GAINES RUNNING FULL STRENGTH
Mon, 2008-06-30 21:35
V. Gaines isn’t hard to notice in the Pro Stock pits lately. He’s the guy who looks as if he found his best friend.
That’s a somewhat accurate description, although the lost friend was his crew chief Clyde West, who was away for nearly a month on medical leave.
West suffered a ruptured colon in the days before the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway across the river from St. Louis, Mo. The determined tuner returned to action on a limited basis in Chicago guiding Gaines to a solid semi-final finish.
“You can definitely tell he’s back,” Gaines said. “Tom Martino has been absolutely marvelous in keeping our ship sailing. Clyde knows the team and knows the operation and his influence has shown in the past two weekends.” V. Gaines isn’t hard to notice in the Pro Stock pits lately. He’s the guy who looks as if he found his best friend.
That’s a somewhat accurate description, although the lost friend was his crew chief Clyde West, who was away for nearly a month on medical leave.
West suffered a ruptured colon in the days before the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway across the river from St. Louis, Mo. The determined tuner returned to action on a limited basis in Chicago guiding Gaines to a solid semi-final finish.
“You can definitely tell he’s back,” Gaines said. “Tom Martino has been absolutely marvelous in keeping our ship sailing. Clyde knows the team and knows the operation and his influence has shown in the past two weekends.”
Gaines said the team kept West pretty much chained inside the team’s hauler during the Chicago event for his own well-being, but allowed him to wander outside during the Englishtown outing.
“I should have beaten Dave Connolly during that event,” Gaines admitted, referencing the Englishtown semi-final run. “I’m kind of still kicking myself for that. But, we’ll get him again.”
Running as many successful businesses as Gaines does, time away from the strip is no escape from beating himself up over the previous weekend’s shortcomings.
“In an instance like that it’s just kind of a reminder lesson that you have to concentrate. You’re there to do a job and when we’re running the businesses we’ve got to concentrate and do that too. In Englishtown, I must have let something get in my way and we’re not going to let that happen again. We’ve got too many wins in this car that have yet to come out.”
That’s a somewhat accurate description, although the lost friend was his crew chief Clyde West, who was away for nearly a month on medical leave.
West suffered a ruptured colon in the days before the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway across the river from St. Louis, Mo. The determined tuner returned to action on a limited basis in Chicago guiding Gaines to a solid semi-final finish.
“You can definitely tell he’s back,” Gaines said. “Tom Martino has been absolutely marvelous in keeping our ship sailing. Clyde knows the team and knows the operation and his influence has shown in the past two weekends.” V. Gaines isn’t hard to notice in the Pro Stock pits lately. He’s the guy who looks as if he found his best friend.
That’s a somewhat accurate description, although the lost friend was his crew chief Clyde West, who was away for nearly a month on medical leave.
West suffered a ruptured colon in the days before the NHRA O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway across the river from St. Louis, Mo. The determined tuner returned to action on a limited basis in Chicago guiding Gaines to a solid semi-final finish.
“You can definitely tell he’s back,” Gaines said. “Tom Martino has been absolutely marvelous in keeping our ship sailing. Clyde knows the team and knows the operation and his influence has shown in the past two weekends.”
Gaines said the team kept West pretty much chained inside the team’s hauler during the Chicago event for his own well-being, but allowed him to wander outside during the Englishtown outing.
“I should have beaten Dave Connolly during that event,” Gaines admitted, referencing the Englishtown semi-final run. “I’m kind of still kicking myself for that. But, we’ll get him again.”
Running as many successful businesses as Gaines does, time away from the strip is no escape from beating himself up over the previous weekend’s shortcomings.
“In an instance like that it’s just kind of a reminder lesson that you have to concentrate. You’re there to do a job and when we’re running the businesses we’ve got to concentrate and do that too. In Englishtown, I must have let something get in my way and we’re not going to let that happen again. We’ve got too many wins in this car that have yet to come out.”
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