Johnny Gray and NTB Service Central Dodge picking up steam heading into raceday in Atlanta

NTB/Service Central Dodge Charger Funny Car pilot Johnny Gray knew when he arrived in Atlanta that his Funny Car was on the road to recovery, and crew chief Rob Wendland predicted that the weekend would start slow but pick up steam as they got a handle on approaching the tune-up from a new direction. Wendland’s prediction was fairly spot-on as the final number surpassed the initial offering, and the team secured a raceday start at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

“We backed the car way down because it was an animal, but it looks like maybe we backed her down a little too far,” said Gray, whose NTB/Service Central Dodge dropped cylinders down the racetrack in the first qualifying session and dropped a few more on the second pass to instigate a sharp move to the left and across the centerline. As a finale to the tantrum, the wily Dodge kicked a timing block, and the run – a 4.202 that was their best of the weekend – was disqualified.

“She ran on all eight the third run, but she had no clutch in her,” he said of the 4.274, 296.11 clocked on Saturday morning. “That got us in the show, we just needed to go down and get some numbers. Rob, my crew chief, told me he thought it would run a 4.22 [in the final session], and the car ran a 4.22. So we’re feeling like we may have our old hot rod coming back to us. When Rob and Rip [Reynolds, assistant crew chief] and the rest of the crew start telling me roughly what they think the car is going to run and they’re hitting it – well, that’s the way we were when we had a hot rod that was capable of winning. I’m feeling pretty good going into tomorrow.”

Gray’s first-round opponent is Bob Tasca III, a driver that he got the better of three times last year en route to final rounds.

“Tasca is a good racer, and Chris Cunningham and Marc Denner [Tasca’s crew chiefs] do a real good job on his car – they actually used to tune my car when I drove for Del Worsham,” said Gray, who qualified 14th in the lineup. “They’re great guys, and they’ve got a great team over there, but we’re going to go out there and do our best to send them to the house early.”