(6-22-2005) - One of the biggest stories to come out of the Englishtown race was the resignation of crew chief Wayne Dupuy from Joe Amato’s Lucas Oil team. While rumors about his departure circulated wildly, Torco’s CompetitionPlus has spoken in depth with Dupuy, and as you shall see there’s more to the story than at first appeared.

Dupuy says that he and Amato had discussed his possible departure in some depth prior to Englishtown, and that he’s already taken a new position with Doug Herbert’s Snap-on Tools Top Fuel team where he’ll be the crew chief. Dupuy also says that the entire Lucas Oil team will remain in tact, and also admitted that it was his recommendation to Amato that resulted in the hiring of John Stewart as Morgan Lucas’s new tuner of record.

The arrival of Dupuy resulted in Rob Flynn, Herbert’s tuner, being discharged. We’ve heard from another source that Flynn received this news via a phone call from Herbert while he was watching his youngsters play baseball back home in Indianapolis on Monday. Herbert reportedly expressed some regret in resorting to a telephone call firing, but said there was nothing else he could do, so Flynn now finds himself at least temporarily out of work. However, one possibility might be as a temporary replacement for Ed "The Ace" McCulloch, who will be out of action at least temporarily due to a medical problem that showed up during the Englishtown race. McCulloch will reportedly undergo surgery in Indianapolis this week, so with Lee Beard already out of the picture on the Matco Tools car and McCulloch missing from the Ron Capps-driven Brut car, Schumacher Racing is somewhat short of qualified tuners, as Mike Neff and Dan Olson would be hard pressed to handle three cars by themselves.

Dupuy obviously had a lot on his mind, so here we go:

COMPPLUS: Tell us the circumstances surrounding your departure from Amato’s team.

DUPUY: Basically it was a mutual agreement about what would be best for me in looking down the road.

COMPPLUS: Are you bringing any of your guys over from Amato’s car, or will the Herbert team remain in tact?

DUPUY: I’m going (to Herbert’s) alone. The entire Morgan Lucas team is staying there.

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COMPPLUS: John Stewart’s been hired to be your replacement. Do you think he can get the job done?

DUPUY: Yes, I think he can. I kind of suggested him as I think he’d be the best for the job. My brother can run the day to day operations of the team. John Stewart’s not what you’d call a full time crew chief. He comes in on Thursday and leaves on Monday. My brother will be sort of like the crew chief with John Stewart as the safety blanket. I left everything. I left all of the notes, all the run records, everything. They have everything. I didn’t want to hurt the team in any way, but then again I had to do what’s best for me.

COMPPLUS: Are you facing an emotional struggle over this coming weekend’s race (which marks the first anniversary of Darrell Russell’s death)?

DUPUY: No, I don’t think so. (Long hesitation) Yeah, it’s going to be emotional. I mean, it’s just part of life and you’re going to have to deal with it as it comes up. You’ll deal with it as it comes up.

COMPPLUS: What’s your opinion of the Julie Russell demand for compensation from Goodyear?

DUPUY: It’s not about the money. It’s about making a statement. Really, there’s a couple of things that are very wrong about the situation, and maybe that’s one reason she wants to do it. (Neither) NHRA or anybody has yet to put out the release (about what happened), or the investigation is getting like, put under the table. What caused his death? For all the world knows he could have had a heart attack. But some of the insiders know that basically, that ain’t what happened. Ya know, they won’t tell the whole world what happened, and, on Goodyear’s part, just to let them know next time they have issues like they did at Bristol (in 2004), in the first (qualifying) session and 18 sets of tires are going back with the sidewalls knocked out of ‘em to pull ‘em (from competition) and don’t hurt any other drivers. Don’t make us run them for three months and then say, Oh, someone got killed on ‘em, now let’s pull ‘em (from competition). She’s trying to make that statement. The money is not that big (reported by Goodyear to be $7.5M – Ed.). It would be what Darrell would have been paid by the time he was John Force’s age, and her family’s well off so she doesn’t really need… I don’t want to say she doesn’t need money, but the whole thing is not about the money, it’s about NHRA should step up and accept what happened and tell the world what happened to Darrell Russell and they’re sorry for making this mistake, and Goodyear should stand behind it all.

COMPPLUS: When you had your confrontation with Ray Alley in Phoenix and NHRA fined you for your statement, do you recall exactly what you said?

DUPUY: (Long hesitation before responding) Yeah.

COMPPLUS: Would you repeat it now?

DUPUY: No.

COMPPLUS: Do you think NHRA’s reaction to that was fair to you?

DUPUY: No. It all built up until finally I cut loose on him. It built up and built up and built up. Ya know, it’s like, you pull a dog’s tail, you pull the dog’s tail and one day he’s going to turn around and snap, and I had enough and one day turned around and snapped. If (NHRA) had realized why then maybe… Ah, it’s their sandbox, and it’s not fair for them to get vocal with me and then when I get vocal back I get fined.

COMPPLUS: Did you think about appealing your fine?

DUPUY: I did.

COMPPLUS: And what happened on the appeal?

DUPUY: I lost.

COMPPLUS: In other instances when people have appealed NHRA has increased the fines. Did they do that to you?

DUPUY: They kinda threatened me about (that), but no, they did not. They just, they haven’t yet.

COMPPLUS: I understand you had two witnesses to the incident that were going to appear on your behalf. Did they appear at the hearing?

DUPUY: Um, not, it got botched, but I still have the email they sent in to NHRA.

COMPPLUS: Why didn’t their statements count?

DUPUY: Basically my representation and I had a miscommunication.

COMPPLUS: Anything else we should know?

DUPUY: No, just the fact that on Monday the date ran out on (Julie Russell’s) side of (the letter of demand to Goodyear), and now there’s going to be a media frenzy about it. See, I’ve been biting my tongue for a year, but now, since the deadline’s up she’s doing a TV and radio thing in Texas today (Tuesday), and after what happened at Indy last week, what perfect timing. (Due to a problem with Michelin tires, and on the advice of the tire company itself, all 14 Michelin-shod cars in the U.S. Grand Prix pulled off the track after the parade lap, leaving only six Bridgestone-shod cars to race. – Ed.)

DUPUY (Continues): For (drag racing) and what she’s doing, it was like, really good timing. My biggest thing was that I had other tires that NHRA wouldn’t let me (run). The one thing with the Goodyear deal was that when I asked Carolyn Ashbee, If we run these 1430s, would you make more? And she said yes, but NHRA wouldn’t let us run ‘em, and now we’re all back on ‘em and we’re having a few problems here and there, but it’s not widespread like it was. We can deal with that because that’s what you’d call the nature of the beast. But, what they had going on from Bristol until Darrell’s accident was totally uncalled for and very stupid on their part, on both sides. Goodyear, too. I can’t understand why Goodyear kept selling them and running them. Every time they came out with the same tire (they’d say) We put a little more rubber on the sidewall, and it would fail. At some point ya just gotta say, Hey, take ‘em off, or we’re gonna hurt somebody.

COMPPLUS: When you had your meeting with NHRA over the manifold (that Amato had funded and NHRA had provided a written letter of approval for, but then refused to allow in competition), who was involved from the NHRA side? (This meeting took place within a few days of last year’s Columbus race that Russell won, just a few weeks prior to his death. – Ed.)

DUPUY: Graham Light, Ray Alley, Don Taylor and Rich Shrek. On our side were myself and Joe’s attorney, John Halbing.

COMPPLUS: Didn’t you bring up the issue of tire safety during that meeting?

DUPUY: I did.

COMPPLUS: What was their reaction to your statement?

DUPUY: They all just kinda looked at each other, and I stood up in the meeting after the manifold issue was done and asked ‘em all, What are we gonna do about these tires? Are we going to wait until someone gets hurt or killed before they come off these race cars?

COMPPLUS: Did they provide an answer, or ignore it?

DUPUY: They put it off on Goodyear. (They said) Goodyear says the tires are safe. Right now they’re all puttin’ it off on each other.

COMPPLUS: Regarding the manifold situation, they obviously never let you run it. Did they provide financial compensation for the investment Amato had in that manifold?

DUPUY: Yes, they did.

COMPPLUS: So, they compensated Amato for the cost of building that manifold?

DUPUY: Yes, and they’re not finished yet. It’s a trade off on hospitality (at the track) for the next year and a half.

COMPPLUS: Why, in your opinion, didn’t they let you run that manifold?

DUPUY: Ray Alley’s personal vendetta, because he made the mistake from their original standpoint (in providing prior approval for the manifold to be built), and Tom Compton’s big on this deal with Ray on not letting anyone do anything else other than what’s already out there. Ray made a huge mistake with (the approval letter) and basically it was (NHRA’s) mistake.   

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