Kenny Koretsky, a.k. a. Captain Chaos, stunned the Pro Stock competition Sunday in the O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway when he literally drove the Indicom Electric/Nitro Fish Chevy Cobalt to an oh-so-close runner-up finish.
How surprising was his final-round appearance? It was the second of his 25-plus year career. The first came at Indianapolis in September 2004. And this was his 199th career race.
On a day when the hot sun made the racing surface unpredictable, Koretsky wasn’t. Starting from 15th place, he was like lightning off starting-line from his first round win over Greg Anderson to his closing-round, heartbreaking loss to Jeg Coughlin.
“This was a lot of fun, ” said Koretsky, who nonetheless was disappointed at not making his first trip to the winner’s circle. He had a. 013-second reaction to Coughlin’s. 041 and held off Coughlin virtually all the way. The winning margin was two-thousandths of a second – 6.809 at 203.22 mph to 6.839 at 201.82).
“You know what? I’m probably the happiest loser out there Sunday because any day you can get to the final round in NHRA Pro Stock racing, you’ve done your job, ” said Koretsky, of Richboro, Pa. “I was driving like crazy. I had. 001,. 033,. 006 and. 013 (second) reaction times. I was on the ‘tree all day long, but we just can’t catch a break.
He began the day with the. 001 reaction in upsetting Anderson (6.831 at 202.06 to 6.782 at 203.95 mph) and followed with his. 033 light in defeating Larry Morgan (6.807 to a traction-troubled 10.967) and the. 006 in knocking out Dave Connolly (6.827 at 202.91 to 6.805 at 203.37) to set up the decider against Coughlin.
Koretsky had words of praise for his longtime crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia and the crew of Greg Hill’s Chevy Cobalt. “Eddie and the guys gave me a competitive car to drive and I was just on my game, ” he said.
“We had a different race car Sunday, ” added a disappointed Guarnaccia. “We made some changes and the car’s performance came around and Kenny was hitting his shift points. It has been awhile since we’ve been in this position . .. I just wish we’d gotten the job done. ”
Koretsky, Guarnaccia and the gang will try to take that last full step next week when the tour moves to Denver.
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