I think the longer a team sticks together, the better the results.
Austin Coil, Tim Richards and Dale Armstrong were the best examples of leaders and builders of great championship teams..

My vote goes to Austin Coil.
Although Coil has benefited from the best resourced, and most organized team in drag racing, along with the most gifted owner the NHRA has the luxury of having, Coil/ Force have built model long ago for team racing in the NHRA.
He will never be challenged for the best all time NHRA crew chief.

My second choice is Alan Johnson.
Not only has he been great, but always great.
He instantly great with the DSR team. He took the TF team out from under the bus, and made them an instant threat to win the next week.
Folks, end of discussion... This guy is the best right now, and has been for the last 10 years in TF.
When an Alan Johnson car pulls to the line, everybody watches.
I can only imagine how good he would have been if Blaine were still alive.

Third, is Dick LaHaie.
Again, if you hire Dick, you instantly become a threat to win the championship...
His summer tune ups were always his strong suit, and he can run quick enough at the fast tracks to always be in the top three..
Hey Don Schumacher, keep your eye on this guy because at some point, he's going to get sick of polishing his car collection and mowing the grass..

Here is my list of crew chiefs:
Coil
AA Dale
Brandt - for Snake
Prock
Amos Saterlee
General Richards
A. Johnson

in no particular order

Coil
Ace
Federly
Prock
Johnson
Richards

Von... Believe your thinking of Doug "Cookie" Cook of Pebbles, Pulp, and Chef fame... And Cookie did wrench "Big Junes" Cuda Floppers '69 til '72 or '73

Don Cook owned and wrenched the 'Damn Yankee' that both Pat Foster and Ron O'D drove, the one that almost burnt on the top end at OCIR while shooting a Picture of a Fire Burnout... boy is that a story

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John what a great choice. Not only a great Crew Chief, but one of the most wonderful people that I have ever had the privilege of getting to know in my life. A true gift ... to everyone his path crossed.

I would like to add Ron Swearingen ... on any given day, in any and all situations, Ronbo was as good as HE wanted to be.

And let us not forget Maynard Yingst ... he made a tremendous impact in a short time.

Hey KC, check your PM's...

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Well, I was a kid. But I was pretty active in the pits. My memory could be ailing me, but I could have sworn Don Cook was involved in an accident.

Maybe Don S., or somebody else that's even older than me, can shed some light on my (lack of? ) memory.

Give Don Sosenka or Brent Fanning a budget, and they'll show you some stuff. They'll have a good time doing it too.

Rickie Smith, Duh............................................... ....

my vote goes to Coil.....it's just hard to go against 15 championships!

There are just too many guys out there with ideas who never got the chance to put major funding behind them and see if they'd fly.

I already mentioned Fanning and Sosenka, those two are literal geniuses. Sosenka runs the car with little to no breakage, no computer, not so much as a calculator. I've been around him when he's gone through page after page of graph paper with fuel curves drawn on them that I doubt a doctor of engineering could decipher. The man is a genius. Literally. He's the kind of guy that the NHRA would make rules about if he had the chance.

I was chatting with Baca and Rick during lunch a week ago, and this came up. Im thinking that both Hogan and Alan Johnson really have a paramount understanding of fuel delivery based on designing pumps and heads. And I would be willing to bet that Alan knows quite a bit about clutch design as well, as the rumor is that his hat is different from eveyone elses.

I think that Richards, Coil, Connie and Toehbler are all pretty kick ass tuners as well.

And of course, it's hard to count out Zippy. I seem to remember him winning a championship for the O about 8 months ago

I think that Austin and Alan are at the top of the list because they have done it year after year--Different cars--Different drivers.
The Prock Rocket and Zippy are certainly current players, big time.
Richard Hogan gets a big YIPEE for making a 'part time' team a big threat (HotRod) and walking into Mel's operation and going right to the top.
Some long time tuners that are still running in other venues--Tim Beebe, Famous Amos, Ray Zeller and how about Dale Pulde. Dale could build it, tow it, tune it and drive it.

Bob signing off.

I'm not so sure you can consider Prock being an "up and coming" tuner. He fired some serious shots with Amato back in the late 90's, and if memory serves, contended for the championship a couple of those years.

Not to be a homer, but I say the Kalitta "O-Bros". These guys not only learned racing from thier father, but it's pretty cool to have watched thier career paths which started at the bottom as parts washers & clutch disc grinders for Connie Kalitta. And now they're both in "the big show", making decisions right along side of the man who hired them way back when.

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