7/23/07

Don’t ask me how he did it, but he did it.

No, John didn’t win on Sunday, but he went to the final and with that, he moved into the Top Eight for the Countdown for the Championship. Wow.

Everyone remembers how bleak the picture looked a month ago when John had won two rounds of racing since February, was 15th in the points, and had a racecar that was more evil, detestable, and uncontrollable as Christine—from the Steven King-created movie of the same name.

Now, with only three more races remaining before the Countdown moves into Phase II, John has put himself into the picture.

Yeh, I know—we never doubted he could do it for a moment…..

Robert will definitely be in Phase II when it gets underway at Indy on Labor Day weekend while Ashley is going to have to battle her way back in after holding onto the No. 8 spot through much of the first half of the season before slipping down to No. 11.

But the big story is John coming up with another inspired string of performances in the last three races and making up for lost time.

As I continue to serve as a pit reporter for the Champ Car World Series, which was in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada this past weekend, it never ceases to amaze me how many NHRA drag racing fans there are among the crews who work for such teams as Newman-Haas, Forsythe, Minardi, and RSports. At every race, there are several engineers or mechanics—even a driver or two—who will make it a point to ask me what’s happening at the most recent national event, who’s the low qualifier, who’s leading the points, etc.

But the overwhelming majority of questions are always in reference to John and the team. And there were lots of those gentlemen pulling for JFR this weekend, knowing that John could slide his way into the Countdown top eight with a strong showing. In fact, a couple of the field videographers who work with me on the ESPN Champ Car coverage are former members of the NHRA TV crew and they recall with fondness their experiences shooting at national events in the past. It’s no surprise to me how much they miss the sound and speed of drag racing, especially the nitro cars in Top Fuel and Funny Car.

I know a lot of drag racers are looking forward to next week’s race in Sonoma as the relentless six straight weeks on the road finally come to an end. For many of the crewmembers on the various teams, they haven’t been home since the beginning of June and when you add up the many miles they’ve traveled between such places as Bristol, TN, Norwalk, Ohio, Englishtown, NJ, and the three western races, it’s easy to conclude that there will be a motley bunch of seriously tired people rolling into Infineon Raceway next week.

As for me, it will be a cross-country trek from my home in Massachusetts to San Jose, CA for the next Champ Car event which will be shown on ESPN next Sunday, and of course, ESPN2 will have complete coverage of qualifying and eliminations next weekend from the Fram-Autolite Nationals in Sonoma.

Following the race, I’ll be along with some more of this and that from In the Groove, so I hope you’ll remember to come back then. And please remember to buckle up and drive safely!