National Hot Rod Association

We caught up with Funny Car's hottest driver about his Charlotte victory, his recent resurgence, and his outlook for the rest of the year.

Congrats on getting back in the win column, Cruz.
Thanks. It's definitely one of the best wins I've ever had, just because of the circumstances, the tough times we've gone through this year. It was almost like a mini-championship. Anytime someone wins, they tend to say it that it's one of their biggest ever, but this one really was. We had low e.t. in three out of four rounds of eliminations, and we made both qualifying runs Saturday and all four rounds Sunday on the same motor. That says a lot. It's one thing to win a race; it's another thing to win like we did and leave almost nothing on the table.

What led to this comeback?
As the year has gone on, everyone on this team – me included – has learned how to race. At the beginning of the year, we were at least a tenth off of the pace. Then we'd get to where we could have low e.t. or close to it in the fourth qualifying session, but it would take us the first three qualifying runs to get to that point. It was just taking us too long to adjust. Now, we know what not to do. We've figured out the personality of the car, and it's a completely different car than the one we had at the beginning of the year. Now, we can run with anyone. Some people run better speeds, but nobody can out-e.t. us.

Is it the same equipment you've been running all year?
For the most part, yes. There are no trick parts – it's pretty vanilla, actually – but now we have billet blowers from Alan Johnson. That's probably the biggest thing. We were already running Alan Johnson cylinder heads and the Toyota body, which he helped design. We're definitely not as smart as he is – nobody is. These billet blowers haven taken some cars from 305 mph to 315. When we won the championship two years ago, I think the fastest we went all year was 307. When you have everything right, these new blowers are worth 4-6 mph.

So you've done it with the same personnel you began the year with?
Yes. There were times earlier this year, when nothing was going right, when I thought maybe I ought to bring a consultant onboard. But there's no high-dollar crew chief here – all of those guys are already taken. It's just me and [first-year crew chief] Danny DeGennaro. We even use input from guys on the crew sometimes. The whole database, everything we did when we won the championship in 2008, is still right here for us to look at. We have our own style and strategy, and it's working.

When did it all start to turn around?
I'd say it was at Chicago [10 races ago, in early June.] We dropped cylinders downtrack on one run and still went a 4.18. I started looking at other guys' incremental times from that session and thought, 'If we could pick it up a little bit on the top end, we could be right with these guys who are running low e.t.' Ever since then, we've been making one of the best two or three runs of at least half of the qualifying sessions everywhere we go.

Do you think you've surprised people?
Probably. Maybe some team owners, who just see the qualifying sheets and don't pay attention to the incremental times. But I'll bet other crew chiefs weren't surprised. They've seen our 330-foot times. If you look at our early numbers, we can run with anyone to the 330 mark and have for a while, probably since Denver [three races ago].

Is there less pressure now that you're not in the Countdown?
My attitude has been to look at it like we are in the Countdown – fake it 'til you make it, as they say. I told my guys, 'Let's keep track of the points ourselves and see where we would have ended up. Let's act like we belong, because we do.' We knew we had a good car – it was there all along.

What's your approach for the last three races of the season?
There's no turning back now. We're just going to keep doing what we've been doing for the past few months. I'm racing on a thinner budget than I've ever had, and I still talk about budget all the time, but we're not pussyfooting around. You can't be bashful – there are too many good-running cars out there. We run the car as hard as we can every time. We'll sling the rods right out of it every once in a while if we have to. We're smart enough not to get overconfident or do anything too crazy, and who knows? We might just knock off a couple more wins before the year's out.