Veteran team owner and Top Fuel driver/team owner Mike Salinas confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he will have a new crew chief for his Top Fuel dragster for the 2022 NHRA Camping World Series season.
“Okay, we have Rob Flynn. Rob Flynn came in, we picked him to take over where Alan (Johnson) left off,” Salinas said. “Alan did work with him before we made the decision to switch over. Alan and Brian (Husen) worked with Rob at the races and basically showed him their style of tuning, to follow the book that we have. So basically, the car should not skip a beat.”
A year ago, Salinas finished third in the world standings. He had one win Bristol, Tenn., and three runner-up finishes. Johnson and Husen tuned Salinas’ Top Fuel dragster from 2019-21.
Now, Salinas is ready to work alongside the veteran Flynn.
Flynn, who is a member of the Canadian Drag Racing Hall of Fame, has worked with such drivers as Whit Bazemore, Hot Rod Fuller and J.R. Todd and worked for Kalitta Motorsports, Dote Racing, Bob Vandergriff Racing and Don Schumacher Racing.
“Rob’s pretty sharp, has his stuff together,” Salinas said. “I think I’m going to do just fine. I think we’re going to do just fine with what we have. All my crew stayed, except for one person, so I have the same crew that was working on the car and everything. That’s a big part of what we’re doing.
“My assistant crew chief is Arron (Cave). One thing the sport does not do is it does not allow younger people to come into the sport, and the older guys have not been teaching these younger guys how to tune these cars. Arron has been with Brian and Alan for several years, so he was the car chief on our car, and he was the car chief on Brittany (Force’s) car. And so, with him being the assistant crew chief, we’re pretty excited because he has vast knowledge of the whole car and the tuning, and he worked with Brian and Alan on the tuning part of the aspects of it. So, I think it’s a great opportunity for him, and I’m happy to be one of the owners that is allowing these younger guys to come on in and show us what they know.”
Salinas working with world championship tuner Alan Johnson for the last several years was quite beneficial for him.
“A different level of racing,” Salinas said. “Different level of racing. I want to thank him for everything he taught me, and he taught our crew. But he taught me some really good lessons in racing, and he really taught me how to go race. And the last six, seven races of the year is when it all came together and all of our stuff came together of everything that he taught us, what to do and how to do it. And yeah, it’s been great working with him.”
Next up on the schedule for Salinas’ Scrapper Racing team is making some laps at the PRO Nitro Spring Training, Feb. 10-12, at Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Phoenix.
“We’re going to run three runs a day just to get the crew back, acclimated, get myself back, acclimated,” Salinas said. “Make sure I can cut those good lights, and just get back in the groove and have some fun with this thing. Let’s go race these guys. And it’s very exciting this year because all the independent teams now, they get to feel what the regular guys like me get to feel. Torrence, they got jobs, they got companies, so now Antron (Brown) has his deal going and he’s responsible for everybody. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how many of these guys are going to be as good as they were, because now they’re carrying all this other stuff. See if they can turn it off or not. But I think it’s going to be really exciting.”
Salinas did take a moment to address the state of fuel racing in the NHRA.
“I think there’s a disconnect from the younger generation and the older generation,” he said. “But basically, I think we have to include the younger people because without replenishing younger drivers, younger crew guys, younger people in the tuning aspects of it, the sport will die. Right now, there’s a shortage of tuners, and it’s going to show this year on whoever picked the right guy or the wrong guy.”
