CHRIS KING KNOCKS OFF COBWEBS IN CHICAGO

CHICAGO – Chicago firefighter, NHRA Funny Car team owner and driver, Chris King, did not have the fiery start that he hoped for at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance. In his first national event since 2021, King did not qualify for the competition on Sunday, even with a strong effort. King was appreciative of the entire effort by the Howard Cams/Competition Parts Dodge Charger Funny Car team all weekend.

“I haven’t been in a big show car in two and a half years,” said King. “This is a deal that we put together in like two weeks. We have a brand-new crew that had never met each other until this weekend. It’s a very new operation and a lot of things were worked out this weekend. The guys bonded great, and this season will be a season of learning and making slow progress.”

In the first round of qualifying, King had to adjust to being behind the wheel of a 12,000-horsepower vehicle again. After about 300 feet, he was off the throttle, and still qualified No. 9 at the time. Moving into the second round, he had his quickest run of the weekend, making a 5.629 second pass at 135.41 mph. He wasn’t bumped out of the field until after the third round, when he dropped a cylinder and had to back off the throttle.

“After the second qualifier I felt more comfortable in the car because I was reacclimated to the hit and the acceleration,” said King. “It was knocking the cobwebs off and then dealing with all the issues that the nitro car throws at you. We experienced a bunch of different challenges, and I was reminded that the car is ultimately in control, not you.”

Despite not making it to Sunday, King is only looking at the positives that came out of the weekend. He knows it takes some time to get back into the swing of things, particularly with a new car and crew.

“I think the biggest positive is we’re in the right direction with the car,” said King. “It’s improving every lap. I’m not driving out of control. Another positive is the fan response that we’re getting. I can’t hear it in the car, but my crew was telling me about how everybody’s on their feet cheering on the firemen and saluting us for what we’re out here doing as the underdog. It’s encouraging that there’s support out there for us. Now we just have to transfer that fan support into some corporate support so we can keep getting better.”

King and his crew chief, Terry Totten, are taking Chicago as a major learning opportunity before their next event, the Mile-High Nationals. The last time King competed in Denver was in 2021, when he qualified in the No. 14 spot.

“We learned a lot and what we needed was data and runs,” said King. “We got some great data and found a few issues. We found a couple of things in our tune-up we can tweak. But we worked through the new car blues, and we have a lot of potential. We could have run it harder and more aggressively, but we ran out of parts. We did our best and learned a lot. Terry really stepped up and worked his butt off giving me a solid car and I am proud of my guys.”

Fans will be able to continue to cheer King on in 2023 at the Mile High Nationals in Denver, NHRA Nationals in Topeka, U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Qualifying Results

Q1: 7.397 sec; 88.89 mph; Qual. 9

Q2: 5.629 sec; 135.41 mph; Qual. 15

Q3: 5.834 sec; 124.74 mph; Qual. 18

photo by Jerry Meddock