Old habits are hard to break, just ask Billy Glidden, a decorated drag racer, and son of 10-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Bob Glidden. 

Despite having a full crew and being a hired gun for Harry Hruska's Precision Turbo/Mickey Thompson Pro Modified Camaro, there's nowhere he'd rather be than up to his elbows in grease, deep in the mechanical challenge of making the car quicker and faster. It's the persona bred into him having worked his entire youth for his dad's championship Pro Stock efforts.

Glidden was named as the driver of Hruska's ultra-fast turbo entry prior to the NHRA Summernationals, and despite the second-generation driver's lengthy resume of accomplishments, racing a car with this power adder was not in his career. 

"We get new surprises every single run," Glidden admitted. "We’ve been thrown into the middle of a fire."

In some instances, Glidden took to driving the turbo car like a duck to water in his Englishtown debut. Glidden not only qualified in his first outing but also reached the finals round.

Duck to water can also mean, everything looks smooth on the surface but underneath the water are all kinds of commotion. 

"In Englishtown, we had some pretty good luck to get to where we got, quite honestly," Glidden admitted. "We worked hard at it, don’t get me wrong; perseverance probably paid off as well, but you have to be pretty lucky.”

Glidden has learned the silence of the engine when compared to its supercharged and nitrous counterparts mean nothing when it comes to the ease of getting one of these cars down the track.          

"When it takes off it’s very different than my nitrous car because the power kicks in further down the racetrack, and when it does take off, it does some pretty violent things," Glidden explained. "It makes some pretty mean moves down-track. We’re all pretty new to this whole program. 

"Shannon (his wife) and I have never worked on one of these things or hardly anyone else’s car, ever. Everything from getting in and out of this thing to strapping in it and figuring out what toggles go where, starting it,  burnout procedure and backing up. It’s been a big learning procedure for us."

Over the course of the Bristol weekend, the team had a multitude of issues including destroying two Lenco transmissions. The car has plenty of good parts; it's just those parts require constant supervision. It's the nature of the beast.

“You have to check them a lot," Glidden explained. "It’s just like every other thing. I think what this car does is it’s been so fast that it doesn’t have to work great to run real fast." 

This new normal is a big change for Glidden, who has admitted time and time again, his nitrous car had little to no margin for error just to qualify. 

Glidden will be the first to admit, while his knowledge of the nitrous combination was extensive, he's now a student in the world of turbocharging. 

“I don’t know anything about it; I’m apologizing to Harry right now a lot that I can’t help him much right now because I’m still trying to learn the feel of the car," Glidden said. "It’s just a lot different. I have people doing their best to line me up because I sit differently in the car, and I’m not really doing very well with that either. I’ve kind of done my own thing in my car for forever. 

“Being a student doesn’t bother me at all. It just has not been as easy as Englishtown made it look."

One week later, Bristol showed just how hard the process can be as the team failed to qualify for eliminations. A trip from near top to near bottom in just 7 days.