TOP FUEL’S SALINAS FINDS HUMBLE ROLE MAKES HIM MORE EXALTED

Written by Susan Wade, photo by Roger Richards    Sat, 2019-04-27 08:00


Mike Salinas is a hardcore businessman, totally in charge of the companies he juggles every day in San Jose, Calif. He’s a man who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to work for it and assert himself.

But Salinas has humbled himself to become a student – and that is paying off for him this season as he listens to 12-time Top Fuel championship tuner Alan Johnson, crew chief Brian Husen, and the crew members who are as tight-knit as Salinas, wife Monica, and their four daughters.

The NHRA’s Las Vegas four-wide winner, who came out of the top starting slot then, has risen to the top in this novelty format once again. He took poor – and constantly changing – weather conditions in stride, listened to his drag racing teachers, and laid down a 3.687-second elapsed time at 327.43 mph on the 1,000-foot zMAX Dragway course that was quickest and fastest in the Top Fuel class Friday night at the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Concord, N.C.

“The day was a little crazy,” the Scrappers Racing Dragster owner-driver said. “We knew the track wasn’t going to hold very much of anything.”

It didn’t. But three-time series champion Antron Brown, storming back from more than a year of frustration, started showing signs of his old form. He put the Don Schumacher Racing-owned Matco Tools Dragster in the tentative No. 2 spot with a 3.725-second pass. Terry McMillen was third Friday in the Amalie Oil Dragster with a 3.728, and Doug Kalitta drove his Mac Tools Dragster to No. 4 at 3.733 seconds at a stout 324.36 mph. But after that, the performance dropped dramatically. Austin Prock, for example, was fifth at 5.286.

Salinas, though, said, “I actually saw Alan turn the car down. So I think it would’ve gone a little bit better, and I know he would have done a little bit more to it if he could have. But he’s a genius at what he’s doing.

“The nice part about it is the car’s doing exactly what we wanted it to do,” he said.

When he confirmed that his 3.725-second effort was a track record, Salinas quietly said, “Perfect. Yeah.”

He said, “All in all, I think we had a great run right off the trailer after our disappointment in Houston.”

Salinas came back down to reality from his Las Vegas euphoria with a first-round defeat at Baytown, Texas, two weeks ago.

He got a kick out of knowing his crew was jumping up and down in glee, especially considering they broke their own track mark – the one they had set last year when they were preparing Brittany Force’s dragster.

Salinas said he wasn’t sure what Saturday’s two qualifying sessions will bring.

“I don’t count my chickens,” he said. “We’re expecting Steve [Torrence, the current champion] and everybody to step up. And Antron’s car is back, and that’s good. He has struggled a long time.

“I want to run these guys,” Salinas said, his passion showing as he said the word “run.” He said, “I don’t want to win because they spun the tires. I want to do it like we did in Vegas. I want to run ‘em so it’s a true win. I don’t think there’s any honor in winning when you spin the tires.”

He said he’s putting his complete trust in his team.

“They’ve been here before. I haven’t been here as much. They’ll shut this thing down if it gets out of hand [with the abnormal conditions]. You run it to the end. I found a couple of quivers in there. It wanted to shake a little bit. But they know what they’re doing. Alan has been coaching me pretty good, and he’s teaching me some really amazing things as a driver. They just basically let me go out there and they give me instructions on how to run this thing. And it’s working.”

 

 

 
Categories: 
:::::: News ::::::