Dirt racing, better qualifying two things to look out for
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| Capps |
We're heading to National Trail Raceway this weekend, which is just east of Columbus, Ohio, in a small town called Kirkersville. It's also near Hebron, Ohio. So, take your pick for a dateline.
At this time of year, the weather becomes a major issue. The weather is already playing a pivotal role, where a few tracks -- and the last race in Atlanta was one and Columbus is already looking like another -- will see some very cool conditions. We saw Tony Schumacher set the world speed record last year in Columbus when cool conditions came in.
It's already looking like it's going to be in the 60s and low 70s this weekend, which for any type of motorsports is almost ideal -- especially for drag racing, because when you have 8,000 horsepower you're trying to get the car to stick to the ground. It's like there's nothing there with the cooler conditions, like the ones we're probably going to see this weekend.
We stayed and tested after the race on Monday in Atlanta. It was cloudy and had cool conditions and we actually got to test for the type of conditions we're going to see this weekend. We ran a couple of 4.70-second runs that we're real happy with. I'm excited about that, but I'm even more excited that we're going to debut the Dodge Charger body at National Trail.
I got to drive the very first Charger back in December, but my teammates with the Matco Tools team (Whit Bazemore) and the Oakley team (Gary Scelzi) have gotten to drive theirs for a couple of months now. They're just raving about it. I'm really excited about putting the body on and seeing what kind of difference there is.
The conditions that we're going to see are national-record type conditions. If you set the elapsed-time record and back it up, that's 20 points, which is equal to one round of competition.
So it's very important that if the conditions are there that we try to set the record ourselves. For the Brut Dodge team, I know that we're really trying to work on our qualifying and move ourselves up in qualifying position. We've been kind of midpack lately. Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) has kind of made it a priority that we move ourselves up in qualifying.
The qualifying runs on Friday night in drag racing are crucial and anybody reading this column probably already knows that we get the one run on Friday night, which usually has the best conditions of the weekend, in which to run the quickest elapsed time of the weekend.
If you don't run good on Friday night, most likely you're not going to have a chance to run any better on Saturday to improve your qualifying position.
To be honest with you, we have always focused on not losing a run, and it's very easy to go up with the excellent conditions on Friday night and basically swing for the fence, as they say in baseball -- home run or no run.
And that's not been the case with us. We would rather go down the track and improve, but Ace has always been adamant about going down and not taking any chances.
And I think you're going to see a change in that. He's talked about maybe getting a little more aggressive than he normally would and seeing what would happen. We know we can run the numbers. We ran a 4.69 in Dallas last year, which was one of the five quickest runs in Funny Car history on that run, so we know we can do it. It's up to Ace doing it and me doing my job and keeping the car in the groove. If everybody does that together then we'll achieve our goal of moving up in qualifying.
Speed records don't count for anything as far as points go. They're nice on a résumé and they're nice to put up on your trailer, but, to be honest with you, being the fastest car out there in drag racing is not as important as running a better ET.
Speed is always nice, and there are guys known for their speed, but I'd rather be holding that trophy at the end on Sunday when it counts and that means getting down the track every time, and beating our opponents and not beating ourselves, and that's what the Brut team has done. That's why we're in the points lead right now.
I don't think you're going to see anything change on Sunday, as to the approach our guys have, or my approach in driving. It's been a lot of fun to work together as a team for me, with Ace and the Brut guys, and to have a strategy and go out and accomplish it and to be holding the trophy at the end of the day. It's a very fulfilling feeling.
As for the fun stuff I'll be doing: This is the time of the year where it's fun for me because right now three times in the next few months I'm going to get to race in a dirt race. Of course, we've already talked about the one that Tony Stewart runs at Eldora Speedway, the Nextel Prelude to the Dream, which has now grown to about 15 Nextel Cup drivers. I was invited back for the second year. It's a great event at one of the great dirt tracks in the country.
Prior to that, when everybody is going to be watching the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend, the NHRA is going to be in Topeka, Kan., and on Monday night they're having one of their biggest dirt races on Memorial Day in the evening. I'm sticking around to race in that, and that will be a lot of fun.
Everybody sticks around after the NHRA race in Topeka, because we have the next weekend off after that and a lot of teams test in Topeka. NHRA stays around to maintain the track and it's a great day of testing every year. We stay and test and then race the dirt race that night.
It's a huge event. It's Memorial Day and you think the Indy 500 has a big crowd. Topeka has a lot of fans who show up to camp the whole week there. It's a great race.
And I'll also be going again to the race I won last year in Sedalia, Mo., which is a charity event for the Michael Ross Foundation run by Danny Lasoski, and is the first dirt race that I won. I happened to win it last year and then went on to win the St. Louis NHRA race that following weekend. It was a great weekend for me, which came on top of winning the dirt race.
It's always the time of year when I look forward to getting out and having some fun. Gary Scelzi is going to be racing with me in Sedalia and I just heard that Kasey Kahne is also going to race against us. It's something that we've always done to raise money for charity and it's always a good time.
Ron Capps drives a Funny Car in the NHRA for Don Schumacher Racing. He is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2006 season.
