INTERVIEW
P94
NHRA PRO STOCK WORLD CHAMPION EDDIE KRAWIEC
lyzed what I was doing and
pointed out a few areas where I
could improve. Terry has a way of
getting his point across with very
few words and everything he said
to me made sense. After that, I
started riding with a lot of confidence and by the time the Countdown started, I really felt good
about the championship.
by mid-season, he had his act
together and he had a very fast
motorcycle. We got tired of him
stealing the number-one qualifying spot from us. At every race,
it seemed like we would come
out and make a good run, get the
number-one spot, and then have
Hector take it away the next day.
Then he started winning races
and yeah, I'd be lying if I said it
For most of the season, in- didn't concern us.
cluding the six-race playoff,
you battled Lucas Oil Buell's
Would it have looked bad if
Hector Arana Jr. for the cham- you'd have lost the championpionship. Can you describe ship to a true rookie?
what that was like?
I'm glad it didn't happen, but I
Hector's father taught him don't think it would have looked
well. When he first came out, bad. It's not really like the little
he didn't look that confident but guy whipping it up on the big
90-95 Krawiec Interview.indd 94
The team celebrates the title.
guy. By no means is that Lucas
Oil team a small team. They have
resources just like we do. People
might think it's just this nice little
father-son outfit, but they don't
want for anything. We knew all
season what they were capable
of so it wasn't a surprise when Jr.
started winning races. His dad
[Hector Sr.] had some bad luck,
but Jr. was plenty tough.
Nothing against Hector, but I
think the pressure got to him a bit
towards the end. The key to this
whole deal is consistency and I
pride myself on that. In a pressure
situation, I've never been the guy
who throws it out the window.
12/9/11 2:24 PM
