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Jeff Arend followed up his top qualifier effort in Indy by streaking to a solid lap right out of the box, here in Memphis. His first qualifying pass, a 4.915, was good enough for the No. 3 spot at the time, and seemed to be an indication his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team was still on a roll. Instead as the weekend unfolded, Arend and his teammates learned how to roll, as well as duck and weave, as they fought their way into a very tough race field and struggled through the good and the bad.
After that opening shot, Arend was unable to make a full lap on Friday night, when a great deal of shuffling was going on under the Memphis lights. Heading into Saturday, he felt safe for the field, but also knew he and his team needed to step up to make sure they held onto a spot. For a guy who failed to make a full pass during either of Saturday's sessions, it could hardly have been any more nerve-wracking or dramatic. In the end, Arend landed in the 16th spot, having seen his 4.915 tied by his teammate Del Worsham. Worsham got the 15th spot based on speed, and Arend got the 16th based on a the narrowest of performance advantages, as both Mike Ashley and Jim Head could do no better than 4.916. By one thousandth of a second, Arend took the final spot and left those two Countdown competitors on the sidelines.
"It was nail biting time there at the end, and if you ran that whole session again, nine more times, we probably would have missed the field all nine of them," Arend said. "It just worked out that those two guys were a thousandth short, and we got in 16th based on the run we made in the first session. None of that happens around here, but it did for us. And don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to death to get in the field."
What also seems to have never happened before, in the history of the sport, is what Arend did in qualifying at the last two races. According to announcer Bob Frey, who moonlights as the "knower of all statistical things" in the sport of drag racing, Arend became the first Funny Car driver to ever qualify number one at Indy, on the basis of speed, and then qualify number 16 at the next race, and also land in that spot on the basis of speed. The trivia world was rocked by that news, but Arend simply looked ahead to round one on Sunday.
"Being last, we got number one, and that was Robert Hight," Arend said. "Our guys knew we didn't want to mess up and hand him the round, and we also knew it was dumb for us to try to step way up and try to be super-heroes, so they plotted a course for us to make a strong lap, and we'd just have to see if it was good enough. Maybe, if the driver did his job, we could get there first and upset the top guy. It happened to me in Indy, so I felt like this was my chance to turn the tables."
At the line in the first round, Arend did do his part, grabbing a big advantage at the tree with a .080 to Hight's .115 reaction time. After that, both cars tore down the track, both made clean laps, and both could have won. Only one car can take the win light, however, and it was Hight, with a 4.860 to Arend's 4.930. It was a great race, and a valiant battle, but the blue CSK Chevy came up just short.
"Our car didn't quite pull hard enough the whole way to do it, but at least we gave them a fight and didn't smoke the tires or do anything really wrong," Arend said. "We went end-to-end, and we gave ourselves a chance to upset the top guy, and that's really about all you can demand of yourself. The way this weekend worked out, with us getting in 16th off of our first qualifying run, then coming back to life in the first round, it would have been a fairy tale to get some round wins, and it would've really rewarded our guys for all their hard work, but this is drag racing, man. It's a cruel sport that tells half the racers to pack up and go home after every round. We worked hard and ran well, but we still got the pink slip in the end."
The loss was not for a lack of effort, and was valiant in every way. For Arend and his colleagues, it just wasn't meant to be, and Hight was simply too tall a customer to take out.
AREND'S VALIANT FIRST-ROUND EFFORT DOESN'T QUITE HAVE THE "HIGHT"
Jeff Arend followed up his top qualifier effort in Indy by streaking to a solid lap right out of the box, here in Memphis. His first qualifying pass, a 4.915, was good enough for the No. 3 spot at the time, and seemed to be an indication his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team was still on a roll. Instead as the weekend unfolded, Arend and his teammates learned how to roll, as well as duck and weave, as they fought their way into a very tough race field and struggled through the good and the bad.
After that opening shot, Arend was unable to make a full lap on Friday night, when a great deal of shuffling was going on under the Memphis lights. Heading into Saturday, he felt safe for the field, but also knew he and his team needed to step up to make sure they held onto a spot. For a guy who failed to make a full pass during either of Saturday's sessions, it could hardly have been any more nerve-wracking or dramatic. In the end, Arend landed in the 16th spot, having seen his 4.915 tied by his teammate Del Worsham. Worsham got the 15th spot based on speed, and Arend got the 16th based on a the narrowest of performance advantages, as both Mike Ashley and Jim Head could do no better than 4.916. By one thousandth of a second, Arend took the final spot and left those two Countdown competitors on the sidelines.
"It was nail biting time there at the end, and if you ran that whole session again, nine more times, we probably would have missed the field all nine of them," Arend said. "It just worked out that those two guys were a thousandth short, and we got in 16th based on the run we made in the first session. None of that happens around here, but it did for us. And don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to death to get in the field."
What also seems to have never happened before, in the history of the sport, is what Arend did in qualifying at the last two races. According to announcer Bob Frey, who moonlights as the "knower of all statistical things" in the sport of drag racing, Arend became the first Funny Car driver to ever qualify number one at Indy, on the basis of speed, and then qualify number 16 at the next race, and also land in that spot on the basis of speed. The trivia world was rocked by that news, but Arend simply looked ahead to round one on Sunday.
"Being last, we got number one, and that was Robert Hight," Arend said. "Our guys knew we didn't want to mess up and hand him the round, and we also knew it was dumb for us to try to step way up and try to be super-heroes, so they plotted a course for us to make a strong lap, and we'd just have to see if it was good enough. Maybe, if the driver did his job, we could get there first and upset the top guy. It happened to me in Indy, so I felt like this was my chance to turn the tables."
At the line in the first round, Arend did do his part, grabbing a big advantage at the tree with a .080 to Hight's .115 reaction time. After that, both cars tore down the track, both made clean laps, and both could have won. Only one car can take the win light, however, and it was Hight, with a 4.860 to Arend's 4.930. It was a great race, and a valiant battle, but the blue CSK Chevy came up just short.
"Our car didn't quite pull hard enough the whole way to do it, but at least we gave them a fight and didn't smoke the tires or do anything really wrong," Arend said. "We went end-to-end, and we gave ourselves a chance to upset the top guy, and that's really about all you can demand of yourself. The way this weekend worked out, with us getting in 16th off of our first qualifying run, then coming back to life in the first round, it would have been a fairy tale to get some round wins, and it would've really rewarded our guys for all their hard work, but this is drag racing, man. It's a cruel sport that tells half the racers to pack up and go home after every round. We worked hard and ran well, but we still got the pink slip in the end."
The loss was not for a lack of effort, and was valiant in every way. For Arend and his colleagues, it just wasn't meant to be, and Hight was simply too tall a customer to take out.
