If the IHRA is taking nominations for its Sportsman of the Year Award, here's one: Dale Creasy Jr.

 

Jack Wyatt is Creasy's most serious threat in the Nitro Funny Car standings. And this past week at Cayuga, Ontario, Wyatt thought he might have to abandon the effort because his last engine was ruined. But Creasy loaned his main rival an engine block and set of cylinder heads so that he could stay in the chase.

The move enabled Wyatt to pull within 56 points of Creasy.

 

If the IHRA is taking nominations for its Sportsman of the Year Award, here's one: Dale Creasy Jr.

 

Jack Wyatt is Creasy's most serious threat in the Nitro Funny Car standings. And this past week at Cayuga, Ontario, Wyatt thought he might have to abandon the effort because his last engine was ruined. But Creasy loaned his main rival an engine block and set of cylinder heads so that he could stay in the chase.

The move enabled Wyatt to pull within 56 points of Creasy.

 

"He's been working hard all year, and you could tell they were down," Creasy said. "So I said, I'll tell you what: I've got one spare one." Because of the set-up Wyatt uses, Creasy also had to provide a set of cylinder heads, too. "I guess if I'm going to go, I'm all in," Creasy said.

 

He said he told Wyatt, "I want you to be racing me in Rockingham. One of us has to be racing for the championship. I don't want you to be leaving now, after nine races, and going home and thinking, 'What if?'

 

"So I figured, 'Why not? Let's give it a try.' I hired my own assassin, my wife told me," the leader said.

Wyatt is using Creasy's equipment this weekend, as well, although he is in the process of trying to buy it.

Said Creasy with a laugh, hoping he won't need the extra block himself, "I hope we're OK. If not, I told him, 'I'm coming to get mine.' "

 

He said, "I figure if I need help someday, somebody will help me like that. That's what this sport's all about. There aren't that many of us out here. It might look like a lot on TV, but there aren't 50. If I can help one of 'em get somewhere, so be it."