What were the conditions this year?
Scruggs: When we went that .70-flat I would say the air was about 1,000 foot, but I went .80-flat when we made that first 200 mile per hour run and the air density was right at 3,000 foot by my gauge with the heat out at about 88 or 89 degrees. So that’s a 2,000-foot drop on the same gauge by the end of the night and that’s quite a lot of change there.
Just a perfect night for racing.
Scruggs: Yeah, it really was, but you know, we couldn’t have done it without everybody that makes ADRL possible, Flowmaster and all those guys, Dave Wood, Tommy Lipar, Kenny Nowling and the whole ADRL staff. They put us on good tracks and it makes guys like me and all those other outlaw guys look good, so I really owe a lot of it to them.
Are you doing much match racing these days or concentrating just on the ADRL?
Scruggs: It’s funny you should ask that because I just had a guy call me today wanting me to do a big match race down south, but I really don’t do much match racing anymore because of my family, my wife and kids. All of us racers—anybody that races anything, whether they want to admit it or not—sacrifices some with their family in order to go racing. I’m lucky enough to have a family, my wife and kids and my dad, who loves racing just as much as I do, that gives me that support to be able to go out to the shop and work on it to get it done.
But to answer your question, I like the ADRL because it runs just once a month and that’s really all the racing that I have time to do between family and business. Every now and then I’ll squeeze in a Quick 8 race or a match race here and there or maybe a bit of testing, but all in all about once a month is all I’m racing now.
ADVERTISEMENT Is that also why you don’t have any major sponsorship? Do you not want to have to race to satisfy a contract?
Scruggs: Well, that’s right to a certain degree. We have a few people that help us out here and there. Hoosier Tire they help us out some. Ever since I put their tire on the car has been responding a lot better and going down the race track, but I was buying their tires and now they’re helping me out. But for the most part, that’s exactly right, once you’ve got
But don’t get me wrong, if the right sponsor came along I’d like to have a little help, but it would have to be someone who could understand that our business has to come first.
That makes sense, but why does your car not carry contingency stickers?
Scruggs: Well, to be honest with you I don’t even know what the contingency is; Kenny keeps mentioning it in the drivers’ meeting and I keep meaning to get a sheet and see what it pays. I honestly haven’t thought about it, but I probably will. I need to. I just hope I keep going to the finals where I can have that problem.
You’re in position to contend for the ADRL championship this coming weekend at Dallas (Oct. 12-13). Have you ever won a championship before?
Scruggs: I’d never even competed for a championship in any way until last year with the ADRL. Of course, the way their format is, it’s basically a shootout for eight cars and whoever’s got their act together at that particular time is going to be the world champion. Of course last year I didn’t do so good. I actually led the points going in, but got beat by Bubba (Stanton), but this year is a whole new year and I have a one-eighths chance to win the world championship, so we’re excited about that. We’ve got a good car and all we need is the luck factor to come along with it.
