A ZING OR TWO IN THE TOP FUEL WAR OF WORDS
Let your car do the talking.
This is the sage advice Leah Pritchett received from crew chief Todd Okuhara when Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence tried to lure her into a war of zingers.
Torrence had some good ones, like gold digger, referencing her gold-painted dragster, which could also be construed as a money-hungry female as well as the pizza delivery car.
"He has some good ones," Pritchett admitted. "He’s better at it than I am. He’s had more time; he’s older than me."
Zing.
"It was cute, a little fun," Pritchett continued. "People have to tell me about it, I don’t get to watch the show because I’m never home and I don’t really follow them on the internet because I’m not really that interested."
Credit Okuhara as the voice of reason at the onset of the verbal jousting.
"When we first had a bit of success, he said 'no matter what happens, whether we win or we don’t qualify, let the car do the talking," Okuhara counseled. "Us as a team, we’re new together. Have confidence in what you’re doing, stay low-key, let the car do the talking.”
"And then when Steve kind of started ramping up some more, and he had some good ones, when he said gold digger, I was like, 'I am married to the guy who does the clutch on your car. I don’t know what you consider a gold digger.”
Pritchett says what has been a one-sided war of words is just banter between drivers.
"Bobby Lagana wanted to make that clear too," Pritchett explained. "I think he told him, 'do whatever you want but leave the teams out of it because we have to live with each other, live in the same town and do the same things, and still operate in our daily lives with each other.”
"For Steve and I it’s good, I think. We’ll just keep coming up with more paint schemes to give him more material."
Pritchett says she just wants to keep living the dream.
"I cherish my time inside the car," Pritchett said. "I cherish the racing part. I cherish the competition. Smack talking is part of that competition, but I don’t have time to think about what I am going to say about Steve Torrence next race.
"Maybe he can do that on his private jet."
Zing.