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NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 2, 2007Jeg Coughlin, Jr.Gary ScelziTony SchumacherBob VandergriffTHE MODERATOR: This week marks the final race of the Countdown to the Champions playoff round, the Countdown to Four. The top four drivers in each professional category at the end of the event will advance to the next stage of the Countdown, the Countdown to One. The two-race shootout for POWERade World Championships which begins October 25th through 28th at the ACDelco in Las Vegas, NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and ends the following week, November 1st through 4th at the Auto Club NHRA finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Joining us today on the teleconference will be Pro Stock driver Jeg Coughlin, Top Fuel drivers Tony Schumacher and Bob Vandergriff and Funny Car driver Gary Scelzi. THE MODERATOR: Jeg is the driver of the JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt. He's a former POWERade series champion, winning in 2000 and 2003. Jeg has wins in Chicago, Bristol and Brainerd this season, as well as three runner-up finishes and is currently sitting in that fourth and final spot in the points standings. Jeg, you've had tremendous success this season but haven't had the finishes you'd like to have during the Countdown playoffs, while your teammates Dave Connolly and rival Greg Anderson have been dominating the Pro Stock circuit during these past four races. They've already clinched their spot in the Countdown to Four. What do you need to do to make sure you can earn that fourth spot before the week's end? JEG COUGHLIN: Well, it's going to take some great racing. Richmond is always a great event to come to, and as you mentioned, we haven't had quite the finishes the last I think three or four races since the Countdown had started. It's going to take some great racing. We did some testing this past weekend down in Georgia, which should prove to give us a little more confidence going into Richmond. Ironically Richmond is the race that I started back in the Pro Stock last year with Cagnazzi Racing, so that will be exciting to kind of have a one-year reunion there, and the reward we're looking for is to have a great outing. No question we have an extremely fast car and a great team, we just need to pull the strings together on that and get out there and race like we know how. But I heard Tony mentioning earlier, there's a lot of pressure going on, but we thrive on that and should prevail well. THE MODERATOR: We'll now open it up to questions for Jeg. Q. Good drivers and good champions like yourself often have to dig deep, and when you feel like in a season when you have dug deep, what's the hardest thing for you to do to keep that thing going? JEG COUGHLIN: Really just not make any mistakes. Again, as I mentioned, we've been fortunate to win championships in the past, and to deal with pressures of -- like we're facing here to the Countdown to One. The new points format is extremely exciting. You look at the top four professional classes in POWERade drag racing and you've got a lot of points battles going on for the Countdown to One, and I think that's exciting. On the flipside of that, you've got the teams, since then until now mainly focusing on the Countdown to One. You know, it just adds a whole new element to the sport, and on the team side, as I was mentioning, my teammate Dave Connolly has just been on a tear. He's won the last four races. We won the race prior to that, so that makes it five for Cagnazzi Racing. So we know we've got all the ingredients, we've just kind of had some poor luck and maybe made some bad decisions and just been getting outrun. We look to Richmond, and to your point, we have dug deep. We took all last week and prepared the car for a test session down in Valdosta, Georgia, and the car came out responding extremely well. We're also partnering with Goodyear to test some new tires for some enhancements to the post stock tires we've been running in the '07 season for 2008, and we used that test, as well, to kind of hone in on some of our inefficiencies, and I think we found that. Meantime it certainly doesn't hurt me. I've been guilty of just racing the POWERade races and not doing a whole lot of testing with Cagnazzi Racing. Dave Connolly has done most of the testing for the team, as I have duties here in Delaware, Ohio. In that respect I was happy to get behind the wheel and get some runs, and I'll tell you, I'm ready to go. I'm very confident in myself and in the entire team. You know, for us to secure a spot in the Countdown to One, I'm in fourth place, again, I think I'm within one round of third and within two rounds of sixth. That's the kind of points battle we're dealing with. I think we've got four of us, maybe five, vying for the last two positions for the Pro Stock Countdown to One Championship. The digging deep point is there, and we're going to have to get out and perform now, but that's the fun part. Q. You said that the performance has to be there this weekend; this is the do-or-die round to continue to advance. Has Richmond been a good track for you performance-wise in the past? JEG COUGHLIN: It sure has. We were under the clock a year ago as I mentioned, it was my first race back in Pro Stock full-time, and I think we had a rainout and came back a couple weeks later and Mother Nature was very kind to the Pro Stock cars. We had more 6.50 runs in one weekend than I think we've had since then. But been fortunate, I think I've won there for sure one time, maybe twice in my career, prior to the hiatus and the tour leaving Richmond. But being back there, I'm excited and I like the feel of the facility, the track. It's a nice track. The fans are Pro Stock fans, as well, so that drives a little extra energy in us, and I'm looking forward to it. Q. You mentioned that your teammate Dave Connolly does most of the testing for the team. You've done less than he has. I'm sure he shares all that information with you? JEG COUGHLIN: Yeah, I think we've got an excellent two-car team. Tommy Utt, the crew chief on Dave Connolly's car, and Victor Cagnazzi overseeing Tommy and that Torco Race Fuels team and Roy Simmons overseeing the JEGS.com car, all the information is certainly right at our fingertips, and don't think we haven't been trying to get the JEGS.com car to be a little more efficient as Dave's car has been the last four or five races. Nothing to worry about, we've just kind of put ourselves in a position we'd like not to be in ideally, but for the fans and the media it's a great situation and a great opportunity to talk about the pressures of points championships prior to our champion being crowned. Not only in Pro Stock, but as I mentioned, in Pro Stock Motorcycle, Funny Car and Top Fuel. It's a great time for NHRA drag racing. Q. Before I get to the championship, can I get a comment from you regarding the passing of Wally Parks? JEG COUGHLIN: Certainly Wally has been the icon for NHRA drag racing for forever, and as a kid growing up in the sport, it was very common to see Wally and Barbara at the national events that my dad raced at. I had quite a relationship at many different levels with Wally, and as I grew into the sport and was fortunate to win my first national event, or second national event or third national event, it was quite often that Wally would be present in the winner's circle shots, and I'm referring to the early '90s. My father's dad, Ed Coughlin, was good friends with Wally, and seeing them talk over the years was neat, without question. I could probably ramble for several minutes on this topic, but the vision that Wally had for NHRA drag racing and getting racing legitimate and off the streets and into a safe place was just phenomenal. To see the growth of the NHRA in its entirety is very exciting. What a visionary and a great man. I'm happy to say that I knew him. I can't say I knew him extremely well like many, but certainly I've enjoyed the fruits of his labors and many that were under his leadership. Q. Now to the championship, when you and Dave have been so strong throughout the season, is this kind of a changeover do you think in leadership? Not leadership, but power in Pro Stock? JEG COUGHLIN: Well, we certainly hope so. The KB Racing team with Greg Anderson and Jason Line, they've coupled to win the last four POWERade Championships and definitely have been without question the leaders in Pro Stock. When Victor Cagnazzi started his Pro Stock efforts three or four years ago, his goal was to build a championship team. That's where we're at exactly. Dave and I have coupled to win I think 10 of the 20 races that we've had thus far in 2007. We'd like to see that tradition continue, and there's a lot of opportunities that don't really surface visibly where we've had bad races and not won the race or not won the round, and same for many other teams. I think timing has a lot to do with it, and we've been on the good end of a lot of those timing situations this year, and maybe some of our competitors haven't. It's not something we're hanging our hat on, but we are proud to have reached some of the milestones we have in the 2007 season, and we've got three strong races left and we'd like nothing more than to bring a Pro Stock trophy back to Morrisville, North Carolina, under the Cagnazzi Racing name and hopefully under the JEGS.com name. Q. Does it help being a Pro Stock team located in NASCAR country? Is there an advantage there? JEG COUGHLIN: It certainly doesn't hurt. You know, there's a lot of technology within a 20-mile radius of Morrisville, technology and intellect with people and technology and a lot of the products that they've worked with in the NASCAR world. People obviously have relationships, as do a lot of our engineers -- Cagnazzi Racing has relationships with other forms of motorsports, not only within drag racing but in the Nextel Cup Series, also, in Formula 1, Indy and IRL leagues, as well. So to see some of those technologies -- well, first of all, to a point, yes, it definitely helps. The R & D budget in North Carolina probably surpasses anything outside of Formula 1. That's a pretty staggering number. And NHRA can feed off of that, and we had fed off of that through technology, resources, the parts and people, directly. It definitely helps. It has helped -- I think four or five of our engineers and technicians have come out of circle track backgrounds and within Nextel Cup. THE MODERATOR: We're going to let Jeg go. Thanks for participating in the call. JEG COUGHLIN: My pleasure. Thanks for having me on today. We'll see you all this weekend. THE MODERATOR: Next on our call is Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher. Tony is the driver of the U.S. Army dragster and a four-time defending POWERade series world champion. Tony has five wins this season and five final round appearances and is currently sitting in the third spot in the points standings. Tony, you've had a strong battle all season long with the two drivers that are ahead of you in the points, Larry Dixon and Rod Fuller. But with the success that Bob Vandergriff currently in the fifth spot has had in the last few rounds and Brandon Bernstein currently fourth collecting five wins, as well, this season, you have to feel like you're in the middle of a group of drivers who all have a shot at taking that championship this year. How does that affect your thoughts and preparation heading into this week's race in Richmond? TONY SCHUMACHER: I just look forward to it. I don't think there's a question out there that there's a handful of people that can win a championship. You know, we're the defending champs, we've had some great success, and we've had some very unfortunate breaks this year. The last two races especially, where I had a valve snap off when I hit the throttle, and then I had a valve spring broke at the last race on the burnout. It was just fairly incredible and hard to believe because we check our parts and we have a lot of great equipment, but those things happen. I think this Countdown to One and Countdown to Four, all of it has been so exciting because if anything happens like that, boy, it puts a damper on the situation. There are some great cars. We don't have the performance, or we haven't up until now, that we've had in the last couple years. We're running extremely good but we've had a lot of first round losses. We've tested quite a few parts. I think what people need to know going in is when you're changing a points system, any crew chief, especially Alan Johnson, is smart enough to say, okay, where do we need to be at any point in the season and how do we get to that point. We've been trying some new parts on our car, we've taken the car out that we won the championship with last year, started in Redding and won Indy with it and had a couple parts breakages, but we're still -- one of those cars we've run extremely well. If we can get past that first round it seems we win the race. It's a strange deal, but there are some great cars behind us. We need to stay focused, we need to go out and try to win this race in Richmond. We try to win every race. Unlike some of the guys that I've heard in Top Fuel lately that are focusing on one car, we focus on the race. We focus on the goal; the ultimate vision is to win the race, not to beat any individual team. It's just to win the race and win the round in front of us. It's way too easy to lose focus on what the goal is if you're focused on one car. I think Alan is very good at that. He always says, you know, don't look at the points. It doesn't matter. There's nothing you can think of to help you right now. You've just got to win the race, win the next round, qualify No. 1 to try to win this next time out. Q. Your job is all about tough decisions. What prepares you most for that? TONY SCHUMACHER: You know, that's a great question. Last year was the best example I can have for you. I'm getting buckled in this race car for the last run of the year to go for a POWERade Championship to win the race and to set the world record, and I'm sitting on the roll cage, and if anyone has ever been part of a big moment, that was it, where everyone in the world was watching at that moment and you're the last guy to get in the car, and to make sure you don't mess up, I kind of was sitting in that position thinking, man, this is big. And my guys, each one of the guys on my team walked by -- I remember Roger just kind of tapped me on the leg, didn't have to say a word. Joe walked up, shook my hand, said, "This is a big one." Each one of them in their own way let me know that they had done their part in giving me a great race car, and without having to say anything giving me all that confidence. I think that is the most important. When you get in a car with the trust and the knowledge that your crew and your team and the people that built it and support you and are around you, given everything that they have, it makes it very easy under those clutch situations to perform well and do your job and not make the mistakes that you see some people make. I think when you're at odds with some of your team and your crew, it makes it difficult. You know, this is no time nor place to be the hero, it's just time to be part of a team, a player, and understand that. It's hard to understand that, it's hard to be part of it. It's critical moments, big moments, kind of define a person, and the team that they're surrounded with is what lets it happen. Q. Sometimes frustration sets in, also. Is there a best way to deal with frustration? TONY SCHUMACHER: You know, first of all, I believe in God, and that's my way of doing it. I say my prayer before every run. I ask for help in driving the car, and I don't get frustrated. You never see me throw a helmet. You'll see me disappointed we got beat, but you'll never see me toss stuff. You'll never see me aggravated because we aren't trying to lose. Every one of the guys is doing their best, and I think the key to doing that is to know they're doing their best. You don't got a group of partiers out there that don't care about racing. My guys win races because they eat and sleep drag racing. They love it. They love being part of big moments and intense situations and they're best under pressure, and I think that is the key. That is what lets me do my job. Q. With everything that you have said, and this kind of comes off of conversations that you and I have had over the years and the comment that you just made, would you say that to be a member of the Don Schumacher Racing team and having to give all that these guys give and that you give is difficult? TONY SCHUMACHER: I think it's difficult because my dad didn't hire a bunch of guys that are pretty good. They're a good group of guys, and I don't think being part of my dad's team makes it difficult on us. I think we make it difficult on ourselves. We all have high goals. Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps, we all have -- Ron Capps has been such a great driver and gotten beaten in the last race the last couple of seasons where, man, that's tough, but he still rises to the occasion. Another great example is if you watch him drive where the pressure is on, he does a fantastic job. That doesn't come from the boss, that comes from the driver within the team, the group, and I think the pressure of everything outside of racing, we do have an awful lot of other jobs other than the four seconds on the racetrack, but these are all good guys. My dad has assembled a good group of drivers where we can help each other, and have many times. We've had many conversations where one driver is down and not getting the job done amongst ourselves. I think that's a key element. We don't have a bunch of drivers that don't like each other. We get along extremely well. And that is credited to my father. He is fantastic at putting a business deal together, but he's good at making -- he's good at assembling the right groups of people. I think to win championships, man, that's what it takes. Q. The pressure situations that we always talk about, is there more under this new championship format because of the fact that you could be knocked out of the championship in a shorter amount of races? In other words, you don't have the fall season to win the championship? TONY SCHUMACHER: Oh, man, we go back and forth on that. We haven't really decided yet. In the beginning we thought, man, this is not a great deal. We didn't know if we'd enjoy it or not. But it's really been quite fun. It actually adds pressure three times. Instead of that one race at the end of the year where you're focused on, we're focused on three different sections of the season. We have time to test -- our team is not the best when there's no pressure, and we felt some parts of the season where there's not that much, you're already deep in the top, and we didn't have to perform. I know Redding was a great example. I screwed up at Redding. I got out of the car and I said, man, I didn't feel like there was any pressure before I went in. It almost didn't feel like it mattered to me, and that's unfortunate because we're too good under pressure to take it away like that. I'm really enjoying it. Some of the drivers are out there saying, great example is I didn't earn it, I was given the points. Let me tell you something: I didn't ask for this. I think it's funny when I hear people talk about that they earned their championship. No, they didn't earn their championship. Read the rules. They were given to me at the same time they were given to everybody. I didn't like it, either. It was one of those things where we were smart enough to look at the rule book, know that we can test, that's what a good team would do, we test when we're prepared, and get ready for the next section of the deal. That's what we did. Some guys around the lead who were complaining, I just want to say they wouldn't have been in the lead if we can't have to test stuff. I won't say they wouldn't have, but we definitely would have tried to win races rather than test parts early in the season. The whole season would have been laid out. It's just not the same in any way, shape or form. So we're following the rules, it was given to us last year when we were way behind -- I mean, we got to Indianapolis, we were nowhere near the lead there we were told, and we were disappointed, but it has turned out to be fairly fun. We'll see how it comes out. And to be honest, if they hand us the trophy and we have won it, I'll be very proud of how we did it, and if not, the team that wins it I'll be happy because I've seen some great things happen. Watching Herbert come in there last year, man, that was really cool. Just to sit back as a spectator and watch that happen, it was fairly exciting, and I think the fans are getting their money's worth right now. Q. From an answer to an earlier question, it sounds like you have difficulty getting motivated unless there's a lot on the line, it's a high stakes race. Is that true? TONY SCHUMACHER: I don't get -- I perform better under pressure. Just it's weird, but we've always done our best at clutch time, and that's just our team. Alan is fantastic when he's backed into a corner, he's just great, and by knowing that it makes me perform better. We're a really good team -- if you were going to bet on the final round where everything mattered, I would never bet against our team. We're just a great team under those circumstances. I won't say we're terrible when the pressure is not on, I just enjoy it more when it is. Q. So when your back is against the wall, you perform at your best? TONY SCHUMACHER: I think Alan is second to none in that situation, and I think it flows through the team. We all know when he's backed into a corner it's going to be a great run. When your crew chief before a huge run walks by and says, "you might want to buckle up," you know he's feeling good. He's smiling, and it puts you at ease because you know you've got the baddest hot rod out there. When he gives you that look like he's figured something out, man, it's time to buckle up, and that's a great feeling. THE MODERATOR: Tony, we're going to let you go. Thanks for joining us on this conference. Joining us now on the call is Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff. Bob drives the UPS dragster, is currently sitting in the fifth spot, one spot below the cutoff point at the end of this week's race in Richmond. You're only 21 points behind fourth place driver Brandon Bernstein. What type of weekend do you need to have this weekend in Richmond to propel yourself into the top four? BOB VANDERGRIFF: Obviously we need to have a great weekend. We're not just looking at Brandon per se. Hot Rod Fuller and Tony Schumacher are both really two rounds ahead of us, so we're trying not to focus on one person. There's really three people in front of us that could lose first round, and if we go on to the finals and semifinals again, we could jump all the way up to second. We've got the car loaded up in the shop, we've got the best stuff ready and we're going to go there and try and qualify No. 1 and get the most qualifying points we can and just see if we can take it to them on race day. Q. It's all about the championship, and I have a championship question for you. Champions in general, most sports champions in general, have common abilities, and if so could you identify a few? BOB VANDERGRIFF: I think there's probably a lot of them that are similar. Obviously you have to be very driven, very dedicated, but you also have to be able to assemble -- in our category and other forms of motorsports, you have to assemble a good team around you to be able to help you. I would say, yeah, there's a lot of common qualities. Obviously you have to be focused and very determined because it is such a difficult thing to do, and you almost have to be selfish in that standpoint. We're learning that. This is really our first year that we've been in a position to win a championship, so we're kind of learning on the job, but our team is very focused and very determined, and we're very excited about the opportunity. Q. You've got a top name sponsor. Could you see yourself -- I'm curious more than anything else, but could you see yourself some day in a commercial with Dale Jarrett maybe racing the truck instead of in circles down the straight track? BOB VANDERGRIFF: Yeah, we talked a little bit about that, but I think I'm going to fly the plane instead of driving the truck. The truck isn't fast enough. I'll let him drive the truck and I'll fly the plane. Q. What has occurred that has turned this team around? BOB VANDERGRIFF: Well, I think it's a combination of things. We got a pretty late start in getting our program situated last year, and it seemed like we were never able to catch up. We got ourselves in a little bit of a hole and we never were able to get out of it. Our team, like I said before, is very determined. Nobody ever quit. We just kept working and working and working until we found some of the things that were giving us a bit of a problem. We spent a lot of money testing this year. Whenever there was a test date available we were there running that car trying to make it better. I think a lot of the things -- you know, those kind of things have helped us turn our season around to where we're in the position we're in right now. We've actually -- I don't want to say we've been sandbagging a little bit but we've got some new things we're getting ready to throw at some people, too, that I think are going to be a big advantage for our team. Q. You sat there a few minutes ago and listened to Tony Schumacher talk. I know it's not intimidating, but when you look at the success that they've had and you're in your first championship battle, what kind of emotions do you feel? BOB VANDERGRIFF: Well, obviously that's a great team. They've proven that on the track by winning multiple championships and assembled a great group over there. But that team doesn't scare us because I think right now our car is as good as anybody's. It's probably more consistent than most everybody's, and it is now starting to run just as quick. We have the ability to run just as quick as anybody right now. So I think our team is peaking in the right direction, and I think it's fully capable of beating a car like that. As far as the competition side of it, it is our first time in there, but I'm not too concerned with that because it's all I've ever done my whole life is compete at things, from sports all my life. I'm actually looking for the challenge. It's something I've been wanting to do my whole career, and now that it's here I'm pretty excited about the opportunity. Q. What other sports have you been involved in? BOB VANDERGRIFF: I played, you name it, from the time I was old enough to run, I never had an off-season. I was in football, basketball, baseball, track and field. I played all the way through high school and into college. It's just something I always did. It's actually one of the reasons I drive this race car, because I have such a competitive drive I've got to find some way to release it. Q. Is there a way to explain how much fun it is to be in this championship fight? BOB VANDERGRIFF: It's hard, especially -- it's probably -- I heard Tony say something about not being as motivated, and I don't think that's what he meant; it's just that when things get to where it's on the line and you have a chance to win and the big picture comes into play, I think everybody gets a little more excited. For us, you know, having such a terrible year last year that we had, being in this position now for us, every race is like that now for us. So we're up for it every time we get in that car. For him having won so many races and so many championships, I think for him, like he said, it takes him a little bit to where he gets to, wow, this is a big deal. For us now every race is a big deal, and we're excited about being in the spot that we're in. Q. How frustrating is it being in this championship and being 0 and 11 in final round appearances and trying to get your first championship but also trying to get your first win? Talk a little bit about some of the frustration you have each week with that on your brain. BOB VANDERGRIFF: Well, it is frustrating from the standpoint that there's a lot of teams that have won races that aren't as good as ours. They have performed as well, but for whatever reason, I don't want to say the breaks went that way, but for whatever reason it shook out that they won the race. Instead of focusing like in Dallas that we lost the final, we looked at it as we won three rounds and that moved us up in the Countdown standings and it put us in a position where we can make it into the next cut down. It is frustrating. Our team -- it's frustrating I think more -- I feel worse for the guys on my team because they really bust their butts every week, every day. It's like Tony said, those guys love drag racing. It's all they do. I go home from the shop at 6:00 o'clock and eat dinner with my family and kids and everything, and they're still there working. That's just what they want to do. It's their lives, it's what they want to do. It would be nice to get them a trophy. Plus it would get everybody off our backs a little bit about having to answer that same question. In Dallas I had barely made the turnoff down there and I heard the voices from outside of the car before I even got my helmet off, maybe the next time is a charm. It's one of those things. But we keep putting ourselves in there. We've been in four finals this year, and in Dallas it was 14 guys that had worse weekends than we did. The frustration part is definitely there, and I'm hoping once we get that first win the floodgates are going of open because we certainly deserve it. Q. You mentioned focus, and focus is so important in motorsports. Did you acquire that or did you bring it with you? BOB VANDERGRIFF: Well, I think I have had that. That's something I think that makes all good drivers or good athletes or something. I think that's something that you have from a very early time. I think it's one of the things that helped me because actually that Top Fuel dragster I drive is the only thing I've ever driven. I went from an Oldsmobile rent-a-car at the Atlanta Dragway going 16 seconds at 80 miles an hour right into a Top Fuel dragster. I think the ability to focus, my background athletically, as far as coordination and reaction and things like that, was a big help to me when I got into this race car. I think that's something you can definitely acquire, but I think it's something that most people who are very successful at what they do are born with, as well. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Bob, for participating in this teleconference. BOB VANDERGRIFF: Thanks for having me. THE MODERATOR: Next on our call is our final driver of the teleconference, Funny Car driver Gary Scelzi. Gary is a four-time POWERade Series champion, winning three in Top Fuel and a fourth in Funny Car in 2005. He has wins in Pomona, Chicago and Memphis this season and is currently sixth in the points standings, only five points back from the fourth and final spot in the Countdown to Four. You're currently sixth in the points standings but only five points behind that fourth and final cut off spot held by John Force. With Force out after his accident in Dallas, it appears this week's race in Richmond will be a shootout between you, seventh place Mike Ashley who's sitting 15 points behind Force, and fifth place Ron Capps, who's sitting only three points behind Force. You mentioned before how exciting the Countdown to the Championship has made this season so far. How excited are you heading into this weekend's events? GARY SCELZI: I'm extremely excited. I'm not a big fan of the way the Countdown is working out as far as eight go from Indy to Richmond and then the final four go from Vegas to Pomona. But excitement? Let me tell you something. It's plenty exciting. I just wish we wouldn't have had to miss that first round in Dallas. We could have went a round or two because we'd still be in there. But the bottom line is you have to do well. You don't want to go into Richmond and barely make the Countdown because to me that doesn't mean -- you can't be lucky in Richmond and lucky in Vegas and lucky in Pomona and come out the POWERade champion. You're going to have to be good. I feel that the combination has been incredible. The first time we smoked the tires was in Dallas. So I like my chances. I like the way things are looking right now. You know, we just need to go there and we need to win. We need to win and we need to be in the final round, and that will take care of that. I know a lot of the teams plan on going to Vegas to test, possibly the week before, or that's definitely been talked about at Schumacher Racing, to try some things for Vegas and Pomona. I'm excited as hell about it, I'm excited as hell about having a shot at it. That's probably the biggest thing. Q. I'm glad to hear that you've un-retired, so to speak. It could be an awkward situation if you end up going head-to-head with Ron for that fourth spot. Talk a little bit about how that would affect things. GARY SCELZI: Two teammates racing against each other? Q. Well, one of them would probably be eliminated from the final four if that scenario develops. GARY SCELZI: I don't know that that's going to be an awkward situation. I mean, we do it every week. Capps and Beckman have raced, Beckman and I have raced, and the results have gone both ways. It's not an awkward deal, it's just something that's going to happen when you have multiple car teams, you're going to face each other. If it happens, I hope it's in the late rounds so -- nothing early. But if it's me that wins, it's going to be great, and if it's not me that wins, I'm certainly going to be rooting Ron Capps on or Beckman or whatever. I mean, this thing could go several different ways. We've seen how Funny Car, how tough it's been just to qualify for an event. I can't remember the last time you looked and counted the cars and say, okay, who on this list is going to go home. You don't know. You can't pick a single car team, a multicar team. There's no one safe in qualifying for an NHRA POWERade event, let alone this Countdown. It's a mess. Go out there, run the cars as hard as you can, keep your fingers crossed that there's a little luck and that you did your job and everybody on the car did their job. I'm just hoping it's not a one-lane racetrack when we come down to Richmond. That's my biggest fear. Q. You already indicated you're really not too big a fan of this Countdown. What don't you like about it and what would you like to see changed if possible for next year? GARY SCELZI: I'm not saying I'm not a fan of it. I am a fan of it because obviously Force and I would have never had a chance to be involved in this Countdown. What I don't like is eight drivers going from Indy to Richmond and then narrow it down to four and go from Vegas to Pomona just because -- let's pick out Robert Hight out, for instance. Robert has been one of the dominant cars all year long. It would be a shame to see Robert stumble, have something break at one race and cost him a championship. It would be the same thing with Ron Capps or whatever. Now, myself, we've been just hanging in there. We haven't been the dominant car, and we can slip in there and end up winning this whole thing by peaking at the right time and having a performance like in Virginia this weekend, Vegas and Pomona, which normally we do well at those races, at least Vegas and Pomona we do, but we need to get in there. Like I said, I hope it doesn't come down to going to a racetrack like Virginia and find out it's a one-lane racetrack and the lanes aren't even. If you have a little trouble in qualifying, I mean, hopefully we're going to qualify in the top half and that won't become a factor, but I'm hoping both lanes are equal and the weather is cool so we can make some things happen. Q. You've had a lot of success in motorsports obviously. If anyone could bottle racing success, what do you think would be the primary ingredients? GARY SCELZI: I'd say hire the right people and let them do their jobs. You know, I don't -- as far as being a car owner, I haven't really been a car owner since 1985 and '86, other than my USAC team now and my son's racing. I just put the right people in place that I believe in and let them go do their thing. My USAC team won in Hanford, California, on Friday night. They've been knocking at the door of winning all year long. The first year as a rookie Michael Faccinto, the driver of my car, won the Ford Focus National Championship, he and his father. It's kind of what Don Schumacher is letting us do right now. You guys go run; if you're going to race each other, go race. The best car is going to win. I've hired you guys to do a job, now go do it. He gives us all the tools we need, he expects to win, and so do the people he's hired. I don't know how you could bottle it other than get the right people and let them do their jobs. Q. I've been asking you questions for I think eight years now, and I know you don't get distracted easily. We all get distracted. What distracts you, if anything, most on the track and what distracts you off the track? GARY SCELZI: I guess my biggest pet peeve is when there's an oil down, or like in Dallas when we had that rain when they left us in the cars for 20 or 25 minutes. I hate being behind a car that oils down unless they know it's going to be 20 minutes and let us out of the car. But sitting in there in those race cars with all that safety equipment on and all that stuff and not being able to move and feeling the sweat dripping into your ear and you can't rub your ear, or if your nose starts to run or your eyes start to water, things like that, that's my biggest pet peeve that distracts me. Other than that, when that engine starts, I'm ready to go. If you're not alive when 8,000 horsepower lights underneath your ass, you might want to go see a doctor. Q. Looking at this championship year, you mentioned a few minutes ago about qualifying. It's been all four categories actually of guys who -- you can almost automatically say they're going to qualify. What's happened this year? GARY SCELZI: Well, I think the competition has gotten so close, and basically we've turned into Pro Stock with the nitro classes. If you don't make your shot on Friday night for whatever reason, then you can find yourself not getting in the show on Saturday. The temperatures come up, track gets slipperier, you can't run the car quite as hard, there's enough good cars out there that make a good run on Friday that a lot of the big name guys find themselves on the outside looking in. I think that's the biggest thing. You know, it happens. We don't have provisionals. We don't have that luxury. I'm not a big fan of the Friday night qualifying myself because of that reason. I'm not sure why we do it. I think some of it is because NHRA thinks there's more people that come in the gate in the afternoons. But looking at the crowds, at the races especially this year, I'm telling you the guy is not coming after work, he's not going to work on Friday; he's coming to the races because the shows have gotten better on television, the races have gotten tighter, you don't know who's going to make it and who's not. That's the big thing. I think the main deal is the Friday night session is the one shot you've got to get in, so if you miss it you're in trouble. Q. On a scale to 1 to 10, how much more, knowing what we know about qualifying this year, how much more pressure is there going into Richmond? GARY SCELZI: Well, I mean, if you don't qualify, you're not going to be in this Countdown. So I mean, we put that pressure on ourselves in every race. Todd's philosophy is get the car down the racetrack on Friday on the first run. Doesn't really care, tries to run it on the conservative side because we want to be a little bit further to the back of the pack for the Friday night qualifying session. And then even in Dallas we didn't go up there loaded to run a low 4.70. We went up there loaded to run a high 4.70 or a low 4.80 just to get in the top half of the field, just because we didn't want to go out there, go for the pole -- it changes the way you race. We didn't want to go for the pole knowing that it's going to be hot on Saturday and we could find ourselves not getting in the race. So we went up there with that combination. The cars were running mid to low 4.70s, we had that combination that we could put in the car real quick, but Todd wasn't a big fan of that. He was more concerned on running a low to mid 80 and ensuring ourselves into the field I guess is what we're trying to say. I don't like racing that way, I'm sure Todd doesn't like racing that way, but we don't have much of a choice right now, and we're going to have to do the same thing in Virginia and then take the gloves off because you have to. THE MODERATOR: Gary, we'd like to thank you for joining our teleconference today. We wish you luck this weekend. End of FastScripts |
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