Neff not giving up title quest despite odds at Pomona finals

POMONA, Calif. – He’s done the math, he knows the odds, but Mike Neff doesn’t plan to go gently into the off-season.

Mike Neff

Photo by: NHRA

“The best race to win is the last one because that carries over all winter long,” said the man who has won back-to-back Mac Tools U.S. Nationals championships at the wheel of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

“Even when you don't have a good season, finishing strong is important because you know you've got all winter long to gear up and start fresh the next year, but we won start worrying about next year until Sunday night.”

That’s because Neff is not giving up on becoming the first in 38 years to win an NHRA Funny Car title in the dual role of driver/crew chief.

Stung two weeks ago by the failure of a $5 clutch part that sent him to the sidelines in the second round of the Big O Tires Nationals at Las Vegas, the two-time world championship-winning crew chief (with Gary Scelzi in 2005 and John Force in 2010) needs a miracle this week to overcome what, basically, is a four-round deficit.

First, he realistically needs to decrease the margin by which he trails both Jack Beckman and Ron Capps to less than 80 points (the current margins are 88 and 84, respectively). Then, he has to win the race. Finally, he has to hope for the first round elimination of both front-runners.

That last item is the obvious sticking point although Neff is encouraged by the fact that when he and Force won the championship two years ago, they made up 79 points on the final day to slip past a devastated Matt Hagan.

“I’m not giving up,” said the former off-road truck mechanic. “My car’s been running awesome. We’ll just see what happens. There’s only three teams in the hunt and we’re one of them, so that’s not all bad.”

Despite the long odds, Neff has every reason to feel good about this week’s race.

In addition to tuning Force to victories in both Pomona races in 2010, the former motocross rider won his first race as a Funny Car driver at the 2009 Finals and, while he was crew chief to Scelzi, the two of them won the 2007 Winternationals. Furthermore, it was just last February that he and his Castrol GTX Ford dominated at the season-opener before losing to Force on a final round holeshot.

“That’s what’s so exciting about NHRA drag racing,” Neff said. “You can’t make it up in the next turn. You get one shot at it. You either get it right, you catch a break or it’s over with – and you have to do that four times in one day. We only did it right three times in February. That’s what makes it so challenging.”

Will he just dial-up the same package that yielded the quickest time (4.036) and fastest speed (316.97 mph) nine months ago?

“It’s not an exact science,” Neff said. “There are always challenges you have to deal with. Conditions are constantly changing so that means that what worked in February might not work in November. Anything can happen. You just have to adapt.”

Does he believe in miracles?

“This is why you put all that work in over the winter and go through the whole season,” he said, “to come to the very end and still have a shot to win. That’s all you can ask for.”

John Force Racing