Paul Lee became a successful businessman by understanding the industry’s workings. When he saw the efficiency of Cruz Pedregon’s team begin an upward trajectory by adding a retired crew chief as an advisor, he figured it would be worth a shot.
Lee had John Medlen in his corner starting at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.
Jason Bunker remains Lee’s crew chief, but with Medlen, the crew can grow to make the most of the investment the McLeod team has made in being competitive.
“After making big investments in the parts of the race team, brand new clutch parts, six-disc going from the five- to the six-disc clutch parts, getting the brand-new front half on the car and getting the latest slate model Dodge Charger bodies, I was pretty excited about this year, but we just haven’t performed up to what the expectations are,” Lee said. “We expected to do much, much better. We don’t have any round wins, and we’ve hardly gotten down the track. I won’t keep racing without, at least, some performance.”
Drag racing is a performance-based business, and while Lee doesn’t make his living off of the straight-line sport, it was easy for him to notice how well bringing in Lee Beard as a consultant is working for Pedregon.
“I noticed that when he was struggling, he bought in a consultant to help him with his team, and as a team, they turned right around,” Lee explained. “So I figured, ‘Why can’t I do that?’”
As Lee saw it, if you’re going to swing the bat, swing for the fence.
“One of the greatest crew chief trios in the sport — Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, and John Medlen,” Lee said. “So to get one of those guys to come out and help, that’s like, ‘Wow, you can’t get much better than that.’
“I’m excited. Especially John being the good guy he is, and we have some things in common.”
Lee especially loves the part where there’s much more in common than nitro and Funny Cars.
“We like to talk about Italian culture and the language, and we both have heart conditions, so I’ve gotten to know him over the years talking about each other’s hearts and how we take care of ourselves,” Lee said. “We’ve always gotten together, chatted for a little bit, and talked about various topics. And then when I was thinking about who I could bring in, I mean, most of the crew chiefs, or all the crew chiefs now, they’re all taken by teams.
“I reached out to one or two, and they’re already working for teams; they’re not going to leave in the middle of the year. I understand that, but I figured why not bring in a consultant? Since we’re a part-time team, that also made it easier because if he wanted to work full-time, he would’ve just stayed at his job.”
Lee believes details are crucial to all teams, especially those running a part-time schedule. He believes Medlen brings an essential skillset to his team.
“When it comes to the parts, more attention to detail since he has a lot more experience than our guys,” Lee said. “So he can help us with the parts. I think we’ve been lacking that he will definitely bring an outside look at how we run our car. The clutch set-up that we bought, he helped develop with some other co-workers when he was at JFR, and he helped develop a lot of this modern technology when it comes to the clutch.
“There’s not many people who know it better than he does, so he can help us in that part, too.”
Lee said the experience will be as educational for him as it will for the team.
“We all have a lot to learn, and if I need to do anything differently as far as driving the car, I’ll certainly do what he asked me to do, for sure,” Lee said.
There’s a demand for top-shelf crew chiefs in nitro racing, and while most are retained by the top teams, there’s a new batch of up-and-comers who could benefit from retired veterans like Medlen.
“Nitro drag racing is a mechanical sport, and you need a good crew chief or someone who can get the car down the track consistently to do well. It doesn’t matter what kind of driver you are, you need a good car. So without a good car, you’re wasting your time. So the goal is to have a good car.”
