MIKE GREEN TALKS ABOUT JOINING TASCA’S TEAM

by Tracy Renck    Sat, 2018-12-22 22:58

 

As reported by CompetitionPlus.com last week, world championship crew chief Mike Green was going to join Bob Tasca III’s nitro Funny Car team.

Now that Green is officially onboard with Tasca Racing, he talked about his new job which is as the co-crew chief with Eric Lane on Tasca’s nitro Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Ford Mustang Funny Car.

“This is great,” Green said about joining Tasca. “I’m really excited about it. I was at the races last year, but I took a year off from being a crew chief (in 2018). I was working at DSR (Don Schumacher Racing) and DSM (Don Schumacher Motorsports) last year and now I’m excited to get back tuning a race car. Tasca Racing, with Eric and the guys, they did a great job getting things going last year. They made some great runs and made some progress and I think they have everything in place to be a contender and I excited to go over there and help them.”

Tasca finished 11th in the 2018 points standings. He came on strong late in the season, highlighted by semifinal performances in Dallas and in Las Vegas. He also qualified second at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, fifth in St. Louis, second in Dallas and fourth in Las Vegas.

“Eric and I have a background together,” Green said of Lane, who used to work on the NAPA Funny Car driven by Ron Capps at DSR. “We never worked on the same car or anything, but we worked for the same team for quite a while. (Tasca Racing) buys all its parts from Don Schumacher Racing and Don Schumacher Motorsports, so all the parts I’m familiar with and we built race cars over there, so I think this a real good fit.” 

Green was the crew chief of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for eight seasons and he guided Tony Schumacher to 27 event titles and world championships in 2009 and '14.

Prior to joining DSR before the 2008 season, Green worked at Don Prudhomme Racing, Darrell Gwynn Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing. As a crew chief, Green had led drivers to 50 wins – nine in Funny Car and 36 No. 1 qualifying positions. 

The last time Green was the crew chief of a nitro Funny Car was in 2007 when he was the wrench boss for the Blue Skoal Racing machine driven by Tommy Johnson Jr. at Prudhomme Racing.

“I think there will be,” said Green about new challenges he will face going back to tuning a nitro Funny Car. “Things are changing and there have been some teams that have gone back to the five-disc clutch and there’s the track prep, so I think there are some new challenges and there are probably more to come in the future.”

Green said Tasca Racing plans on doing some testing in Phoenix prior to the season-opening Winternationals Feb. 7-10 in Pomona, Calif.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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