Dirt
JR CARR
then fired off a string of mid-to-low-4-second
passes to win at Darlington.
“We could’ve been wrong on the new car,” Carr
admits. “There were no promises, no guarantees,
but knowing what we’d learned before and how
we did things different, it was very rewarding.
It helped our confidence tremendously because
[Gugliotta] made a change and the car reacted.
As long as I drove good, the car just went straight
as an arrow.”
In addition to RJ and Gugliotta, Carr praises
his crew – Jason Hughes, Rich Purdy, Gary Farrell,
and Carr’s wife, Teri – for their contributions
to his program’s newfound success. He also
acknowledges the quality products he uses from
manufacturers like Ram Clutches, CP-Carrillo,
Maxima Oil, Jesel, Total Seal, Precision Racing
Suspension and Liberty’s Gears.
“The car is just one of those pieces that fell into
place,” Carr says. “Not to take anything away from
any other part of the car: the suspension, the
motor, the transmission, the clutch, the tires.
Everything has to be happy – or close to happy –
or you can’t have that performance. It was a full
package there, and that’s not easy to do.”
With the new car bringing a breath of fresh
air to Carr’s operation, Gugliotta balances out
the newness with his years of experience with
Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars. Known as “The
Flying Meatball,” a nickname he picked up as an
IHRA Pro Stock driver in the early 2000s, Gugliotta
has been with Carr for eleven years. Carr
credits their similar upbringings – Carr on his
father’s onion and potato farm in Washington and
Gugliotta working for his family’s construction
company in Maryland – for helping to create a
strong partnership.
“He’s so driven,” Carr says of Gugliotta. “We
both are a lot alike as far as how we grew up.
Our dads were pretty strict – you work and go
to school and work, and that’s it. He took over
his dad’s business, I took over mine. We’ve both
had a lot of pressure and stress most of our lives.
We understand each other very well and we know
what it takes to be successful at something. There
really are no excuses. You just keep working on
it so you can eliminate all the things that can
hold you back.”
With seemingly nothing holding back Carr
from continuing to rack up accomplishments in
PDRA Extreme Pro Stock, he’s looking to build
on the foundation he laid at the first two races.
Two major milestones – the elusive first official
3-second pass and the 2020 PDRA world
championship – loom in the distance. Carr is
solely focused on the near future, though, as record
conditions likely won’t come around until
the fall, and the way this season is shaping up,
the championship probably won’t be decided
until eliminations at the World Finals at Virginia
Motorsports Park in October.
“We’re going to do our best to focus on a raceby-race
basis and not get ahead of ourselves or
worry about what the weather’s going to be in
Virginia at the end of the year because right now,
it doesn’t matter,” Carr says. “It honestly doesn’t
matter until we get there. The goal is always just
to do the best we can do.” DI
20 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 158