Richard Freeman knows it takes powerful engines to win in Pro Stock, and has the championships to prove it. 

On the WFO Radio Show (wforadio.com) with Joe Castello, he made a good case for how to get Pro Stock headed in the right direction during what many have declared a transitional period. Under no circumstances, he believes, is killing the factory hot rod division the answer. 

Perception is not always the reality. 

"The way we fix it is change a little bit of the perception," Freeman explained. "You either fix it by throwing money at it, or you fix it by opening up your doors and saying, ‘Hey, if you’d like to run it, come on."

Freeman prefers the latter and believes there are a number of Lucas Oil Sportsman Series racers with available resources to race Pro Stock, but choose not to.

"We need to change the perception of you just can’t do it," Freeman continued. "There’s a lot of people that run Competition Eliminator or Super Stock, or Stock, that have the money but they would never do it."

Freeman believes the recent growth of Pro Modified has a lot to do with the perception a potential competitor can go out and buy a competitive program.

"If you wanted to run Pro Modified, you can pick up the phone, you can call Pro Line, you can get an engine, they’ll tell you the transmission and the converter you’re supposed to get," Freeman said. "They’ll even help you with the car, okay? Or you can call Sonny Leonard. You can get a turn-key nitrous motor. Or you can call Pat Musi. You can call Brad Anderson. 

"So here’s my point on that: anybody that wants to run Pro Modified can buy a package. Now I’m not saying they can, or they will win, but the perception is they can get what those other competitors that are winning races, what they have and they can go compete. Now, again, I want to make sure that everybody listening to the show understands that this is my opinion." 

Pro Stock has another dynamic. 

"Pro Stock, on the other hand, you have KB, you have our program here at Elite, and you have the Gray’s," Freeman continued. "That’s your three top engine builders that supply other people with engines. Then you have Chris McGaha, who does his own stuff and does a fine job of it. And then you’ve got people like Kenny Delco, that Frank Iaconio builds for. 

"But you have a very small window, and if you want to qualify in that top 10, you have those top three or four guys is where you’ve got to go get an engine." 

Elite supplies horsepower for four teams, KB Racing does engines for Bo Butner in addition to their team cars, and Gray Motorsports powers two team cars in addition to Drew Skillman. 

"The perception is (others) can’t compete with those guys," Freeman explained, speaking of Elite, KB and Gray. "And whoever would say that I would have to agree. It’s very difficult to be able to go out and get that stuff."

Freeman minces no words when he speaks to those with doubts. 

"What we can do to let people know that if you wanted to run Pro Stock, it is available to you," Freeman said. "For sure here at Elite Motorsports and Elite Performance. So what we’re going to do, and what we want people to know, if you want to run Pro Stock, you can buy it, you can lease it, you can rent it. You can do whatever you want to do right here. And we can run your program."

And with this to offer, Freeman points out Pro Stock could be headed in the right direction.