderson (Parts America Pontiac Firebird), No. 9 qualifier, 5.345, 266.27:
"We dropped a cylinder at the hit and it was everything I could do to keep the car away from the center. I had my hands criss-crossed and the darn thing didn't want to move over. It wasn't a great pass but the Parts America Firebird is in the show - for now. We're not confident at all that the time will hold up, so we'll try and make a couple of good runs tomorrow and move a little more safely in the field."

Del Worsham (Checkers Schuck's Kragen Pontiac Firebird), No. 12 qualifier, 5.496, 179.35:
"After last night, when it was like trying to run on water or ice or something out there because it got too late, we thought we backed her way down for this run. I figured it might go out there and run a lazy 5.13 or something, you know, just a number we could build on that would get in the show and take the pressure off for tomorrow.

"Well, it made a lot more power than I thought it was going to. It was haulin' man, it was flying. Those were the second quickest incremental numbers to half track I've ever run, on about a 4.98 or better pace. Surprised me, I'll tell you that. It just blew the tires off down there in the big end, and I could have gotten off and back on the throttle but that's pretty much a sure way to blow stuff up and put oil all over the track, so I just shut it off. I like this motor, no sense in putting holes in it!

"And, even though I hate letting a run like that get away, we learned more from that 5.49 than just about any other 5.40-something I've ever run. We've got some great data to tune from on this one."

Whit Bazemore (Team Winston Camaro Z28), No. 10 qualifier, 5.469/270.67:
"The track was really marginal 9Thursday); only two cars went down it. It came around today, but it was still kind of tricky. We changed our whole tune-up in order to just get qualified today and then go back to what we have been working on that gave us the good performance two weeks ago in Houston. So we just shook the tires, smoked the tires and had to pedal it, but we still got in the show. Many other cars still had problems, I'm not really sure why that is. There are a lot of guys having problems, including a lot of good cars that are back there: (Chuck) Etchells, (Ron) Capps, (Tom) Hoover, (Jim) Epler, so we will be all right. We will have to figure it out tomorrow.

"It's very important for this team to finish fifth (in points) and we have to stay ahead of Tony Pedregon. That's our goal and our other goal is obviously to win this race."

Chuck Etchells (Kendall/MaMa Rosa's Pizza Camaro Z28, No. 15 qualifier, 6.368, 157.04:
"We used the first two sessions here this weekend to test our clutch setup for 1999. With the extra power we've been making in the past weeks, the heat produced would simply strip the surface off the clutch discs we had been using. However, the results we've had so far have jeopardized our qualifying effort. On Thursday, we simply overpowered the track, but I pedaled it to establish a time.

"On Friday, it was on a great run, but I felt a strange vibration about 1.4 seconds in, and shut it off. I thought about staying in it, because I knew it was fast, but I couldn't see out of the windshield because of the shaking. Therefore, we're going back to our original 4-disc system for Saturday to put the Kendall Camaro comfortably in the show."

Ron Capps (Copenhagen Camaro Z28), No. 17 qualifier, 7.185, 114.60:
"In today's run we had a fuel pump that broke or something in the fuel system. The engine is getting real sour real quickly. In yesterday's run, like it did for a lot of other cars, the track got too cold and it shook the tires on us. And today we just basically didn't try to run a big number, we just tried to get down the track. The Camaro left good, and it shook. I pedaled it and it just went sour. So I lifted. It burned off all the spark plugs on it. It could have been uglier. Once again we're kind of behind the 8-ball. We're going to have to go out tomorrow and instead of testing things like we wanted to, we'll have to put the old setup on the car and get qualified and get ready for Sunday."

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