SATURDAY - Vegas Testing Notes

(1-22-2005) - No More Distractions - Looking more relaxed and confident than ever, Tommy Johnson Jr. said he likes his Funny Car chances.

Tommy Johnson, Jr., is looking forward to the 2005 season.

He said of the new year's first testing session in the Don Prudhomme-owned Skoal Chevy Monte Carlo, "Overall, it's pretty good. We're a whole lot further along than we were at this point last year. We haven't set any records yet, but we weren't really trying to. A good line I heard was: The Super Bowl isn't won in spring training."

He had set his career-best elapsed time (4.759 seconds) and speed (326.79 mph) at last November's season finale, and he said he feels he's building on the momentum he was starting to gather then.

"By no means are we starting over," he said. "The end of the season was pretty good. We didn't want to change a lot. We want to try to improve on it. We're not way behind; we 're not lost. We're pretty confident in how things are going. I'm pretty happy with what I see so far. Just in the first couple of days, things are going really smoothly."

Johnson said the one-car situation on the Funny Car side of the Snake Racing organization is a plus. "More than anything, it's no distractions." With a multi-car team, he said, "You can have your whole thing running smoothly and there'll be a problem on the other side of the fence and it might disrupt everything. There's only one car to focus on. Nothing gets dropped through the cracks because this team didn't know about that. I'm sure there was some of it that you didn't realize you had. It was never a problem with our team, but it never worked like it should've. It's never been ruled out, that we won't go back to two. Right now, with one, we want to make sure it's successful. If the opportunity arises, we'll go back to two."

The Indianapolis-based Johnson said it's perfectly fine with him if 13-time champion John Force and the Schumacher stable of his former teammate Ron Capps, Whit Bazemore, and Gary Scelzi, Del Worsham and anybody else hogs the limelight right now.

"I read a lot of preseason stuff where people didn't really consider us a contender. And I went, 'Hm. That's fine. I'm OK with that.' I'd just as soon sneak up on them. I relish the role of underdog. There's a lot of pressure that goes with being the favorite."

He said Funny Car has "definitely turned into a Pro Stock type category" with unparalleled parity and such additional contenders as Tony and Cruz Pedregon, Tim Wilkerson, Eric Medlen, and Worsham teammate Phil Burkart.

Helping the Better Half - Johnson, who on New Year's Eve celebrated his first wedding anniversary with wife Melanie Troxel, said he is learning to balance the emotions of their individual careers, which sometimes travel in opposite directions.

"They're working on stuff, trying to get her a ride," he acknowledged of Prudhomme and his contacts.

We're not exactly sure, but we don't think the smoke was an indication of anything positive.

"I work on that with her and try to help as much as possible. But then there comes a point where I go, 'OK, that's it. I'm done. I can't do any more here. I've got to worry about what I'm doing. I never let it take away from anything I'm doing -- to a certain point and then it’s her deal. I keep tabs on it, but I don't stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. I have to stay focused."

He said even this test session was an excellent example. "Her deal didn't come together to come out here at the beginning of the season. And I'm excited. I can't wait to get going. I want to get out here and get testing, and she's bummed out because her deal just fell apart. It's hard. I can't jump and down too much. At the same time, I've got to be excited. I"ve got to be ready to go. I've got to be pumped up. It's a learning curve."

More on Cuadra - Lisa Edwards, wife of Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards, said Saturday in a phone conversation that she, like NHRA management and competitors as well, knows little about the extent of driver Fernando Cuadra's tsunami-related difficulties.

"I don't have a whole lot of information," she said, adding that reports that she and her husband purchased much of Cuadra's equipment are incorrect. "He still owns everything. I didn't purchase anything, but we had discussed how we might be able to help him in terms of liquidation of his equipment.

Details are sketchy at best, but Competition Plus has learned that Cuadra's Mexico-headquartered boots and leather goods business has taken a financial hit because the Dec. 26 South Asia tsunami destroyed the factory that prepares some of his raw materials and killed many of its employees.

"We know there had been a tragedy, but to what degree that is I don't know," she said. ". I've heard a lot of stories, but I don't know what actually is true. But racing's pretty far back on the burner for him."

Edwards said she spoke briefly with Cuadra early last week. "I just encouraged him," she said. "He's a great guy and a great addition to the racing community. He's not going to be able to race for now. It's a big loss to the racing, but racing is secondary right now. He's obviously a successful businessman, and he'll come back. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. It's amazing that we put so much emphasis on racing, but, but this kind of brings it back to the human level."

Competition Plus will continue to monitor the situation and will pass along information about how readers might help as it becomes available.

Does part of Bazemore's probation require him to wear a purple dinosaur suit?

I Love You (You Love Me) - Most obvious among the changes to Whit Bazemore's Matco Tools Dodge Stratus Funny Car is the purple-accented paint job that prompted some in his pits to nickname him "Barney Bazemore."

But the driver with the longest tenure in Don Schumacher's Funny Car stable said, "It's an entirely new car. It's a new chassis design. So everything's different. We're taking our program to the next level."

Bazemore, who led the standings for awhile in 2004 but finished sixth in the final count, said he isn't dwelling on the past. "Last year's over and done with. It's gone and buried. We're not motivated by our past failures. We're motivated because of what we want to achieve."

It showed in Saturday's noontime pass at 4.850 seconds at 313.07 mph.

While he isn’t reliving the past, Bazemore is benefiting from it. He referred to an incident at Pomona for which NHRA penalized him but reacted by following his suggestion to improve the track. "After what happened at the end of last year, I really questioned my involvement in the sport --. . . things like that force you to question what you want to do. Sometimes that's good -- you answer that question. Things are really good. I feel good. I feel the best I've felt in a long, long time at the beginning of the season. So we'll go out there and knock 'em out."

Eric Medlen has been exactly where Robert Hight is today.

Been there done that - A year ago, Eric Medlen was in the center-ring spotlight as John Force Racing's new Funny Car driver, the cowboy-turned-drag-racer who worked his way up from crew member to headliner, replacing newly crowned but departed 2003 champion Tony Pedregon.

About halfway through the season, he won at Brainerd, Minn., and isn't even the newest driver in camp. Force son-in-law Robert Hight has the honor this year. But Medlen said he's just learning how much he has to learn.

"My dad says you wipe off the chalkboard and you start over. Really, everybody, every year, it's their rookie season. You can never say, 'I got it now. Heck, I've done it for a year. No problem, man. It's an easy deal.' "

His father, crew chief John Medlen, put "rookie" talk or even "sophomore" talk in perspective.

"The race car doesn't know anything about that. It's just nuts and bolts. It goes down a race track. If you steer it straight and you keep it in the groove it goes there. If you don't, it doesn't. It doesn't know anything about who's in the seat," John Medlen said. "You want to wear that car. You're buddies."

Goodyear has been filming nitro-class cars this weekend.

They call the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang a name with special significance in Las Vegas. "We call it Montecore, because it will bite."

Chimed in Eric Medlen, "That was the name of Sigfried and Roy's tiger. And they were buddies."

His father said the car "doesn't know whether you're testing or it's a national event or going for the $100,000 prize or the $400,000 prize. It doesn't know nothing' but what you give it. And the more attention you pay to it, the better it runs. If you neglect it, it's going to bite you."

Video Studay - Carolyn Ashbee headed a group from Goodyear who were filming nitro-class cars this weekend. "We were taking high-speed video of tires on the starting line to see what tires do during the launch," she said. "It's part of ongoing development for us. The more information we can gather, the better." She said the practice is something a Goodyear crew did several times last season, including the spring race at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. She added that the team would look at the film it shot Saturday before determining whether it would shoot any more Sunday.

Testing Photo Gallery online from Vegas

(1-21-2005) - The Torco's CompetitionPlus.com staff is on hand for the testing in Las Vegas, Nev. Vegas Photo Gallery