AREND TO MAKE NHRA SEASON DEBUT IN VEGAS DRIVING RUSSO FC
 |
"You’ve got Ronnie [Swearingen]. Obviously a really good crew chief, runs a good operation, good crew guys here. Don Nelson, the owner, is great. It’s just a fun operation, fun racing, they’re fun to drive. You know, lots of fun."
Nelson's California Hustler was the right fit, Arend confirmed.
"They had called me about driving it, and so we probably talked for about a month before then," Arend said. "I’ve driven only a few nostalgia cars, and if people ask, I don’t say yes all the time. I want there to be a good crew chief and a good crew. This car here, in all honesty, probably has the best chance, it’s probably the best car I’ve driven as far as having a chance to win races and won a championship. This car I expect to be like a top three car and that’s kind of fun for me."
Having a ride of this caliber, Arend agrees, takes a bit of the sting out of not having a full-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series ride.
"I’d probably still go to maybe four races this year in the big show, and then I’m going to help Chris Bennett out with his No Mercy car at probably four of those Nitro Outlaw races and two other NHRA’s," Arend explained. "I help tune the car and get it down the track. So that’s fun for me too. I kind of like that aspect of it, kind of want to learn a little bit more about that." - Bobby Bennett
Jeff Arend will make his 2018 NHRA nitro Funny Car debut at the Denso Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals April 6-8 at The Strip in Las Vegas in a familiar ride.
Arend will be driving again in the Funny Car owned by Peter and Helen Russo.
“They live in Australia and they like to go to two, three, four (NHRA) races a year and it just depends on their schedule and they decided they wanted to go to this one,” Arend said.
Arend last drove for the Russos for the final two races of the 2017 season – Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif. The veteran driver also is no stranger to four-wide racing as he competed at the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, N.C., several times while driving for Kalitta Motorsports and then Jim Dunn.
“I’m been looking forward to this opportunity,” Arend said. “Obviously, it’s going to be our first race of the year, but the car has been running really well lately and we qualified a bunch of times in row. The goal is still to go up there and run a 3, but that’s going to depend on track conditions. We will try and go up there and make the first or second run and get solidly in the field, and then see if we can run a little bit quicker after that. Mike Smith and I will kind of co-tune the car together. We have a good game plan for the first run in Vegas.”
Arend acknowledged the Four-Wide aspect of the event adds a different wrinkle.
“Staging is a little bit different, because if you are in the No. 2 or No. 3 lane you actually look at the opposite side of the tree that you are normally used to,” he said. “I kind of figured that out a long time ago. It still seems to confuse some people, but it is not super hard. When you’re racing, especially in qualifying it is not really a big deal, because it just looks like a normal track, you can’t see the other two cars anyway.”
The Strip at Las Vegas Speedway is a completely new surface – all four lanes – and Arend is eager to see how things play out from a traction standpoint.
“Vegas is brand-new surface and none of the lanes have been raced on,” Arend said. “I’ve seen (photos) on Facebook and they have lots of rubber on all four lanes and what I’ve read they raced some cars on (lanes) 1 and 2 and cars on (lanes) 3 and 4, so they are all going to get the same amount of rubber hopefully.”
 |
