So far, through four hands of hotly contested NHRA POWERade “poker, ” Jeff Arend has seen the highs of drawing to a straight, and has seen the lows of losing to a bluff. Now, heading to Las Vegas for this weekend s NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals, Arend is readying his steely-eyed gaze, and is prepared to steal the pot in his blue Checker, Schuck s, Kragen Funny Car.
Arend advanced to the semi-final at the season opening race, playing his No. 11 qualifying position about as well as he could before bowing out to Robert Hight. He then squeaked into the Phoenix field in the 16th, and final, spot before bowing out quickly in the first round. Since then, his hand has been stronger, with a No. 4 qualifying spot in Gainesville and a No. 8 position in Houston, but he s been unable to capitalize in the form of round wins. The popular Team CSK blue team driver aims to reverse that bit of ill-fortune this weekend, in what will most likely be his final race with a Monte Carlo body on his car.
“It looked like it was going to come right down to the last minute, as to whether we have the new Impala on the car or not, but it s just a little behind at the paint shop and we d have to pull some all-nighters to get it ready, ” Arend said. “We ve been running well lately, in the Monte Carlo, so I m confident we re in for a very good weekend. It just didn t make sense for us to stall our departure, get to the track late, and work all night to have the Impala on there by Friday, so we ll go with the hand we have. All things considered, that s okay, and we have some momentum to build on.
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