Originally Posted by Mike Hasselbeck

I was there and can give you a first-hand account of what happened.

GA oiled down the waterbox and the first 100 feet or so of the lane. His car was dead in the water (literally) and had to be pushed back into the staging lanes to make room for the cleanup. Greg took off his helmet, helped in the push, hooked up the tow strap, and then steered his car back to the pit area. It would have been wrong for him to watch JL's run because his crippled car was in the way.

JL switched lanes and put Dave Connolly where Anderson was. Connolly shook hard allowing Jason the easy win. At that point, I went directly to the Line/Anderson pit to await Jason's return. Anderson was in the trailer and his car was up on the jack. JL arrived and the crew immediately began servicing the car for the next round matchup with Jim Yates.

Jason had a look of concern and went directly into the trailer. Within seconds the two emerged and the expression on his face indicated JL was far more disturbed than GA. It almost looked like he was waiting for GA to explode. Instead, GA went immediately to work on the Line car's motor, pulling out plugs. The two were conversing and I saw GA crack a smile or two. It appeared as if he had shrugged off the incident as part of racing and he was already back to business of getting his teammate's car ready for competition.

A couple of minutes later, an NHRA official arrived on a scooter. He walked directly up to GA as he worked and there was a brief exchange that I could not hear. Whatever was said did not appear to be of any consequence to GA as he continued his work unfazed. About a dozen autograph seekers had congregated at that point...both GA and JL left the cars and spent a few minutes signing before going back to the car. If GA was upset about what befell his car in round 2 it was impossible to tell by his public behavior. This team is 100% professional.

I spend most of my `cruising' time in the Pro Stock pits, avoiding the mass of spectators around the fuel cars. After much observation over the past 3-4 seasons, I tend to believe that GA is the crewchief on JL's car and vice versa. That's what it looks like based on the work being done. It is a very interesting dynamic and makes me suspect that JL may have felt GA's oil leak was ultimately his responsibility.