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so they somehow need to get that viewership or what makes that show work and get it here. They have to be willing to change. There’ s nothing I would love more than if( NHRA) went up there this weekend and say,“ We’ re not going to qualify. Everybody pull a card and you race whoever you pull the card with, and that’ s the lane you get.” Our crew chiefs would hate it, but the fans would love it. And then if you could get out there and trash-talk, and say let’ s run for $ 1,000 per round or something crazy.
We’ re trying to work out a deal now where four of us NHRA racers, in our non-NHRA cars, race four of their best no-prep racers. We were trying to get them to come to Indy, but the scheduling is tough for them, too. If they can make something like that work and NHRA wants it, I actually think that would be a large draw at the U. S. Nationals. It’ s different, it’ s people they don’ t see, and all of those racers, believe it or not, love to watch us and I think they’ re big supporters of us. Until I met them and was around them, I thought they hated us. But they are big fans in my eyes and they would like to be on this stage, also. It’ s kind of funny – some of us want to be on their stage. Their world is a whole different world, but it’ s still the same backbone of hardcore racing.
What are your plans as far as the no-prep deal is concerned?
My car I won Comp with in 2006, that Cobalt, is a steel-quarters, steel-roof car and it fits all their guidelines. Jonnie Lindberg is building me a Hemi, and then Harry just this week sent me two twin-turbos and Tyler Hogan is making me an intake. We’ ll have that together in about three weeks and then it’ s going to be strictly a no-prep, big-tire, little-tire, Street Outlaw type
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“ I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT SOME PEOPLE MIGHT WANT TO SELL A PRO STOCK WORLD CHAMPION A CAR OVER SOMEBODY THEY DON’ T KNOW. IT’ S A GOOD CONVERSATION PIECE.”
of car. That’ s probably our plans, to do some of that, too. Harry is also taking that Duster to make it legal for that class, so we’ ll probably have two cars at some of the races.
Switching gears, you make your day-to-day living selling cars, but you’ re very active when it comes to traveling to auctions and buying cars for the dealership. What all goes into that and what’ s your approach to being so successful there?
I do all the car buying, so I’ ll pick an auction to drive to between Virginia and Bristol, and I’ ll go buy 30-50 cars, ship them home and they will get them ready. About every other week I’ ll do that, somehow, somewhere. We’ ll sell close to 150-200 cars a month. I put a lot of faith in people. Yes, I run a credit report, but just really to tell me if they’ re telling the truth. I’ ll talk to them face-to-face, one-on-one and I’ ll have my decision made in a couple minutes. That’ s kind of
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what’ s different from our deal than most others.
If I pay attention and listen to other people, there’ s probably something I can learn from each and every one of them.
My dad started in 1955, so we’ ve got over 2,500 customers we’ ve had forever who just keep coming back.
I’ m telling you, since I’ ve started running Pro Stock, I can honestly say I’ ve cut way back on TV commercials. I keep my national championship trophy right there in the showroom and you cannot believe how many people have come just to take a picture of it. It’ s pretty neat.
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Speaking of trusting people, there was an extreme example of that in Chicago, while you were racing, no less. What exactly happened there?
Yeah, we were In Chicago, and I went to a local Harley store and looked at some bikes, and one of the salesmen, we talked about us racing and how we were in town for the race. We were talking about collector cars and he was into some cars, and he had just bought a‘ 71 Camaro. I said,“ Well, do you want to sell it?” He sent some pictures and he said,“ Yeah, I would like to make a little bit.” So, we came up with a deal and he delivered it to me Saturday night( at Route 66 Raceway) when he was at the race. It was after the pros just got finished and he brought it up to me. I buy it from him, we make the deal, and I just drove it around because I like to drive and I want to make sure it drives good. As I was driving through the sportsman pits, a guy stopped me and says,“ Hey, is this for sale?” I say,“ Absolutely,” and he came back Sunday after our race and paid for it and drove it home.
A lot of them do know I deal( cars), so I’ ve
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PHOTOS: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER |