Paul Lee didn’t need to see the NHRA’s press release on Tuesday announcing the eight contestants for the Funny Car portion of the Pep Boy All-Star Callout to get excited. He already knew he had a berth in the race-within-a-race next weekend at the NHRA U.S. Nationals. However, when the release did come out, it made it all real for him.
Lee earned the eighth and final spot in the field; this is the first time he has participated in a specialty event in his career.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Lee said. “This will be my first time in any of the specialty races in Indianapolis. I’ve been in the #2Fast2Tasty; that’s been fun. I remember watching the Big Bud’s Shootout back in the day, so being part of this is pretty exciting.”
A Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty berth and now the All-Star Callout seeding are byproducts of a motivated Paul Lee Racing team enjoying their best season ever. Following a final round appearance at the NHRA Northwest Nationals, Lee has held a position in the top ten of Funny Car point earners. At this point in the season, Lee has already doubled his round wins over last year.
And, as Lee points out, he has a much better car than in years past, thanks to rookie crew chief Jonnie Lindberg and tuning mentor John Medlen.
“Don Prudhomme said once you can’t win the Kentucky Derby on a donkey,” Lee said. If you don’t have a good car, you’re not going to win the race. But when you get a good car, then your confidence increases, so a driver, it’s like a rider, is only as good his horse. Well, a driver is only as good as his race car.”
Lindberg and Medlen have given Lee a horse worth riding this year. In eight of his ten races this season, Lee has qualified in the top half of the show, a feat he only accomplished twice last year.
The Pep Boys All-Star Callout is based on qualifying points for the last seven races of 2023 and the first 13 races of 2024.
Bob Tasca III, whose 340-mile-per-hour exploits in preseason testing are well documented, is the No. 1 seed and gets first choice, likely to be Lee, who got into the field as an alternate following John Force’s June 23 crash in Richmond, Va.
The star-studded field includes 2022 Callout winner Ron Capps, defending world champion Matt Hagan, Chad Green, J.R. Todd, Cruz Pedregon, and Alexis DeJoria.
Considering Lee’s investment in his team, his success in running with the front-runners of Funny Car should come as no surprise.
“This is what we’ve been working towards, and we’re still just early in this growth; we’re only eight months into this team,” Lee said. “We have a great team. It’s the best team I’ve ever been a part of in the Nitro category. I’ve been a part of great teams in alcohol, and we won races, and it is a team sport. So, winning in Nitro is all about the team and the people. Of course, the money, too, but you must have the people. More importantly, to win in this sport, you’ve got to have the right group of guys and girls, which we do right now, so I’m pretty excited about our team. I love our team.”
Lee believes that with each race, his team grows in performance, which breeds confidence.
“The more runs we get, the more data we get,” Lee explained. “This is really the first year for this combination of Johnny and John and the parts that we have. So a lot of these guys like Tasca’s, a couple of years they got into their new team, and of course, Jimmy Prock is Jimmy Prock, he’s the best. And these guys have a lot more runs than we do, and that’s what we’re just doing, just accumulating runs.”
And in accumulating runs, Lee’s team is accumulating success.
