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RICHMOND, Va. (October 2, 2007) -- Jeff Arend, driver of the special edition Havoline/Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala Funny Car, missed the NHRA Countdown To The Championship playoff field by four positions and about 120 points, but he enters this weekend's Torco Racing Fuels Nationals looking at a very important, and far too short, countdown of his own. Within the past week, Arend learned that CSK Auto, Worsham Racing's primary sponsor for the past 11 seasons, would renew its contract to back team owner Del Worsham's red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy, but would not be picking up the option to continue backing Arend's blue car.
Having taken over the seat in the blue CSK Impala at the beginning of this 2007 season, Arend has advanced to the semi-finals on two occasions and has managed to qualify at 19 of 20 races to this point, while he was also able to pick up his first career No. 1 qualifying spot at the biggest race on the tour, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. His car has run well of late, and is clearly a contender on race day, but Arend is now faced with the prospect of having to make a huge impact in a very short period of time if he wants to end the '07 campaign on the sort of high note that would attract new backing for 2008.
"First of all, this whole season has been the highlight of my career, and I just want to thank the Worsham family and Checker, Schuck's, Kragen for making it all possible," Arend said. "We've had some great moments, and lately we've been running right at the front of the pack, so there's lots to be proud of. We've also managed to find ways to lose far too many tight side-by-side races, and most of that is just bad luck, really. An inch here, a foot there, with a couple of normal breaks thrown in, and we could be five or six spots higher on the points list. We could be talking about the NHRA Countdown, not our own personal countdown to the end of the final season for this blue CSK car.
"Racing is racing, though, and someone has to lose every race, even the close ones. We're going to do all we can to turn that tide in Richmond this weekend, and at the final two races in Las Vegas and Pomona. We are banging on doors to see if there's funding out there for 2008, but it's not that easy to put one of these deals together in a few months.
It has happened before, and we're going to do all we can, but I'm not going to start booking my flights to all the 2008 races, or anything like that, just yet. Maybe, if we get some nibbles in the next few weeks, and finally put the results on the board we're capable of, we'll find a way to keep this thing going. We'd all love to do that, but we're also realistic."
One thing Arend would like to accomplish in the final three races in 2007 is to find more consistency in his qualifying placement. Although he has only one DNQ on the season, which puts him in elite company within a Funny Car class where every driver has missed the field at least once and some of the sport's biggest stars have failed to make the show on multiple occasions, Arend's placements have been all over the board. The greatest example has come in the last four races, where Arend has seen his qualifying fortunes move up and down like a yo-yo, qualifying 16th in Reading, 1st in Indy, then back to
16th in Memphis, before landing in the No. 2 spot at Dallas. A solid Friday effort in Richmond is what he's looking for.
"We just need to do what we did in Dallas and Indy, and that's run well on Friday," Arend said. "Richmond will be another race where we run late on Friday, but in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, so it's critical to get your best laps on the board on that first day. Then, we have to take that momentum and make some good out of it on Sunday.
So far this year, we've qualified first, second, third, and fourth at races along the way, and we've won a grand total of one round from those spots. That's not the sort of results you should be getting from the top of the field.
"This weekend, we'll be running the awesome looking Havoline Impala again, and we know we can fun fast with that body because we just qualified second with it in Texas. I really don't care what place we qualify in, I guess, because I just want to race on Sunday and put the Havoline Chevy in the Winner's Circle. That would make all of us happy, it would make Havoline and CSK happy, and it might just get a potential sponsor interested. All in all, winning this race would have to rate as a very good thing."
And it would also represent a huge step in his own personal countdown.
AREND'S COUNTDOWN BEGINS IN RICHMOND
RICHMOND, Va. (October 2, 2007) -- Jeff Arend, driver of the special edition Havoline/Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala Funny Car, missed the NHRA Countdown To The Championship playoff field by four positions and about 120 points, but he enters this weekend's Torco Racing Fuels Nationals looking at a very important, and far too short, countdown of his own. Within the past week, Arend learned that CSK Auto, Worsham Racing's primary sponsor for the past 11 seasons, would renew its contract to back team owner Del Worsham's red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy, but would not be picking up the option to continue backing Arend's blue car.
Having taken over the seat in the blue CSK Impala at the beginning of this 2007 season, Arend has advanced to the semi-finals on two occasions and has managed to qualify at 19 of 20 races to this point, while he was also able to pick up his first career No. 1 qualifying spot at the biggest race on the tour, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. His car has run well of late, and is clearly a contender on race day, but Arend is now faced with the prospect of having to make a huge impact in a very short period of time if he wants to end the '07 campaign on the sort of high note that would attract new backing for 2008.
"First of all, this whole season has been the highlight of my career, and I just want to thank the Worsham family and Checker, Schuck's, Kragen for making it all possible," Arend said. "We've had some great moments, and lately we've been running right at the front of the pack, so there's lots to be proud of. We've also managed to find ways to lose far too many tight side-by-side races, and most of that is just bad luck, really. An inch here, a foot there, with a couple of normal breaks thrown in, and we could be five or six spots higher on the points list. We could be talking about the NHRA Countdown, not our own personal countdown to the end of the final season for this blue CSK car.
"Racing is racing, though, and someone has to lose every race, even the close ones. We're going to do all we can to turn that tide in Richmond this weekend, and at the final two races in Las Vegas and Pomona. We are banging on doors to see if there's funding out there for 2008, but it's not that easy to put one of these deals together in a few months.
It has happened before, and we're going to do all we can, but I'm not going to start booking my flights to all the 2008 races, or anything like that, just yet. Maybe, if we get some nibbles in the next few weeks, and finally put the results on the board we're capable of, we'll find a way to keep this thing going. We'd all love to do that, but we're also realistic."
One thing Arend would like to accomplish in the final three races in 2007 is to find more consistency in his qualifying placement. Although he has only one DNQ on the season, which puts him in elite company within a Funny Car class where every driver has missed the field at least once and some of the sport's biggest stars have failed to make the show on multiple occasions, Arend's placements have been all over the board. The greatest example has come in the last four races, where Arend has seen his qualifying fortunes move up and down like a yo-yo, qualifying 16th in Reading, 1st in Indy, then back to
16th in Memphis, before landing in the No. 2 spot at Dallas. A solid Friday effort in Richmond is what he's looking for.
"We just need to do what we did in Dallas and Indy, and that's run well on Friday," Arend said. "Richmond will be another race where we run late on Friday, but in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, so it's critical to get your best laps on the board on that first day. Then, we have to take that momentum and make some good out of it on Sunday.
So far this year, we've qualified first, second, third, and fourth at races along the way, and we've won a grand total of one round from those spots. That's not the sort of results you should be getting from the top of the field.
"This weekend, we'll be running the awesome looking Havoline Impala again, and we know we can fun fast with that body because we just qualified second with it in Texas. I really don't care what place we qualify in, I guess, because I just want to race on Sunday and put the Havoline Chevy in the Winner's Circle. That would make all of us happy, it would make Havoline and CSK happy, and it might just get a potential sponsor interested. All in all, winning this race would have to rate as a very good thing."
And it would also represent a huge step in his own personal countdown.
