Fri, 9 Nov 2001, 12:28 PM A Three-Peat for Bob Panella, Jr.

Courtesy of Mickey Schultz

It took Panella all 14 races of the 2001 season to secure the Winston Pro Stock Truck Championship. But now, it's official: It's a three-peat for Bob Panella, Jr.! By making a qualifying pass today at the AAA Auto Club of Southern California Finals being contested throughout the weekend at Pomona Raceway, the Stockton, Calif., driver can now add the trophy for 2001 Winston Championship to the other two he has in his trophy case.

In clinching the championship, Panella reeled off a pass of 7.490 seconds at 181.08 mph. After one session, Panella sits number seven on the qualifying ladder. He has three more opportunity to improve - - one tomorrow and two on Saturday. After finishing fourth in 1998, the first year of professional competition for the truck class, Panella took home both the championship trophy and the Winston check for three consecutive titles in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

"You have to be lucky to win three consecutive championships," said Panella, "but you also have to be good. It takes hard work, dedication, and determination to be at or near the top year after year after year."

When Panella joined the newly commissioned professional category in 1998, he began a short learning curve that began to pay off midway through the 12-race season. In the last six races of '98, he went to the semifinals in all six national events, reaching the final round twice. He was runner-up at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and won his first Pro Stock Truck event title at the Pennzoil Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

"Luckily, I got a good handle on how to run these trucks toward the end of '98. That was when everything started clicking. From there on out I started a good run at the '99 championship. I knew when I put the number four on the truck at the end of the year, I had the opportunity to put the number one on the next year," reflected Panella.

During the first several years of truck competition, Panella felt that it was hard work and dedication that separated him and drivers like Randy Daniels, Brad Jeter, Mark Osborne and a few others from the rest of the pack. For his team, Panella says that his ability to concentrate solely on the job of racing trucks was what gave Panella Motorsports the edge in 1999. Looking back to 1999 Panella said, "The opportunity to win that first championship happened so fast. All of a sudden we said, 'Wow! We have a chance to win a Winston Championship.' I capitalized on the mistakes of others and we didn't make costly mistakes. The results were the first championship was ours.

"I don't want to make it sound easy. It wasn't. The fortunate thing was that while we were going rounds during the last half of the '99 season, most of our competition was going out early. But Brad Jeter made it a race right up to Pomona." At the end of the '99 season, Panella lost some key personnel to other truck teams. The naysayers said he would never repeat without the people he lost. Hard work and dedication once again reared its head.

Panella replaced his losses with capable and experienced winners.

"No one person can get the job done. It's a team thing. There's no one magical person in any operation, except maybe Austin Coil at (John) Force's. The fact remains, this is my shop. I started this shop. I'm not saying that I'm all the brains behind it, but I do put a lot of effort into this operation. The key ingredient is people that want to win. You need good people and that's what we got for the 2000 season," stated Panella.

The 14-race schedule for 2000 started out with a win at the Winternationals, the first of five wins that year. Those five wins in nine final rounds propelled Panella to his second Winston Pro Stock Truck Championship. En route to the championship, Panella was number one in points after 13 of the 14 events contested. He never dropped lower than second and that was after the second race of the season.

"I set out to be respectable in 2000. If I didn't win the championship that was okay. I just didn't want to flounder. The championship was unbelievable and it made me feel proud both for myself and for the team," said Panella, as he recalled that 2000 championship year.

Among the wins in 2000 was Panella's first U.S. Nationals event title.

"Other than the championship, Indy jumps out at me as the biggest win of 2000, maybe of my career. I remember going to Indy with my dad when he owned the Pro Stock team with Larry Morgan as driver. It was 1989, I believe. Larry won both the Pro Stock Duel and the event. I remember saying at the time, 'That would be cool to win Indy.' Little did I realize that in 2000, I would win the U.S. Nationals. It was cool," said Panella. "It hit me up on the stage with the other pro winners why the Indy winners always say, 'Out of all your wins, you will always remember your win at Indy above all.' I don't know why it's different but it is. My dad always wanted me to win Indy. It was a pretty cool weekend."

2001 produced a third straight Winston Championship.

"As I look at this season, it's funny how a full year of intense competition and high emotions becomes anticlimactic," said Panella. "For 13 races, if I wasn't racing Randy Daniels, then it was Greg Stanfield. If it wasn't Greg Stanfield, then it was the Jeg's guys - - Mike and John. There were 30 truck drivers out there each and every race, and anyone of the 30 was capable of winning. That's what made this class so great.

"Then I come to the final race and all I have to do is attempt to qualify to win the Winston Championship. That makes that part easy, but there is still pressure. I want to win the event. I have never won here at the Finals. I was runner-up once and I won the Winternationals once. But not the Finals. I want my last Pro Stock Truck event to finish on a winning note."

The 2001 season was a bittersweet year. Panella, the only driver to qualify at every Pro Stock Truck event since its inception, will three-peat, but won't have a chance at a fourth title, at least in Pro Stock Truck anyway. NHRA has decided to reduce the number of professional categories and have PST reclassified, allowing them to run in one of several classes in Federal-Mogul.

"While I thank Winston and NHRA for giving me the chance to race trucks, I, for one, hate to see the class go. I didn't have any say in the matter, but on the positive side, with the change come new opportunities and new challenges.

"As to my future, if the right opportunity to drive in Pro Stock can be put together, count me in. If not, plans call for keeping my engine building operation continuing to supply power plants to one and all," concluded Panella, immediately following his clinching of the 2001 Winston Pro Stock Truck Championship.



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