Championship Drag Racing

Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis, Ind.
(August 27-September 1)

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Johnny Gray Pitch Energy/DSR Charger

Indianapolis, Sunday: Pro Stock pro Johnny Gray rolled into O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis filled with high hopes.  He was looking for a good showing out of his brand new Dodge Stratus at the prestigious the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.  But the Artesia, N. M. businessman’s hopes were down after he didn’t qualify for the biggest race of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season.

Gray is a seasoned pro and knew that the new car was going to take some fine tuning.  But after three days of trying to qualify at the all important race, it has become apparent to Gray that he and his crew have bigger problems that will require more than fine tuning.  He ran a 6.79, 6.69, 6.70, 6.70 and a 6.72, which showed them they had a reoccurring problem.  And after some study they discover that it wasn’t the car that need fine tuning, it was their engine.

“The car absolutely worked wonderful,” explained Gray.  “It’s a brand new Rick Jones car and it’s flawless.  I’m ecstatic about the car.  We were on the top of the sheet on every run for the first half of the track.  We’ve just got some kind of fuel delivery problem or something binding up that’s causing the car to drop off in mile per hour in the back half.  It’s not performing in the back half of the track but Larry (Morgan) thinks there may be some kind of issue in the engine we we’re running.  So, he’s going to take it back and put it on the dyno and we’re going to try another motor for Charlotte.  They may even try to test it first, but I’ll let Larry drive it because I have to get back to work.

“We’re real excited about the new deal and we think it will be fast.  But we are very disappointed now because we felt that the car was so good in testing.  And then we put our race motor in it and we don’t know what’s going on.  We don’t know what to think.  But we’re going to drop another bullet in it and try it again.”

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