Some might wonder how part-time Funny Car owner-driver Paul Lee of Stringer Motorsports landed the high-profile Global Electronic Technology sponsorship that partnered with Shawn Langdon last season at Kalitta Motorsports and is teaming with the newly established Antron Brown Motorsports at Don Schumacher Racing.

It wasn’t much of a surprise for Lee. He is a longtime client of the service that Steve and Samantha Bryson own.

“We’ve known Steve and Samantha Bryson for many years. We use their credit-card processing in both of my companies. We were the one of the first ones that came on board with them when they first entered racing, and their service and prices have been excellent,” Lee – who owns both McLeod Clutches and transmission firm FTI – said. “So it's just a good business move for us to use Global. Everybody should definitely look into that if they own a business, because it is a better service and price.”

In addition to being a crackerjack advertiser and brand ambassador, Lee is a pretty doggone good race-car driver, too.

“We made three runs yesterday [Thursday]. The first two went really well. The third one, it was a little cold: 62-degree track. And it shook really hard.” Friday morning he said, “We're going back out there today. We're going to do a half-track run on the first one, and if Jim O. [crew chief Jim Oberhofer] likes everything he sees in the engine, then we'll go out there and make a full run this afternoon.”

Apparently Oberhofer didn’t think the car was ready for a full-track pass.

“But everything is going good so far,” Lee said. “The guys are servicing the car like they've never left. So everything's been going pretty smooth. Pretty happy.”

He said he didn’t feel he had a much rust to shake off.

“It hasn't been that long. It's only been two months. So it's not that long. So not really,” he said, allowing that some of his competitors might feel that way “because they're racing fulltime and they're doing it every week. I haven't raced fulltime in many years. So I guess maybe if I raced every week, it might be different. But I only get to race about once a month, anyway.”

He said he plans “so far” to compete at 15 events this season.

Lee’s operation, he said, is “a satellite car” -with technology sharing – for Don Schumacher Racing. “We're actually in his shop. That's where we keep our stuff. It’s actually in the DSR facility [at Brownsburg, Ind., a deviation from his custom of keeping the car near his home in Southern California]. So it's great working there. All the guys at DSR are a big help. So it's been a big help for us.”