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Jeff Arend knew his Sunday would line up as a tough one no matter what happened. Looking at the ladder, he saw the fast-running Scott Kalitta in round one and, beyond that, the likely match-up in round two would be John Force. Get by that one, and expect to see Robert Hight in the semi-final. Advance all the way to the big-money round, and you could pick your poison, as Mike Ashley, Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi, Jack Beckman, Kenny Bernstein, and Tommy Johnson were among the eight cars on the other side of the ladder. Any way you cut it, Arend had to have a massive day to win this race.
In the end, he had a solid race, but when the "reality TV" star lined up next to him in round two, Arend's Brainerd weekend was about to be over.
The highlight of two days of qualifying, for nearly all the racers and the huge Brainerd crowd, was simple survival. Heat stroke cases were common on Friday, as surprisingly oppressive weather descended upon the Brainerd area, and with the track scorching hot, and the air full of water, times in the low 4.90s were good in Q1, and only a few found their way into the 4.80s during the second Friday session. Arend went 1-for-2 on the day, smoking the tires on his first pass and then powering to a 4.938 during Q2.
"I think that's the hottest it's been all year, and here we are in Minnesota," Arend said. "We all came here expecting normal Brainerd weather, which is usually pretty cool with a chance of rain, and what we got was more like Jackson, Mississippi. It was hot, humid, and really not a lot of fun. The track was in the best possible condition, for what we were dealing with, but you had to tip-toe down there for most of qualifying."
On Saturday, the heat and humidity did return, but not quite with the vengeance of the day before. The slight break in temperature, as well as some occasional cloud cover, allowed the whole class to jump on their tune-ups quite a bit, and Arend's blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team did just that. His 4.865, posted during Q3, moved him one spot ahead of his teammate, Del Worsham, and put Arend solidly into a show that refused admission to the likes of Ashley Force, Cruz Pedregon, Tony Bartone, and Bob Bode.
As the ladder sorted itself out during the final session, Arend smoked the tires and could only wait to see where he'd land, and what that would mean in terms of his first-round opponent. When the clutch dust settled, Arend was 10th, and Scott Kalitta would be his opening challenge.
"We did get a little too aggressive on that last one, but we knew we were pretty solid for the show and we also wanted to see just how hard you could go out there, in case we really needed to take a big shot on Sunday. It smoked the tires, but we learned a lot on that run, so we went into Sunday feeling good about the tune-up. I never go into Sunday feeling good about first-round, because everyone you can possibly face there can end your day in a blink. Everyone is tough, and in this case Scott out-qualified us, so we were the underdogs on that first lap."
Arend and his team didn't act like underdogs, as the driver did his part by getting away first by 37-thousandths. After that, he never trailed. As Arend powered to a big 4.851, at 324.36 mph, Kalitta smoked the tires in the favored left lane, and Team CSK had a round win amidst a huge Minnesota campground, where a drag race just happened to be going on.
That win set up the aforementioned second-round tussle with Force, the 14-time POWERade Funny Car Champion, star of the Driving Force show on A&E, and currently the hottest driver in the class.
"Our plan was for the driver to do his job, to give us a chance to beat him on a hole-shot if we had to, but also for the car to go A-to-B again, so that we didn't hand him anything," Arend said.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans do not always reach fruition, and even though Arend carried his end of the bargain by getting 25-thousandths on the champ at the tree, tire smoke became visible before half-track, and Force pulled away. The fact Force's car suffered a loss of power at the top end, running only a 4.891 to take the win, only added to the disgust for Arend and his crew.
"We obviously felt we had a tune-up that was safe, and it shocked all of us when it smoked them out there, but then to see him slow down at the top end and be totally beatable, well that just added salt to the wound. Getting to the second round is good, because every round win out here is massively hard to get, but losing one like that is a tough pill. This sport is rough, man, and it's very humbling. All we can do is go to Reading next week and try to strap a few wins on some other guys."
The challenge will be just as big. The determination will be just as great. The story will just have to play itself out.
AREND "FORCED" OUT IN ROUND TWO
Jeff Arend knew his Sunday would line up as a tough one no matter what happened. Looking at the ladder, he saw the fast-running Scott Kalitta in round one and, beyond that, the likely match-up in round two would be John Force. Get by that one, and expect to see Robert Hight in the semi-final. Advance all the way to the big-money round, and you could pick your poison, as Mike Ashley, Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi, Jack Beckman, Kenny Bernstein, and Tommy Johnson were among the eight cars on the other side of the ladder. Any way you cut it, Arend had to have a massive day to win this race.
In the end, he had a solid race, but when the "reality TV" star lined up next to him in round two, Arend's Brainerd weekend was about to be over.
The highlight of two days of qualifying, for nearly all the racers and the huge Brainerd crowd, was simple survival. Heat stroke cases were common on Friday, as surprisingly oppressive weather descended upon the Brainerd area, and with the track scorching hot, and the air full of water, times in the low 4.90s were good in Q1, and only a few found their way into the 4.80s during the second Friday session. Arend went 1-for-2 on the day, smoking the tires on his first pass and then powering to a 4.938 during Q2.
"I think that's the hottest it's been all year, and here we are in Minnesota," Arend said. "We all came here expecting normal Brainerd weather, which is usually pretty cool with a chance of rain, and what we got was more like Jackson, Mississippi. It was hot, humid, and really not a lot of fun. The track was in the best possible condition, for what we were dealing with, but you had to tip-toe down there for most of qualifying."
On Saturday, the heat and humidity did return, but not quite with the vengeance of the day before. The slight break in temperature, as well as some occasional cloud cover, allowed the whole class to jump on their tune-ups quite a bit, and Arend's blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team did just that. His 4.865, posted during Q3, moved him one spot ahead of his teammate, Del Worsham, and put Arend solidly into a show that refused admission to the likes of Ashley Force, Cruz Pedregon, Tony Bartone, and Bob Bode.
As the ladder sorted itself out during the final session, Arend smoked the tires and could only wait to see where he'd land, and what that would mean in terms of his first-round opponent. When the clutch dust settled, Arend was 10th, and Scott Kalitta would be his opening challenge.
"We did get a little too aggressive on that last one, but we knew we were pretty solid for the show and we also wanted to see just how hard you could go out there, in case we really needed to take a big shot on Sunday. It smoked the tires, but we learned a lot on that run, so we went into Sunday feeling good about the tune-up. I never go into Sunday feeling good about first-round, because everyone you can possibly face there can end your day in a blink. Everyone is tough, and in this case Scott out-qualified us, so we were the underdogs on that first lap."
Arend and his team didn't act like underdogs, as the driver did his part by getting away first by 37-thousandths. After that, he never trailed. As Arend powered to a big 4.851, at 324.36 mph, Kalitta smoked the tires in the favored left lane, and Team CSK had a round win amidst a huge Minnesota campground, where a drag race just happened to be going on.
That win set up the aforementioned second-round tussle with Force, the 14-time POWERade Funny Car Champion, star of the Driving Force show on A&E, and currently the hottest driver in the class.
"Our plan was for the driver to do his job, to give us a chance to beat him on a hole-shot if we had to, but also for the car to go A-to-B again, so that we didn't hand him anything," Arend said.
Unfortunately, the best laid plans do not always reach fruition, and even though Arend carried his end of the bargain by getting 25-thousandths on the champ at the tree, tire smoke became visible before half-track, and Force pulled away. The fact Force's car suffered a loss of power at the top end, running only a 4.891 to take the win, only added to the disgust for Arend and his crew.
"We obviously felt we had a tune-up that was safe, and it shocked all of us when it smoked them out there, but then to see him slow down at the top end and be totally beatable, well that just added salt to the wound. Getting to the second round is good, because every round win out here is massively hard to get, but losing one like that is a tough pill. This sport is rough, man, and it's very humbling. All we can do is go to Reading next week and try to strap a few wins on some other guys."
The challenge will be just as big. The determination will be just as great. The story will just have to play itself out.
