THOUGH LIKELY JUST A SPOILER, AREND'S MOTIVATION AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH
BRAINERD, Minn. (August 7, 2007) -- Jeff Arend spent the first six races of the 2007 NHRA season in the POWERade top eight, driving his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car to a 3-6 record to open the season. Then, after a couple of ill-timed first round losses, he dipped below the cut-line for the NHRA Countdown To The Championship playoff field and, despite improving to a 4-5 mark at his last six races, he's been unable to claw his way back into serious contention. Now, as he heads to Brainerd for this weekend's Lucas Oil Nationals, Arend knows the task of leapfrogging five fast-running teams, which is exactly what he would have to do to grab the eighth and final spot in the playoffs, is more than likely too Herculean to accomplish.
Coming to the woods and lakes of central Minnesota in the No. 13 spot on the points list, 137 markers behind Jim Head (who sits in the No. 8 position), Arend would need a miracle of somewhat epic proportions to make the playoffs. Kirk Gibson, Doug Flutie, and the Stanford University marching band would all have to move back a spot on the list of impossible finishes if Arend were to somehow make up seven rounds on Head, while Ashley Force, Tommy Johnson, Cruz Pedregon, and Del Worsham all simultaneously remained polite enough to stay put in their points positions. Still, there's no shortage of motivation for the CSK driver, who plans to finish his first year at Worsham Racing with a flourish.
"To me, this is really no different than any season, and it's better, actually, because I'm driving the best car I've ever driven," Arend said. "Had they not instituted the Countdown, I'd still be in 13th place and our team would have absolutely no shot at the championship at all. I've heard people question the Countdown, in all seriousness, with the line 'What's to motivate the teams that don't make it to even show up at the last six races?' Once I quit laughing, I try to point out the last 50 years, or so, of drag racing when we were lucky to have two or three cars really in the hunt, and everybody else seemed to show up then.
"Seriously, for us the motivation is just winning, period, whether we're in the playoffs or not. Unlike in other sports, the rest of us get to keep playing once the playoffs start, and there's absolutely no reason our blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team can't win at least one race before the end of the season. The Sonoma race seemed to put us right back on top of it, and had we been a few inches quicker in round two, against Del, we would've probably been going to the final round out there. We're quick enough to win, and we're not lacking for motivation at all. The way I see it, when you have a car that can win any weekend, no matter where you are in the points, you're pumped up to go racing at every track we go to, whether it's April or October."
Entering the Brainerd race, Arend and his teammates have more or less shifted their focus away from the points sheet, by narrowing their target to each individual lap. Each qualifying run is seen as it is at its core, a mini-race that's part of the full equation. Each lap on Sunday is a do-or-die "winner take all" event, and the points will simply fall where they will.
"We're not looking at the next two races and thinking about how many we need or what other teams have to do," Arend said. "If we were in Del's position, being in ninth place and 85 points out with two races to go, we'd definitely be counting every point and looking at things that way, but for us the goal is to just boil it down to every time we fire the car, and getting the most out of each run. All we care about is winning rounds, so qualifying well is a key part of that, and getting those round wins is really all that matters.
"We're not posting any goals in trailer, as far as points position goes, because that will take care of itself if we can get on a roll and win. That's it. That's all this is about. We're out here to win, every time we pull to the line, and our only goal is to win at least one race before the end of the season. If we do that while playing the role of the spoiler, knocking people either out of the playoffs or whatever, that's just the way it will be. We're not worried about anybody else, we're just trying to win."
The words of motivated young man, who aims to put his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala in the Winner's Circle.
