2008 NHRA U.S. NATIONALS - PRO STOCK NOTEBOOK
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MONDAY FINAL - CONNOLLY'S VISIONFOR PLAYOFFS COMES TO PASS, NOTHING EASY FROM THIS POINT ON
MAKING A MOCKERY - Last season the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship format made a mockery of Dave Connolly.
In Indianapolis he returned the favor.
Connolly, 25, of Elyria, Ohio, clinched a sixth place finish in the first phase of the NHRA’s championship series by winning his 20th career national event title at the expense of past Indy winner Larry Morgan.
“Even making the top ten was a big surprise to us,” Connolly said. “We were able to come on strong in the last four races. I just wanted to get into the top ten and to gain those last four positions. We still have a tough stretch to go before we get to where we need to be.”
Connolly won five consecutive races in 2007 to sweep the second portion of the three-part battle. He was shut-out in the run for the title.
This season, his sponsor abandoned him just weeks before the season was to begin forcing Connolly to miss the first five events.
One can understand why a sixth place finish in the points was a blessing for Connolly, who earned it the expense of Mike Edwards, who reached the semis before losing to Larry Morgan.
The two drivers traded off the position throughout qualifying.
“Neither one of us were willing to give up,” Connolly admitted.
Such determination was nothing new for Connolly.
Connolly’s Indy win marked his 35th career final round, fourth in succession and seventh in 2008. His prior victory list in 2008 included triumphs at Bristol, Tenn., and Sonoma, Ca.
STORM WATCH - On a normal race day, Richie Stevens probably would have been checking airline schedules for his return trip to New Orleans after his opening-round loss. But not this time, thanks to hurricane Gustav, which hit New Orleans Monday morning.
"I talked to my dad and he said things seemed to be okay," said Stevens, whose house was ruined three years ago when hit by Katrina. "He lost power early but the hurricane wasn't as strong as expected because it changed course.
"It wasn't a good day for me at the race track, either. I didn't do a good job of letting the clutch out," he said of his ride in Kenny Koretsky's Nitro Fish/Indicom Electric Pontiac. Greg Anderson got the win with a 6.675-second time at 207.40 mph to a 6.682 at 206.48.
Koretsky, however, did not agree with him. "He did a good job all weekend," said Koretsky.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES - Of the eight Pro Stock cars racing in the quarterfinal round of the 54th annual U.S. Nationals, none was quicker than reigning world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr.'s JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt.
Then Coughlin lost on a holeshot to Kurt Johnson.
"I just got cracked," Coughlin said. "Kurt did a good job. He was .013 in Round 1 and .002 against me. He's in a good spot mentally right now.
"I expect this is the way the way the rest of the season will go. The guys in the playoffs are going to win and lose races at the starting line more times than not. We have the car running great. There is nothing to complain about at all. We just need to find a way to win more of these close races."
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK -ALLEN JOHNSON REMAINS THE LEADER, NAYLOR'S BIG CHALLENGE AND THE LEGEND OF GLIDDEN
THAT’S A DARK PLACE – Alan Johnson said his problem is solved.
“I think the driver has finally got his head out of his (rear end),” Johnson admitted. “I think we are getting right at the right time.”
Johnson said he is bringing a lot of maturity to final phase of the Countdown to the Championship.
He’s confident the Mopar team has made marked improvement over the course of the season. But, Johnson cautions, so has the competition.
“I think everybody has,” Johnson said. “The top five cars have anyway. We gained something, the next week Greg [Anderson] gained something, then Kurt [Johnson] gained something. I think we are all just leap-frogging each other back and forth.”
This kind of tit-for-tat tendency is something new, or at least that’s how Johnson sees it.
“It’s usually somebody out front and they stay there,” Johnson said. “I think between Cagnazzi, us, Greg and Warren we’re all sort of close.”
THE PROFESSOR'S TOUGH ASSIGNMENT - Warren Johnson’ qualified eighth in Pro Stock.
His solid qualifying performance, combined with fellow competitor Greg Stanfield’s DNQ, opened the door for the six-time champion to qualify for the NHRA’s playoff season, which will start at the next race in Charlotte, NC. Faced with the daunting task of having to reach the final round in order to make the Countdown to One, WJ has adopted a methodical approach to tomorrow’s elimination rounds.
“Although we should have never put ourselves in this predicament to start with, we’re certainly happy that our chances of making the playoffs have gotten a reprieve. We’re confident our GM Performance Parts GXP is capable of winning rounds and races – we just have to do a better job with it on race day than we have to this point of the season. We know what we need to do, so we’re going to take tomorrow one round at a time, trying to make the most of the opportunity, and see where we stand at the end of the day. Hopefully, things will go our way.”
MO ENERGY – Max Naylor is trying to regain the same performance level which led him to the No. 1 qualifying position during last year’s NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
The Vegas Fuel Energy Drink team keeps getting bit by minor details.
Naylor believes his team is closing in on the sources of those problems. Not the source, but the sources.
“We found some weight issues with the balance on the car,” Naylor explained, reciting a few items on a memorized list. “We found a battery that wasn't working well, put another one in and it was doing the same thing, so we've had a battery problem. Don't know really how much that has affected everything, but there's just been little things just here and there where you kind of get off your setup and you wind up out in left field somewhere.”
Naylor tested extensively in pursuit of the gremlins.
“We found a lot of little things, not necessarily one big thing, but we made a lot of changes and we feel pretty optimistic,” said Naylor. “I don't know what the results are going to be but we're pretty confident.”
Naylor missed the cut with a 6.739 elapsed time.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS – Naylor has plenty of irons in the fire and one of the more significant is his Vegas Fuel Energy Drink Business. The Pro Stock racer purchased the company earlier in the season.
He’s still learning the ropes of what is proving to be a complex industry.
“We're trying to wrap our arms around that and figure out exactly where things are going,” Naylor said. “It's a great tasting product; we just need people to drink it.”
It’s a safe bet to say Naylor never envisioned being in the energy drink business when he signed Vegas Fuel as his primary sponsor earlier this season.
“I don't know that any of us know where we're going to wind up,” Naylor said. “You go where the road leads you and when you have opportunities sometimes, you take them. I remember when I was just a little kid there used to be a TV show in called 'Changing Times' and it was in between the cartoons, I wasn't watching it at that time but the thing about it was, opportunity knocks, but you've got to open the door. So I think here opportunity knocked and we decided to open the door and see what we could do.”
Naylor is doing his best to make the most of the opportunity but just because his company is grandfathered in per NHRA rules doesn't mean the sanctioning body shows grandfatherly love.
“They're certainly going to be very restrictive with what they allow us to do,” Naylor said. “But that's good, competition is good. However, you've got to have fuel before you have full throttle.”
THE LEGEND HONORED - He’s been retired for quite some time now, but Bob Glidden can still draw the race fans.
The ten-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion and 85-time national event winner feels a debt to them. He credits them with enabling him to live out his dream.
“Fans never forget,” Glidden said. “We've always been good to our fans and our fans have been great to us. It never fails, the fans come by and they like to say hi, like an autograph, it's great.”
For Glidden, who will be honored in Monday’s pre-race ceremonies, this is a pleasurable experience that ranks right up there with his developing golf game.
“My golf game is horrible, but still love to play it,” Glidden admitted, who judges a good game by the number of balls he loses.
This weekend he was hanging out with Pro Stock racer Justin Humphreys, who has said he’d love to have the legend back in his corner. Glidden thinks a lot of the budding superstar but drag racing is not on his radar screen.
In the interest of accurate reporting, Glidden has made that comment three or four times before.
“Yup, I've said that, but I've had enough,” Glidden said.
He’s had enough of the rigors of tuning and directing a race operation. Hanging out with the fans and visiting the U.S. Nationals is another thing.
Glidden said he’ll never get enough of the Indy experience. To him, being honored before the race is something he’s not so sure he deserves.
“Etta and the boys and I have had a fairytale world here in drag racing,” admitted Glidden. “And we realize that now that we've been away from it. But I'm very happy that NHRA is honoring us. I'm proud of that, but nothing, no honor can overtake the lifetime we've had in drag racing.”
Indy either.
“This place has been just fantasy land to us,” Glidden said.
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SATURDAY -ADJUSTING TO THE 500-INCH ENGINE, ROOKIE WITH A VISION OF APPRECIATION
REBOUND – Allen Johnson fell out of the lead for a brief moment.
That experience was enough to inspire the Mopar driver to fight his way back to the top.
“Qualifying No. 1 at Indy has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember,” Johnson said. “I think if we all work together tomorrow and have as good of a day as we had today, we can hold on.”
NOT BAD AT ALL - Current IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock racer Rob Mansfield knew there would be a learning curve
“It's definitely an adjustment,” said Mansfield, who ascended as high as the No. 1 spot before landing in the 11th.
“I mean the RPM is definitely quite different than the mountain motor Pro Stock. But we had a couple of good laps the other day. We got rained out; we tried to test for two days in Mooresville. The tropical storm kind of moved up that way and canceled that out, so we went west and tested for one day over in St. Louis and then headed up to Indy.”
Mansfield graded his performance in the preliminary test session as being fairly well.
“The burnout and the RPM are the two biggest obstacles that we are not adjusted to and we're dealing with the 500 inch versus the 800 inch,” Mansfield admitted.
One might think Mansfield would become impatient during the course of the quarter-mile run with a smaller displacement engine considering the engine he runs in IHRA competition is 300-cubic inches larger and ten miles per hour faster. The IHRA cars encompass the quarter-mile as quickly as 6.2-seconds.
“I tell you, these things they wind up so high and it sounds just so violent and it feels that you're going just as fast,” said Mansfield. “Definitely when you plug it high it isn't the same as a mountain motor. When you plug a mountain motor in high they do pretty much set you back in your seat a lot better than these do. This particular deal here, at the RPM they turn and everything, it just sounds absolutely brutal. So it’s a pretty exciting ride.”
Mansfield told CompetitionPlus.com this weekend’s event is a test venture and currently no other plans are in place for future races.
“We'll see how things work out and how things will advance from here,” Mansfield said. “After this race, we'll sit down and evaluate it and look at our options.”
Mansfield couldn’t describe the arrangement between Wilson and KIB as a lease engine program.
“I can't really disclose that information, but it was an opportunity for us to do some testing on a car that they haven't run in a national event yet and it allows them to bring this car to national event status faster,” Mansfield said. “And, it allows us to showcase a lot of the things that we do in the Wilson Manifolds Performance deal. We've been involved with Greg and Jason and the whole KB Team for a number of years now and it's just a really good opportunity that’s come along. We've talked about it for quite some time and it all came together pretty fast here, in about a week or so.”
The question still rests in the back of the minds of many. What happens if they meet in Sunday’s elimination? The message boards have been abuzz since the announcement of the venture suggesting team orders.
“You can't control what people are going to think,” Mansfield pointed out. “I'm sure Jason and Greg, they're gonna race their race, and we’re going to race our race. There are no team orders that are in order or anything. If that's what it comes down to, you know, the best man wins.”
MAN WITH A PLAN – Rickie Jones might be a rookie Pro Stock driver but he’s already to express the appreciation generally
All the Quartermax-sponsored driver has to do is qualify and he’s going to give a prime example.
“If we qualify,” Jones said. “If we happen to stay in after Q5, I am going to get out of the car and on the way back on the return road, stop and I am going to shake everybody's hand along the fence from the finish line to the starting line.”
Why?
“Just because these fans, they come out here, they buy the ticket, they sit in the sun, they sit in the rain, they put with everything and they deserve that,” Jones said. “If it wasn't for the fans, we're nothing. I just love them and respect them more than anything.”
Jones is the son of former NHRA Pro Stock Truck standout and noted chassis builder Rick Jones. He essentially grew up in the sport.
“I've been around this a long time,” Jones said. “I try to soak it up like a sponge and do the best I can.”
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FRIDAY - JOHNSONS DOMINATE PRO STOCK QUALIFYING
NEW COMBINATION, SAME RESULTS – Allen Johnson admitted he changed to a new combination before Friday’s first 
qualifying session. Sometimes a change will do a Mopar good.
The Greenville, Tenn.-based Johnson broke his Dodge Stratus in the lights but managed enough momentum to reel in the top spot with a 6.713 elapsed time at 201.85 miles per hour.
“I think the conditions we had Friday night was the best we were gonna get,” Johnson said, admitting the run put him in good position to secure the Full Throttle award.
“Getting that first run out of the way is good for the nerves,” Johnson said.
The engine combination he ran on Friday was one never previously run in competition. Johnson estimated had he not broken a rocker arm, the car could have dipped as quickly as a 6.705.
“If the air is bad tomorrow, we are testing,” Johnson said. “We are just working on our consistency tomorrow.”
PLEADING THE FIFTH (SPOT)
THE PROFESSOR REMEMBERS - Thirty-seven years ago, Warren Johnson came to Indianapolis as a rookie driver racing in his
first NHRA Pro Stock event. He drove his homebuilt Chevrolet Camaro to the 28th position in qualifying before falling to Don Grotheer in the first round. It was an inauspicious debut for a man who would play a key role in the evolution of the “factory hot rods”, and make the record books almost his personal diary. “That race was my first exposure to the big stage,” recalled Johnson. “I had raced in a lot of smaller series prior to that, but nothing that had the crowds or level of competition I experienced at that race in Indianapolis. Although I don’t remember a lot of specifics from that weekend, I do remember leaving there feeling that the big names of the time put their pants on the same way I did, and that I was fully capable of racing for a living.
“Of course, the cars we raced backed then were completely unlike our current GM Performance Parts GXP. For example, I drove the Camaro I raced in Indy home from the dealership in Minnesota, stripped it down and turned it into a race car, selling the extra parts to help pay for the build. We’ve certainly come a long way since then.”
UNEDUCATED – There’s not much about a Pro Stocker Johnson doesn’t know but up until years after his debut, he never realized how important winning Indy was.
Bear in mind, Johnson has six wins in eight final-round appearances, eight No. 1 qualifying performances and 10 finishes of the semifinals or better.
“Ironically, I didn’t realize the magnitude of that first U.S. Nationals simply because I had not been a part of the NHRA scene to that point,” said Johnson. “I had read about it in National Dragster, but since the coverage took as many pages as a regular race, I thought it was just another event. Of course, once you’re a part of the series, you realize just how significant it really is.
“This is the race where everyone brings their “A” game, with some people saving all year long just for this event. Indy doesn’t just get included with the other races on the schedule – it stands out on its own. At one point, you actually earned bonus points for your performance at the U.S. Nationals, which, considering there were a lot fewer races on the schedule was quite significant. Even now, although the points are the same as any other race, the winner’s purse is slightly higher. The easiest way to describe it is saying it’s our Daytona 500.
HONORING THE LEGEND - Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden, the winningest driver in the history of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, will receive a special recognition award commemorating his dominant run at the world’s most prestigious drag race during pre-race ceremonies on Monday, Sept. 1 at famed O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Glidden has won a record nine times at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. He last won at Indy 20 years ago, and also claimed victories in 1985-87, 1983, 1978-79, 1974-73.
Don Garlits is second on the Indy wins list with eight victories in Top Fuel. Two active drivers, Top Fuel’s Tony Schumacher and Pro Stock’s Warren Johnson, have six wins apiece at the tradition-rich event.
NHRA President Tom Compton will present the special honor to Glidden.
TESTED AND READY -
THURSDAY - JOHNSON WANTS A CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST, BUT REALLY WOULD LIKE AN INDY WIN
ONE, TWO PUNCH - The perfect ending for Team Mopar driver Allen Johnson’s 2008 season would be celebrating his first ever NHRA Pro Stock championship. Coming in a close second would be a triumph this weekend.
A U.S. Nationals win would be a treasured addition to the résumé of any drag racer, including the driver of the Hemi-powered Mopar/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T Pro Stock car.
“It would be almost as important as winning the championship to get a win at Indy,” said Johnson, who posted a 2007 quarterfinals appearance and 2006 semifinals showing at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. “But I really don’t approach the race that much different from any others, even though you’re always aware and know about the prestige of the event. Just to have your name in the record books would be huge.”
Important as a U.S. Nationals victory would be, Johnson’s ultimate focus is preparing for the six-race NHRA Countdown to 1 playoffs. The playoffs begin at the inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Charlotte on Sept. 11.
“More than anything, we’re just looking to get some momentum for the Countdown, and just cap off the regular season well,” said Johnson. “I think we’ve already got our momentum started. It would be nice to go up a leg or two on the competition going into Charlotte.”
Heading into the biggest race of the year as well as the start of the Countdown, Johnson and his J&J Racing team [led by engine builder Roy Johnson (Johnson’s father) and crew chief Mark Ingersoll] are doing the exact thing every championship team must do: Peak at the perfect moment.
“It was our plan all along,” said Johnson, who has advanced to at least the semifinals in four of his last five events, including two runner-up finishes. “Dad has been making great power with the Mopar Hemi engine. We wanted to have the right combination, the right ingredients in the car going into these last events before the Countdown. And we did it. We’ve followed our game plan to the ‘T,’ and hopefully it pays off.”
SIXTH PLACE OR BUST - There was a time earlier in the NHRA season when Dave Connolly says he was wondering if he really would make it into the Pro Stock top 10 in time for the six-race playoffs.
It was a daunting challenge because he started the season five races after everyone else. And now, with Indy starting tomorrow, he’s relieved to be in sixth place.
He arrives on a hot streak – three final rounds in succession – and whether he stays there or not will be determined on Labor Day.
It took a strong 12-race campaign in the Cagnazzi Racing Charter Communications/LifeLock Chevy Cobalt to ring up 868 points. Connolly produced two victories in six final rounds that enabled him to keep collecting valuable points. His hold on sixth place, however, is tenuous.
Mike Edwards lurks just three points behind him and V Gaines is four points in arrears.
“We have to concentrate on going to the finals again,” said Connolly, “and going more rounds than Edwards and Gaines so we can keep that No. 6 position.”
All points will be revised when the Countdown to 1 begins. The No. 1 driver gets a 30-point lead and opens with 2090 points. Ten points then separate the remaining nine drivers. Sixth receives 2020.
“If you’d asked me at Denver (five races ago) about our chances of making the top 10, I would have thought it would come down to this race and that it would be a nail-biter coming in,” Connolly said. “But it’s one of those things where we just got hot. We jumped into the top 10 by going to those three straight finals while the two guys close to us were struggling a little bit. That gave us a little breathing room and we were able to get locked into the top 10.
“We know we are going to end up sixth or no worse than eighth, but there is a 20-point difference between them when the points are readjusted for the Countdown to 1. That’s one round (win) and that could be huge.”
Connolly defeated Greg Anderson in last year’s U.S. Nationals title round. It was his second of what would become five consecutive victories.
“We’ve already won this race and have been to the finals in the last two years so it gives us a good track record,” added Connolly. “I know we can run well there and get the job done. It’s just whether we can put four rounds together and get it done on Monday.”
The Countdown to 1 format differs from last year when there was a four-race segment for eight drivers, followed by a two-race segment for the top four.
“I do like the new formula,” Connolly said. “Six races are enough to make up the points that we will be down – I think four or five rounds if we keep the sixth spot – and you’ll have a fighting chance of making up that ground.
“It’s still going to be a tough, tough six races. It’s going to be cutthroat, no matter how you look at it.”
BACK AGAIN - Though Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC (THE) took a small sabbatical from
drag racing, the team never stopped working towards building a premier
engine program. The results of the NitroFish car driven by Richie
Sevens and powered by a THE engine for the Brainerd, Minn. and Reading,
Penn. events gives credence to that.
"Although we have not been at the race track competing for the last few
events, we have really been working hard on our engine program," said
Tom Hammonds, owner/driver of THE.
Headed by 30-year engine builder Jim Oliver, THE's engine program is in
its second year, and this season has leased engines to Kenny Koretsky
and Jim Yates, with both drivers resulting in qualifying.
"Up until the time we leased an engine to Koretsky in Las Vegas this
season, we did not know where our program was," explains Oliver. "All
we had was an engine dyno, which gives you a number, and it's just a
number unless we had one of the top players' engines on the same
machine. We can say wow their engine is 30 horsepower better than ours,
but until then we just had a number."
Oliver goes on to explain that it was not until they leased THE's
number two engine to Koretsky, resulting in him being the number one
qualifier, and Hammonds not qualifying in Las Vegas, that they were
really able to gauge their engine program. That validated that THE's
engines possessed the amount of horsepower needed to be quick and fast.
In a short period of time, THE's engine program has come a long way,
and is still working to make the best engine ultimately for Hammonds.
They have improved the valve train, which is the primary component that
has improved over the past 10 years. Yet, if they were to take their
best engine of today as opposed to the engine Hammonds had in 1998 and
disassembled both of them on a bench, there would be very little
difference to the untrained eye. There have been subtle changes over
the years. The score board really tells the difference, obviously in
the car running quicker and faster.
"The future of our engine program is not to rent to every pro stock
driver that wants an engine," said Hammonds. "We are looking to
partner with another team that will also bring the research and
development element that is needed to continue to improve our product
for competition."
Hammonds is looking forward to trying his engine improvements in his
first race back at the MacTools US Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park
in Indianapolis. He believes this will show that his team is working
to be a force for the second half of the season. The team is on its
way to possessing what he believes are the three components to a good
race team - a good crew and car, a good driver, and a good engine
program.
"I think we have everything, and I'm eager to show it in our first race
back," said Hammonds, who took a break from racing on the NHRA Pro
Stock circuit in June of this season to regroup the team.
Though Hammonds has failed to be consistent with performance on the
track, Oliver is confident in the engine for the comeback race, but has
reservations about the car.
"Tom's Chevy Cobalt might be good. We made a lot of changes," comments Oliver, "but it is inherently slow."
Oliver feels there are so many variables to the Chevy Cobalt, and the
car is the key, along with the crew surrounding it. The car is
infinitely adjustable. If the crew does not know how to make
adjustments, then the car will look bad. A bad car also makes the
engine look bad. In this case, Team Hammonds knows what to do and wants
the engine to shine.
NOT BACK YET - It has been four years since Kenny Koretsky made his first NHRA Pro
Stock final-round appearance at the 50th U.S. Nationals and finished a
close second to Greg Anderson.
“I was probably the happiest loser that day just because my first final
came in NHRA’s premier event,” Koretsky said at the time. He kept
trying for that first victory and now it’s certain he won’t be in
contention for this weekend’s 54th Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly
Motorsports Park because he will be watching his cars run.
Richie Stevens will be at the controls of Koretsky’s Nitro Fish/Indicom
Electric Pontiac GXP when qualifying gets underway Friday night.
Crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia and Stevens spent two days testing at St.
Louis to get the car dialed in for the five qualifying runs at ORP. A
hot track Tuesday and a large turn out of Pro Stock cars in testing
mode limited Stevens to two runs. But he was able to come back
Wednesday and make a few more laps.
“It’s good to test because I’m able to get more seat time,” said the
New Orleans-based driver who was sidelined most of the season. “Indy
is a big race for us and Eddie wanted to make sure he has the car
running as good as possible.
“I hope we get everything together. I’m excited.”
Koretsky also will be cheering for Clay Millican, driver of the
Hope4Sudan/Lend America/Nitro Fish Top Fuel dragster, and Matt Smith,
rider of the Nitro Fish Wear Buell. Smith is the defending Pro Stock
Motorcycle champion and current POWERade Series leader.
“I’m excited to be going to the U.S. Nationals and watching our Nitro Fish drivers,” Koretsky said.
YATES V.I.P - Wiley X Eyewear, sponsor of Jim Yates’ Pro Stock entry, has invited a special guest to this weekend’s NHRA U.S. Nationals.
The invited guest, who will be in attendance on Saturday at O’Reilly Raceway Park, is James Megellas, a 91-year-old World War II veteran who is the most decorated officer in the history of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
A retired lieutenant colonel, Megellas, also known as “Maggie”, was awarded more than 20 medals, including The Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts and Master Parachutist.
A bill was introduced in Congress on July 8, 2008 to authorize and request the President to award the Medal of Honor to James Megellas for acts of valor on Jan. 28, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
"I wanted to have an inspirational personality at this event and Maggie is about as inspiring as they get,” said Myles Freeman, president of Wiley X's sales division. “His real life encounters of honor and courage are truly amazing and one of the motivating factors why Wiley X takes so much pride in developing revolutionary ballistic eye protection for our soldiers."
Two-time Pro Stock champion Yates is also looking forward to Megellas’ visit.
“It’s going to be an honor to have Mr. Megellas as a guest of our Wiley X Pro Stock team,” said Yates. “His service to our country and his continuing support to our brave men and women in uniform are benchmarks for all Americans to follow. I can’t wait to meet him. He is a true hero.”
Megellas also authored a book -- All the way to Berlin: A Paratrooper at War in Europe.
Megellas made his second trip to Afghanistan in December 2007 to meet with soldiers. He shared his battlefield experiences from World War II, participated in combat patrols, including a ride-along in a humvee. He also spoke to staff members from the Combined Joint Task Force, addressing leadership in combat while serving overseas.
Megellas is scheduled to make another trip to Afghanistan next month.
A native of Fond du Lac, Wis., Megellas resides in Colleyville, Texas with his wife Carole.
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