EPPING, N.H. - Seven of the 11 Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam races are in the record books and Dale Creasy, Jr. and his Torco Race Fuels Nitro Funny Car have participated in five of the final rounds. His fifth final round appearance provided the team's fourth victory of the year and opened up Creasy's points lead to 233, about a 12 round advantage over the competition.
In order for Creasy to obtain his seventh career win, he would have to overcome a new challenge, racing without the aid of crew chief and brother Steve Creasy. Dale would race without his crew chief and brother, Steve Creasy who would miss the race to be with his family to mourn the passing of his 3 month old nephew Daniel Urbonowski.
"Not having him here was hard," Creasy said of brother Steve. "I know he wanted to be here. If he could have been here he would have. He had to take care of his family business and I understand that."
"Steve is like my backbone. I'm like the guy standing there in the guillotine flipping the other guy off and he's the one that says 'son step back a little'. But you have to have that. You have to have one that goes out and one that's the sensible one and that's him."
Tim Findley from Jack Wyatt's crew would help Steve and Dale tune the Torco Race Fuels flopper. "I've known Tim forever and Jack's guys always come over and help us," Creasy explained. "I can't thank him enough."
Building a winning team for Evan Knoll and Creasy Family Motorsports is something that Dale continually works on. "I remember telling Aaron (IHRA President Aaron Polburn)," Creasy recalled. "I watched Clay Millican. I started paying attention to their history and how they did things and try to pattern after a team that wins. Not that I can run as good as them, but what do they do? What do they do to make everybody stay and be happy. He called me at the end of the year and said now you know how to do it. I said do what? He said now you know how to win. He said next year would be easier. It didn't get easier," Creasy smiled.
Was there anyway for Creasy to predict his success for his championship defense? "If I had written it down and said this is what I wanted to do, people would say you were an idiot," Creasy said. "There's no way it could go that good. I'm not bragging, I know that some of it is luck. But we've put enough in the bad luck bank over the years that we're getting some good luck withdrawals now."
"There are times that I want to run low ET, but right now consistency has been good for us. We just make it so they have to beat us, make the car go down the track. Maybe getting older and understanding what we have to do instead of having a big ego about it helps. I just want to run my car the way I know how, don't hurt it and try to win races."
The Creasy Family Motorsports team dedicates the Amalie Oil North American Nationals win to Daniel Eric Urbonowski and his family. Daniel passed away this weekend at 3 months of age.
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