Drag Illustrated Issue 148, September 2019 | Page 90
CAPCO BOYS
The phrase “speed brings harmony" is one reason
why the Capco Contractors team is able to keep
the same people on the road and in the shop.
be. We have a good time whether we win or lose,
which I think is really important. You have to be
willing to accept that everything isn’t going to go
perfect. Through our whole lives, our mantra was
that our success was going to be determined by
how you handle your next failure. I think that is
what makes you a stronger team.”
Lagana endearingly uses the term “old school”
to describe Hogan.
“He is a bearings-and-rings guy,” says Lagana.
“Every run, he looks at the bearings and rings.
Any kind of input that Steve or any guy on the
team has, he wants. That’s how everybody raced
old school before we got as intricate of a data
recorder as we have now. Same goes with the
track. Looking at how you decide how good you
think the track is, he still goes by temperature
and how good it feels on your foot. There is a
lot of intuition. Our tune-up program isn’t just
typing in the weather for the blower overdrive
and gasket. There is a lot of seat-of-your-pants
and instinct from ‘Hogie.’ We also have five good
years of making good runs with the same com-
bination and same crew guys, and that data is
invaluable. That’s old school, too — taking notes
on everything.”
“It’s just the way I was brought up,” says Hogan.
“There were no computers, I drove the truck, and
I know how it is when you blow stuff up and don’t
learn anything. I had always learned from way
back how important it is to run good without
wearing it out. Sometimes you have to bite the
bullet and not be low e.t. to see if you can get away
with it or not. To not tear anything up if you don’t
have to is a big deal. You can get lost so fast if you
start hurting it every run. Obviously, Bobby and
those guys have always been on a tight budget
with their own equipment so they learned how
important it is to not tear [stuff ] up. It’s easy to
get in a mindset and say, ‘I’ve got a trailer full of
parts.’ And then you run out.”
Hogan’s approach was shaped by his experience
working with other notable tuners.
“I was with [Dale] Armstrong doing bottom
end on [Kenny] Bernstein’s car,” Hogan recalls.
“It was brutal. We’d go out there and make runs
to 300 feet and be blown up, test the next day
and be blown up. There was just carnage every-
where. We know better, but we’re just following
the chief. Then he’d get it right and we’d be OK.
Holy smokes, it was tough to keep up with. We’d
be in the pits putting racks together while the
guys were running the car so we could keep up
with the next round. So I’ve been on the other
side of it.
“Dale was a great guy to work for with his per-
sonality and how he treated us. I learned a lot
from him. [Wes] Cerny was the same way, kind
of going along with everything as long as the
work got done. He was real picky on the tuning
calls and stuff. He was one of the first guys I’d
been around that was real picky on stuff like that.
Then there was Garlits, who did everything from
building the cars to running, driving and getting
it ready. How do you match that? Plus there was
the environment of being around him when he
was hard to deal with. He has mellowed out a
bunch, but it wasn’t easy. It kind of helps me
remind myself when I get a little cranky not to
bark at the crew guys and keep my mouth shut —
‘I’ve been through this myself; that’s not going to
help. Don’t go that route.’ I think the crew guys
appreciate that. If you bark at them sometimes,
it means something. If you do that all the time,
they get numb to it.”
Both Hogan and Lagana credit Steve’s abil-
ity in the car and good fortune along with the
reasons for their success so far. Through it all,
Hogan remains the same person – friendly and
humble, enjoying the moment without relishing
the spotlight.
“I don’t have any interest in that,” says Hogan.
“I just want e.t. slips and bonus checks. There has
been a good run of that, so I won’t complain.”
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 148