Serta Team Puts Competition to Sleep at Milan Dragway (1 Viewer)

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Serta Team Puts Competition to Sleep at Milan Dragway
Andrew Cowin captures first career Top Fuel Ironman at Suzuki Motor City Nationals

The Scott Griffin Motorsports/Serta Mattresses Top Fuel team has only been inexistence for seven months. At the Suzuki Motor City Nationals he accomplished something other teams have spent years failing to do.

Cowin defeated Bobby Lagana, Jr. in the Knoll Gas-Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro Top Fuel final at Milan Dragway to chalk up the first victory for the fledgling Wilmington, N.C.-based racing operation. Scott Griffin hired Cowin to drive his car in December of ’05, Sunday the pair stood together in the Winner’s Circle.

“I really take my hat off to the crew,” Cowin said after the victory. “They thrashed in the pits back there and, on race day, we were able to go three rounds. I always knew we could herd some of those Counting Sheep into the Winner’s Circle and we did it today.”

The Scott Griffin Motorsports/Serta Mattresses Dragster was the dominant Top Fuel car all weekend. The team set the Milan Dragway speed record in qualifying in the pole position, posting a 325.45 mph run Saturday. Then, during the elimination rounds Sunday, Cowin posted the best elapsed time of each round.

In the final against Lagana, Cowin blistered the track with a 4.840/282.95 pass to top his opponent’s 4.945/282.19. The amazing part is that the team accomplished their run to the Ironman while using only one engine.

“The same bullet we started with was the same bullet we ended with,” Cowin said. “That’s what racing is all about. We had a lot of fun this weekend and everyone on the crew took care of their part. I’ve always said if everyone gets together and pulls in the same direction we would get there pretty quick. And in seven months we’ve done it.”

Griffin is proud of the team he has assembled.

“I am so happy and honored to have been able to be a part of Andrew Cowin, Lance Larsen and Keith Stewart’s victory here today,” Griffin said of his driver and two Crew Chiefs. “I am thrilled to be able to put them together with the parts and resources they need to be successful. Everyone on this team realizes the goal and they know we want to do whatever we have to do to get to the Winner’s Circle. This team has great depth and dedication, they work six or seven days a week. And they all work well together, top to bottom.”

Early in the 2006 season, before the Spring Nationals in Rockingham, Griffin hired Larsen away from five-time IHRA World Champion Clay Millican’s operation. Stewart put ego aside and welcomed Larsen to the team…and the results are starting to pay off as the team matures. Stewart was happy with his first-ever national event victory as a Crew Chief, and gave much of the credit to Larsen.

“It is a huge accomplishment on a personal level, but it couldn’t have been done if Scott would not have brought Lance Larsen in,” Stewart said. “That was an unbelievable key. It took awhile to get the right people in place. Lance and I do this together. There isn’t one guy in the forefront, we do this together and that’s what it took.”
 
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