It has been a couple of exciting weeks us at Motorcraft/Quick Lane and Tasca Racing.
Reading, Pennsylvania, is one of my two home tracks. Englishtown and Reading are both “east coast” races, so it’s a race track that has meant a lot to me throughout my career. I made my national event debut at Reading in my Alcohol Funny Car and John Force unveiled a race car at the same track that he dedicated to my grandfather, so it holds a lot of meaning for our family. Back in the 60s, Billy Lawton and my grandfather raced there and I wanted to live up to their standards. You want to do well at every track, but Maple Grove is one of those nostalgia races that rank up there with a lot of them.
What I was most proud of through the weekend was there’s so much effort that goes into a win. When you look at where we were Saturday night with a blown-up race car, one of the worst explosions that we’ve ever had, you wouldn’t have picked us to get out of the first round. The supercharger that we had been running for the last 10 races was gone and we had to put a whole new combination in the Motorcraft / Quick Lane Mustang for Sunday morning. We were running against arguably one of the most dominant cars of the year, with Ron Capps, and then you look at the ladder with John Force, Robert Hight, Mike Neff and a lot of other big names. My crew chief Chris Cunningham and the guys made a great call in getting the car set up and ready. The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang ran third quickest of the session, of the whole day, and I think it was second quickest speed of the event.
I remember sitting in my Mustang, 1,000 feet to destiny, that was probably the last conscious thought that went through my head. You’re sitting there and the guy next to you has got 1,000 feet in front of him, and you’ve got 1,000 feet in front of you. Who wants it more? That’s what it comes down to in our sport and our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang team wanted it a little bit more on that race. The ball bounced our way. I sat there in the winner’s circle and I said, “NHRA racing is an all-Ford series, the car I drive is an all-Ford hot rod, I’m an all-Ford kid and today was an all-Ford day.”
Winning in Reading was a pretty special way to end a weekend that presented a lot of challenges. The one thing that I’m very excited about is to see our team’s level of concentration. Even in the midst of explosions, and all of the things that were going against us, Chris and Marc Denner, and the entire team stayed focused. They kept their cool and they gave me a hot rod that could win, and that’s all I could ask for them to do. As a driver-owner, your team has got to put you in the position to go out there and win, and then you have to go out there and do the job. It was a big win for our team and our program heading into the US Nationals.
Reading, Pennsylvania, is one of my two home tracks. Englishtown and Reading are both “east coast” races, so it’s a race track that has meant a lot to me throughout my career. I made my national event debut at Reading in my Alcohol Funny Car and John Force unveiled a race car at the same track that he dedicated to my grandfather, so it holds a lot of meaning for our family. Back in the 60s, Billy Lawton and my grandfather raced there and I wanted to live up to their standards. You want to do well at every track, but Maple Grove is one of those nostalgia races that rank up there with a lot of them.
What I was most proud of through the weekend was there’s so much effort that goes into a win. When you look at where we were Saturday night with a blown-up race car, one of the worst explosions that we’ve ever had, you wouldn’t have picked us to get out of the first round. The supercharger that we had been running for the last 10 races was gone and we had to put a whole new combination in the Motorcraft / Quick Lane Mustang for Sunday morning. We were running against arguably one of the most dominant cars of the year, with Ron Capps, and then you look at the ladder with John Force, Robert Hight, Mike Neff and a lot of other big names. My crew chief Chris Cunningham and the guys made a great call in getting the car set up and ready. The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang ran third quickest of the session, of the whole day, and I think it was second quickest speed of the event.
I remember sitting in my Mustang, 1,000 feet to destiny, that was probably the last conscious thought that went through my head. You’re sitting there and the guy next to you has got 1,000 feet in front of him, and you’ve got 1,000 feet in front of you. Who wants it more? That’s what it comes down to in our sport and our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang team wanted it a little bit more on that race. The ball bounced our way. I sat there in the winner’s circle and I said, “NHRA racing is an all-Ford series, the car I drive is an all-Ford hot rod, I’m an all-Ford kid and today was an all-Ford day.”
Winning in Reading was a pretty special way to end a weekend that presented a lot of challenges. The one thing that I’m very excited about is to see our team’s level of concentration. Even in the midst of explosions, and all of the things that were going against us, Chris and Marc Denner, and the entire team stayed focused. They kept their cool and they gave me a hot rod that could win, and that’s all I could ask for them to do. As a driver-owner, your team has got to put you in the position to go out there and win, and then you have to go out there and do the job. It was a big win for our team and our program heading into the US Nationals.
After Reading, we went to a test session in Indy and tried some new things. Something I’ve said, you always learn something, you might not like the results, but you always learn something. We were trying some new blowers, and some different settings with the combination. We are trying to find every little bit of an advantage we can find and ultimately, get us ready for next weekend.
The test in Indy went ok. What we were trying to learn in Indy was to make sure we had good back-up blowers. There were some things that Chris wanted to try where you can have the opportunity to take the car to half-track and shut it off and you don’t do any damage. From those standpoints it was a success, but I don’t think we’ll take much of that data and use it next week because I think the track is going to be a whole lot better for the US Nationals then it was when we were out there testing. It is good data to have. It was just some things we needed to do with some new parts, a new rear-end, a new supercharger, and different things that you wouldn’t normally feel 100% confident throwing them into service without having a test opportunity.
We still have two test sessions left this season and a lot of teams are out of test sessions. We’ve been performing very well on the race tracks, so we’ve been saving them. That gives us some flexibility after Charlotte to test, potentially going into Vegas and to take every inch we can get as the season winds down.
One thing I want everyone to know is that I read every email that comes into the website and every Facebook message that comes in. I want to thank all the fans for their kind notes. It is humbling for me to be a part of a program that reaches so many people and brings so much excitement to people that I don’t even know and many of them that I haven’t even met.
We wouldn’t have had our success this year if it wasn’t for Chris Cunningham and all the guys on the Motorcraft / Quick Lane team. It’s a really awesome experience to be a part of this program and I’m just proud of the guys and Chris. I’ve said it before but he’s a great leader of our team. He’s a great friend and mentor of mine, and I’m just really lucky to have a guy like him and Marc and the talented crew that they’ve brought around me.
Lastly, the technical alliance with Tim Wilkerson has been amazing resource for our team, not only to share data but also to share experiences. As a driver, Tony Pedregon and John Force have been very instrumental in helping me, but having a guy like Tim next to your trailer who you interact with multiple times throughout a day and can bounce questions or ideas off of him has been a great opportunity for me personally and professionally. A lot of the decisions and plans that we made last year have really come together, and I think you’ve seen our team mature over the season. I know I’ve matured as a driver. I’m nowhere near the likes of some of the veterans out there, but I’m getting better with time and I’ll continue to improve, and I our team will continue to improve. I’ve ended a lot of interviews by saying the best is yet to come, but I believe that. I believe the best is yet to come with our Motorcraft / Quick Lane team. We’re going to keep working hard, and putting ourselves in the position to win and let the chips fall where they may.
