Backstretch Motorsports

Mike Neff, driver of the NHRA POWERade Old Spice Ford Mustang Funny Car, and development driver for the new Ford BOSS 500 nitro engine, heads into this weekend’s O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in 11th place in the NHRA POWERade Championship Point Standings and eighth place in the Full Throttle NHRA Pit Crew Championship Standings, following his first-ever finals appearance a couple of weekends ago at St. Louis.

MIKE NEFF – Old Spice Ford Mustang Funny Car – YOU REACHED THE FINALS OF AN EVENT IN JUST YOUR NINTH RACE AS A DRIVER. “To be honest with you, we were hoping that it wouldn’t have taken that long, because our car has been running and qualifying really good. But, for some reason, we just kept getting tripped up first round, so, yeah, to get past that first round was a big one, and then to go on to the final, that turned out to be a good day for us.”

BEFORE YOU WERE A DRIVER, YOU WERE A CREW CHIEF. DOES A SUCCESSFUL SUNDAY LIKE THE ONE YOU HAD AT ST. LOUIS SEEM LONGER WHEN YOU’RE THE DRIVER? DID THE DAY SEEM DIFFERENT THAN WHEN YOU WERE ENJOYING SUCCESS AS GARY SCELZI’S CREW CHIEF? “Yeah. It’s all new, you know, just doing what a driver does, and worrying about that part of it. I had been a crew chief for long enough that you just kind of get in your routine and you know how that drill goes. But to be a driver, it was a neat experience. That first round, I still had the first-round jitters just like you do as a crew chief, and then I got more comfortable as the day went on – kind of as I did as a crew chief also. It was exciting to make it to the final round, to say the least. Just came up a little bit short, but it was a good, respectable race, and will definitely help with my confidence, and I’m sure the whole team’s.”

IS DRAG RACING LIKE OTHER SPORTS, WHERE MOMENTUM CAN CARRY OVER FROM ONE DAY OR EVENT TO THE NEXT? CAN YOU CARRY YOUR SUCCESS FROM ST. LOUIS INTO BRISTOL? “Absolutely. It works the same way, I think, as anything. It just seems like no matter what you’re doing, playing basketball or football, as teams go, things just either are going your way or not going your way, it seems like. It seems like, for me, that you go through cycles and rolls where even when you make mistakes, the guy next to you makes a bigger one and you’re able to go on, and you’re winning all the close ones, and it seems like you can get to a point where you can’t do anything wrong – and that’s when you’re winning and things are going real good. Also, when you’re on the flip-side of that, it seems like you can’t do anything right – you’re losing all the close races and you make a good run and the one guy that runs better than you is the guy you’re racing. So, yeah, I think that that’s real similar, as far as that goes. A lot of luck involved, you know? Luck’s a big part of it.”

DID YOU GET A SENSE OF THAT BEFORE SUNDAY? OR DID THAT GROW WITH YOUR SUCCESSES ON SUNDAY? “Actually, I’ve felt good going into every Sunday that we’ve had. We’ve qualified well at just about all the races, and that’s what was getting so frustrated. It was like, ‘Man, I feel so good.’ Even the previous races, it was like, ‘We’re going to do good. I can feel it.’ And I thought I could feel it, and then yet something would happen first round and we’d lose. So, going into St. Louis first round, it was like, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ I’ve felt good before and it hasn’t worked out, so ‘whatever was going to happen, was going to happen’ was kind of my attitude. But once we got by that first round, I always felt that once we could get by that first one, that the next would come a lot easier and we were going to go some rounds.”

WITH AN EVENT THAT PASSES THAT QUICKLY, AND WITH THOSE BEING YOUR FIRST ROUND-WINS AS A DRIVER, DID YOU KNOW AS YOU CROSSED THE FINISH LINE? OR, WERE YOU SO FOCUSED ON GETTING DOWN THE TRACK THAT IT TOOK A MOMENT OR TWO? “A lot of times there are win lights on the wall or something that you can look over and see as you cross the finish line, if your win light comes on. I haven’t done that yet, because I’m not sure exactly where they were, plus I’m too busy just trying to keep the thing going straight and haven’t looked over for the win light like I hear a lot of guys – ‘Ah, I saw my win light on.’ But I haven’t. I don’t know where the win light is at on the walls. You’re looking straight ahead, you’ve almost got tunnel vision in that car because you can’t see, really, out the sides. For you to see the guy next to you, he’d probably have to be at least a car length or two car lengths ahead of you for you to be able to catch him out of your peripheral vision. So, these close races, like [Tim] Wilkerson [in the final], I never saw him. I didn’t even know he was there until right after I had lifted after the finish line, he must’ve stayed on the gas a little bit longer, because then I saw him and then I knew, man, he was right there. But, you really don’t know. You don’t know if the guy next to you smoked the tires or what happened.”

SO, HOW DID YOU FIND OUT? OVER THE RADIO? “Over the radio. John Medlen [crew chief] usually talks to me and he just said, ‘Oh, he just nipped you. He ran an .87 and you ran an .88.’ He more or less told me, but for the previous rounds, I didn’t hear anything on the radio. When you pull around the corner, they’ll be there to direct you. If they direct you to pull over to the side where the TV camera is set up, you know you won. If they’re telling you to go the other way, you know you lost. So, that’s one way if you don’t hear anything.”

YOU MENTIONED JOHN MEDLEN. YOUR TEAM IS USING THE NEW FORD BOSS 500 MOTOR. DO THE TWO OF YOU FEEL PRETTY COMFORTABLE WITH WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT IT AND WHAT IT CAN DO? “Yeah, we’re really thrilled with the BOSS 500. It makes more power than what we were running, and we’ve adapted to that. The parts look good. It’s real durable. And, yeah, we are thrilled that project has gone as well as it has. It hasn’t caused us any problems, and we’re really thrilled about that.”

YOU’RE EXPECTED TO DO A BURNOUT WITH YOUR FUNNY CAR AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY BEFORE THE NASCAR RACE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS. “I think they’re going to look at where we’re going to do it, and they still want to make sure that it will be feasible for us to do it to where it will be safe, and there’s not crown on the track. It needs to be pretty flat because any type of a crown and that thing won’t want to be going straight. Actually, Guido [Dean Antonelli], Ashley’s [Force] crew chief, he’s on his way down there right now to take a look at it and to make sure everything’s safe with it. If that’s the case, then, yeah, we’re planning on doing a burnout right before the Coca-Cola 600.”

FOR RACE FANS WHO ARE USED TO WATCHING STOCK CARS AND NOT DRAG RACES, THEY’LL BE IN FOR QUITE A SURPRISE. “I think definitely people who have not been to a drag race – TV just doesn’t do the Top Fuel cars and the Funny Cars any justice. When you’re there live and hearing it, just feeling the vibration that they put out, it’s just a whole different world. We’re excited about doing it, especially with the race that’s going to be coming up, the inaugural race there in Charlotte this year for us. Hopefully, we’ll get some people excited about it and have them show up at the drag race.”