Rebuilding a race team is almost as tedious as rebuilding one's life following a devastating accident. If you don't believe that talk to Dale Creasy, Jr. and you'll be exposed to a story about winning.

Creasy has worked hard over the past year at rebuilding his legs following a devastating crash in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July of 2008 during the IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway. During that time his race team has struggled right along with him.

Earlier this year, Creasy returned to the scene of his “incident” for a match race. Now, its time to take the next step towards a complete return to competition.

Creasy's first run down the 1000 foot at Brainerd Int'l Raceway during the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals was a bit of a satisfying struggle.

“It was good,” said Creasy, Jr., taking a quick pause from working on prepping his race car for the second round to answer questions about his first run in NHRA competition in over a year. “We've been struggling with this new car a little bit. I guess everybody else has, too. Just me being back in the car is a wonderful thing. I am just happy to be back and hopefully we can get this thing down the racetrack.” Rebuilding a race team is almost as tedious as rebuilding one's life following a devastating accident. If you don't believe that talk to Dale Creasy, Jr. and you'll be exposed to a story about winning.

Creasy has worked hard over the past year at rebuilding his legs following a devastating crash in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July of 2008 during the IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway. During that time his race team has struggled right along with him.

Earlier this year, Creasy returned to the scene of his “incident” for a match race. Now, its time to take the next step towards a complete return to competition.

Creasy's first run down the 1000 foot at Brainerd Int'l Raceway during the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals was a bit of a satisfying struggle.

“It was good,” said Creasy, Jr., taking a quick pause from working on prepping his race car for the second round to answer questions about his first run in NHRA competition in over a year. “We've been struggling with this new car a little bit. I guess everybody else has, too. Just me being back in the car is a wonderful thing. I am just happy to be back and hopefully we can get this thing down the racetrack.”

Hard work by a crew still learning to work together and a driver still trying to put his mind completely back in the game paid off with a solid second round run good enough for 12th, 4.398 seconds at 274.05 mph.

“That was actually the first full run I've made since my incident in Canada, so it felt really good to just go down the racetrack. I drove for a long time and being off for a year it's like getting back into the car brand new. The cars are really fast and it takes time to get use to them.

“The cars are so fast your mind has to get caught up to it. It just took me a couple runs to get use to it. We had some tire smoking runs which is probably good because it didn't get going real fast; it just got me in the car and got me going. Yesterday it went down the track and everything was good. It's the first run its made that went straight. I know all of it was me in there, just trying. I was thinking and you can't really think while you’re driving; you gotta just react because the cars are so fast. It was getting ahead of me and now I think I am starting to catch up to it a little bit.”

Creasy is being humble. He's catching up fast. The fact his pit area has the appearance of chaos is a testament to the determination of the team as they work with a car they barely know.

“We've been struggling with this new car. It's a little bit heavier, but everybody has to deal with the same thing, we just didn't have enough runs on it yet and yesterday it was moving in the right direction.”

The right direction is one where the car and the driver get fast enough to make the top sixteen by the end of qualifying. And, if it doesn't happen, Creasy won't be hanging his head low.

“All we're trying to do is run our car,” explained Creasy. “Trying to get a little bit quicker each run. Our goal would be to run somewhere in the 20's today, the first run and maybe get after it a little more (in the final qualifying session). If we step to far and smoke the tires, then we don't know what we gained or lost. We came up here to test. We want to qualify just as bad as anybody. We know we are behind the eight ball because a lot of guys have a lot more runs on us right now. It's nobody's fault, it's just the way it works out.”

Should the team make the top 16, the celebration will start early.

“It would be like, we would be in heaven. With everything we have gone through with my legs and trying to get the car back together and the crew hasn't been together as much like we use to; we're all learning all over again. If we make it to tomorrow, that would be like winning the race.”

For Creasy, walking again was winning. Making it to the track was winning. He's on a winning streak that won't stop at Brainerd.

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