Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Force working to avert letdown

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4089.

John Force is doing everything he can to avoid a repeat of the 1992 season.

That year, Force had built a sizeable lead in the NHRA Funny Car standings heading into the latter stages of the season when then-rookie Cruz Pedregon got on a hot streak, won five of the last six races and snatched the championship from Force.

Force had amassed another comfortable lead in the standings this summer, after notching his fifth win of the season in Denver. But over the course of the next six races, Whit Bazemore won three times and Force's lead in the points became less cozy.

It was time, Force said, to rethink the team's strategy.

"We had been kind of racing defensively -- that's crew chief strategy," Force said. "We saw what the (Don) Schumacher team, with Bazemore and (crew chief Lee) Beard, were doing. We had a large lead going into Seattle and they kind of ate away at that with wins and the national record that they set at Chicago.

"So we kind of looked at the season, what was left, and the tracks that we thought they could set the record at because that could help them (gain points). We figured that would be just at Dallas, even possibly Vegas, but when they ran the way they did at Maple Grove, we just decided to go off of defense and go into offensive mode before they ate up the points and beat us there."

Thoughts of that disastrous 1992 season haven't been very far from Force's mind as this season enters its final three races. The NHRA is at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas this weekend and moves to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend before concluding the season Nov. 11 in Pomona.

Force holds a 285-point lead over Bazemore going into this weekend's race and can clinch his record 11th NHRA championship if he leaves Texas with at least a 277-point advantage.

"I always have to remind myself of 1992 and what Cruz Pedregon did," Force said. "In '92, Cruz actually had a better racecar than us. They were running the low (elapsed times), they were consistent and we were slower.

"We had a sizeable lead, but they were charging on and we went into test mode thinking we had enough of a lead to stay ahead of them. At Seattle, we started testing and we had nothing but failure -- everything went wrong (for us) and everything went right for them."

After Bazemore picked up his third win of the season on Sept. 30 in Joliet, Ill., Force answered with a win -- the 98th of his career -- two weeks ago at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., and said he would like to wrap up the title this weekend in Texas rather than prolong the battle until the season finale in Pomona.

"The bottom line is we got aggressive," Force said. "Consistency has always been our game plan but we want to race ... and we want to flex our muscles, too, and that's what we were able to accomplish at Maple Grove, getting the national record back.

"I like to race for the fans, but I want to wrap (the championship) up early."

During a teleconference Wednesday to announce that NASCAR was mandating the use of head-and-neck restraint systems by drivers in the Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series, Pyne said NASCAR doesn't have sufficient data that the bumper is effective.

"The data that is available and testing that has been done do not allow us to draw any conclusions that are meaningful because of the speed at which the tests have been done will not allow us to," Pyne said.

"And even if the tests were done at speeds that would allow us to develop meaningful conclusions, we have concerns based on our independent experts regarding composite fiber and its effectiveness in managing energy. We have no data in front of us that suggests that the Humpy Bumper would be effective in managing energy."

Lowe's Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler, after whom the bumper is named, disagreed with Pyne's assessment.

"With all due respect to NASCAR's 'experts,' we obviously need to do a better job of explaining how this energy-absorbing bumper works," Wheeler said. "The difficultly in understanding this bumper is that it is made of directional carbon fiber. Only five percent of all carbon fiber usage is directional. Therefore, only those who work closely with it really understand its remarkable ability to redirect energy.

"This is exactly the same type of directional carbon fiber that has saved the lives of many Indy Car and Formula One drivers in the last couple of years since its placement in the front, rear and sides of the open-wheel cars. Its safety record, especially in these high-speed crashes, is proof that it works."

Wheeler also took issue with Pyne's comment that testing on the bumper was not done at proper speeds.

"The statement that these tests were done at wall speeds 10 mph or less than ideal can also be debated. While some tests were run at slower speeds, most were in the proper range. The crash test at Charlotte, witnessed by the media, was at a wall speed in excess of 40 mph, similar to Dale Earnhardt's accident."

"Racing at Talladega is quite an experience," Busch said. "The track requires so much focus and concentration that it really becomes a big mental endurance race. The spring race was really exciting, and to do so well our first time there was quite a confidence builder.

"I am really looking forward to a second shot there to see what we can deliver. I think it's very apparent that we have learned a lot throughout the season and now we have the opportunity of returning to Talladega to apply some of that knowledge."

Although Etchells has fielded two Camaro Z28 Funny Cars for most of the season, his participation this weekend will be limited to a single entry, driven by Jim Epler.

"We have certain sponsor revenue issues hounding us at the moment, which has affected our ability to run the team," Etchells said. "Throughout the year, our suppliers have been very good to us, carrying us and allowing us to keep going.

"However, when the primary sponsorship package we had been working on for next year fell through, there was no reason to go further in debt."

Hornish had posted the second-fastest speed (223.592 mph) before his accident in Turn 1. He was released from the hospital with small fractures in his left foot, which was placed in a small cast.

Said suffered a minor skull fracture when the car he was driving crashed in turn 11 of the circuit. He climbed from the car on his own and was awake and alert when transported to a local hospital, where he was to be held overnight for observation.

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