Mike Neff rode a wave of emotion to the finals of the Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Handling the majority of the onsite crew chief duties for the Ford Drive One Mustang in the absence of crew chief John Medlen, who was in Indianapolis recovering from a heart procedure he received prior to the race, Neff reached his fourth career final before a broken clutch linkage forced him to abort his final round run versus red hot Ron Capps.

Mike Neff rode a wave of emotion to the finals of the Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Handling the majority of the onsite crew chief duties for the Ford Drive One Mustang in the absence of crew chief John Medlen, who was in Indianapolis recovering from a heart procedure he received prior to the race, Neff reached his fourth career final before a broken clutch linkage forced him to abort his final round run versus red hot Ron Capps.

“The clutch linkage broke and there was no was no way to push the clutch in to put it in reverse. It must have happened during the burnout. I tried to push the clutch in and there was nothing there. I tucked my foot underneath the pedal to see what was going on and I could feel that the clutch pedal was broken. I knew we were dead so I just had to take off to get out of the way.”

Even though Neff had one of the strongest funny cars on the property all three days of the event the loss was easy for Neff to rationalize. His relationship with Medlen is very close and he communicated with him constantly throughout the event. Not being able to share the possible winning moment with Medlen in person weighed heavily on the 2008 Rookie of the Year.

“Medlen is one of the smartest guys I know, without a doubt. It is his car and he set all this stuff up. I didn’t come in here and wave a magic wand. I just picked up and tried to do what he would do. I tried to continue on how he would do it. There is no question our performance would have been the same. We didn’t do anything differently,” said Neff. “It wasn’t meant to be. We had a good weekend. We came here and we were dealt some bad circumstances with Medlen not being here. Our number one concern is his health and him getting better. That is more important than winning a drag race. We are just hoping he gets better and back out here. We’ll save that win for another day.” 

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