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PHOENIX (February 19, 2007) -- Jeff Arend has been driving Nitro Funny Cars since 1995. During the intervening years, whether he was hitting most of the stops on the tour or hardly any at all, he's never once come into a race with his current points position denoted by a single digit. As a matter of pure statistical fact, the highest he has ever finished in the POWERade chase is 16th, where he concluded both the 2004 and 2005 campaigns.
This weekend, when he rolls to the starting line in his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen / Erie Educational Services Funny Car, he will be doing so from the No. 3 spot on the POWERade chart. Though it's only the second race of the year, it's not a bad time to coming off a semi-final finish with 72 points in the bank. Arend will be making his debut appearance in the hometown of his team's primary sponsor, at a race upon which they also have placed their name, so there are plenty of worse ways to introduce yourself with a fine "How do you do?"
"In terms of our whole program, having my teammate Del (Worsham) barely miss the field in Pomona was obviously a bad thing," Arend said. "We could have put our heads down and just been depressed about it, but instead we got together and made sure we picked the whole organization up with a very good day. To make it to the semi-final at the season's first race is just a great way to start. To give Del and his guys not only a lift, but a lot of good data to work from, was also great.
"To me, the biggest honor was to go rounds and get interviewed on ESPN2, where I could personally thank CSK Auto, the Worshams, and Erie Educational Services, in front of the whole country. I started the weekend in Pomona still introducing myself to most of the CSK people, so that was a great way to get to know them. I spent last year working with Marc Burling and Erie Educational Services, but I never won a round so I never had a chance to say thank you on TV. I hope I didn't sound too rehearsed, but the truth is I've been thinking about that interview for a long time."
Arend, who in the estimation of anyone who saw the aforementioned top-end interview sounded only completely sincere and excited, knows the "newness factor" in Pomona is not going to wear off just yet. Whereas he met less than a dozen CSK Auto staff members at the Winternationals, he'll meet hundreds at the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals. For them, it will be the first chance to meet the new blue team driver, and it will be his first experience racing in front of his primary sponsor's home crowd.
"I can't say I totally know how it's going to be, because I've never been driving a car sponsored by a company that has 12,000 employees," Arend said. "To come in here to Phoenix, racing in front of so many of them and doing promotional work all week, is going to be a bit of whirlwind for me, but I'm going to attack it like I do everything else. I'm going to do the best possible job, and try to enjoy every minute of it.
"Putting this blue uniform shirt on every morning is an honor. I can look in the mirror and see Checker, Schuck's, Kragen, across the front and back, and so many other great companies' logos, and I know there are real people behind those logos, and those people believe in Worsham Racing. I can't overstate how awesome that feeling is. I also can't tell you how great it is to drive for Del, his father Chuck, and my co-crew chiefs, Marc Denner and Chris Cunningham. I'm living a dream right now."
That dream, of course, brings with it its share of stress and pressure, and racing in front of your primary sponsor's executives and associates can be a daunting experience, but Arend doesn't see it as a negative.
"This will be good, positive, pressure," Arend said. "The bad pressure is trying to get to this spot, making one or two races a year. Real pressure is having to temporarily give up on the dream, like I did from 2001 to 2003 when the funding wasn't there and I had to get a real job. Bad pressure is knowing you have to qualify to get the money to pay for all the parts you've used. That's serious pressure. This is an honor, and our team will be working overtime to give the CSK people something to cheer about.
"If I have the chance to get back on TV, there will be a lot of people to thank. It could easily take me all year to thank everyone who helps this team, but if getting on TV multiple times each weekend is the way to get that done, I'm up for it. And for this weekend, at least, we'll be coming into the race in 3rd place. There are only 16 more races until we knock the field down to eight teams in the Countdown. I think we earned this 3rd place position in Pomona, pure and simple, and we plan on keeping it up."
No pressure at all.
AREND ENTERS PHOENIX RACE FROM LOFTY NEW PERCH
PHOENIX (February 19, 2007) -- Jeff Arend has been driving Nitro Funny Cars since 1995. During the intervening years, whether he was hitting most of the stops on the tour or hardly any at all, he's never once come into a race with his current points position denoted by a single digit. As a matter of pure statistical fact, the highest he has ever finished in the POWERade chase is 16th, where he concluded both the 2004 and 2005 campaigns.
This weekend, when he rolls to the starting line in his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen / Erie Educational Services Funny Car, he will be doing so from the No. 3 spot on the POWERade chart. Though it's only the second race of the year, it's not a bad time to coming off a semi-final finish with 72 points in the bank. Arend will be making his debut appearance in the hometown of his team's primary sponsor, at a race upon which they also have placed their name, so there are plenty of worse ways to introduce yourself with a fine "How do you do?"
"In terms of our whole program, having my teammate Del (Worsham) barely miss the field in Pomona was obviously a bad thing," Arend said. "We could have put our heads down and just been depressed about it, but instead we got together and made sure we picked the whole organization up with a very good day. To make it to the semi-final at the season's first race is just a great way to start. To give Del and his guys not only a lift, but a lot of good data to work from, was also great.
"To me, the biggest honor was to go rounds and get interviewed on ESPN2, where I could personally thank CSK Auto, the Worshams, and Erie Educational Services, in front of the whole country. I started the weekend in Pomona still introducing myself to most of the CSK people, so that was a great way to get to know them. I spent last year working with Marc Burling and Erie Educational Services, but I never won a round so I never had a chance to say thank you on TV. I hope I didn't sound too rehearsed, but the truth is I've been thinking about that interview for a long time."
Arend, who in the estimation of anyone who saw the aforementioned top-end interview sounded only completely sincere and excited, knows the "newness factor" in Pomona is not going to wear off just yet. Whereas he met less than a dozen CSK Auto staff members at the Winternationals, he'll meet hundreds at the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Nationals. For them, it will be the first chance to meet the new blue team driver, and it will be his first experience racing in front of his primary sponsor's home crowd.
"I can't say I totally know how it's going to be, because I've never been driving a car sponsored by a company that has 12,000 employees," Arend said. "To come in here to Phoenix, racing in front of so many of them and doing promotional work all week, is going to be a bit of whirlwind for me, but I'm going to attack it like I do everything else. I'm going to do the best possible job, and try to enjoy every minute of it.
"Putting this blue uniform shirt on every morning is an honor. I can look in the mirror and see Checker, Schuck's, Kragen, across the front and back, and so many other great companies' logos, and I know there are real people behind those logos, and those people believe in Worsham Racing. I can't overstate how awesome that feeling is. I also can't tell you how great it is to drive for Del, his father Chuck, and my co-crew chiefs, Marc Denner and Chris Cunningham. I'm living a dream right now."
That dream, of course, brings with it its share of stress and pressure, and racing in front of your primary sponsor's executives and associates can be a daunting experience, but Arend doesn't see it as a negative.
"This will be good, positive, pressure," Arend said. "The bad pressure is trying to get to this spot, making one or two races a year. Real pressure is having to temporarily give up on the dream, like I did from 2001 to 2003 when the funding wasn't there and I had to get a real job. Bad pressure is knowing you have to qualify to get the money to pay for all the parts you've used. That's serious pressure. This is an honor, and our team will be working overtime to give the CSK people something to cheer about.
"If I have the chance to get back on TV, there will be a lot of people to thank. It could easily take me all year to thank everyone who helps this team, but if getting on TV multiple times each weekend is the way to get that done, I'm up for it. And for this weekend, at least, we'll be coming into the race in 3rd place. There are only 16 more races until we knock the field down to eight teams in the Countdown. I think we earned this 3rd place position in Pomona, pure and simple, and we plan on keeping it up."
No pressure at all.
