NHRA: Houston NHRA Sunday Chevy Notes

22 March 1998

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
PENNZOIL NATIONALS
NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES
HOUSTON RACEWAY PARK
Sunday, March 21, 1998

FUNNY CAR

RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, was defeated by Randy Anderson in first round (5.052/307.48 to 4.990/302.52). "We had to change motors right before the round, we barely got up there. We went up there and it shook real hard. I had to pedal it and the tires grabbed and it took off. But Randy ran good. It's one of those deals where Roland (Leong, crew chief) thought he was not aggressive enough with the engine. He had backed it down for that run. We thought we would run a 4.8, but it put a cylinder out. We will go to Rockingham and win some money. We're out of the lead in points." ON THE WEATHER CONDITIONS HERE: "The air is great. It was a lot better than crew chiefs gave it credit for when they showed up here. It's taken them all a few runs to adapt and get enough fuel in the engines at the other end to keep from hurting themselves, because a lean engine is not a happy engine. When the engine is so good here you have to keep pumping fuel in them. There was obviously not enough fuel in it."

PRO STOCK

KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, lost to Ron Krisher in first round (6.966/198.32 to 7.676/137.99). "There was probably a few things that went wrong on that run. It wasn't just one thing. That was a mess from Whit Bazemore when he oiled the track ahead of me. They had a lot of grease sweep on the asphalt. But the other cars went down there, so that was no excuse. We just got in some of that and got squirrelly. He (Krisher) was already ahead of me, it made a hard move to the centerline so I just shut it off. The Camaro was in trouble from the starting line. It just spun the tires hard. We have to get control of the clutch, it's throwing us a curve right now. The clutch has a mind of its own, but then it comes down to the people working on it (Kurt!). He gets the blame for that. But we will be prepared better next time. We're going to do some testing at home on a slippery track in Commerce (Atlanta Dragway). When we go down a track that has good rubber on it it runs real good. At night this thing really takes off. When we get conditions when it's real slimy out, hot and gooey, it just spins the tires. It will run good a couple, three times a weekend, but not in a situation like today, on the hottest track we've been on. We changed quite a few things on the Camaro, but it didn't respond. Next time (Atlanta) is a hometown race for us, and a little testing there before we get to the race should help us."

LARRY MORGAN, RAYBESTOS CAMARO Z28, was eliminated in the first round by Warren Johnson (6.875/201.11 to 6.981/197.32) in a close race. "Things are a little better. I got real loose at the end of low gear. That lane wasn't very good (left lane). So I had to take what was there. I feel good. If we could have gotten by Warren we probably could have won a few rounds. I feel pretty good that we got in the field (this was the first time this season that he's qualified). We sure needed it. And to get into the quickest field of all time, my gosh. I am looking forward to the next couple of races because it's going to get warm and our stuff runs real good when it's warm. I think Warren will win this race. He's just running awesome." ON THE BAD LEFT LANE AFTER BAZEMORE'S OIL-DOWN: "The more cars that ran on it the better it got, but for Kurt (Johnson) it was real bad. But, I promise, in the next few races, Kurt and I will win one of these. We know it will happen."