The relationship that Eric Medlen, driver of the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Funny Car, had with his crew chief was like father and son. Because they were father and son.
Medlen’s father, John, has been the team’s crew chief since 1996, winning a championship with Tony Pedregon in 2003.
In ‘06, son and father teamed to finish in fourth place in the NHRA Powerade standings for the second straight year and the younger Medlen’s third top-five showing in as many years behind the wheel.
Medlen won twice and was the top qualifier three times last season.
He scored three victories in a four-race stretch in ‘05 and finished in fourth place in the standings. The previous year he debuted with a one victory and fifth-place showing in the standings.
Medlen was preparing for a professional rodeo in team roping when his father contacted him about a crew position at John Force Racing.
He opted to exchange four-legged horsepower for the four-wheel variety, working the ‘96 season as a crewman on the Pedregon-driven Funny Car that ultimately finished second in the standings behind the companion car driven by Force. The next year the younger Medlen moved to work with Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly on Force’s GTX entry.
After serving as Force’s supercharger specialist for five years, Medlen was the clutch guy on the national record-holding Ford for three seasons.
A decade after contemplating a career astride one horse, he rode herd on 8,000 horsepower as the driver of the hybrid Ford Mustang that has covered the standard quarter mile in as few as 4.698 seconds.
Medlen was licensed in the Top Alcohol Dragster class and had made test laps in both the Syntec Ford and Force’s Mustang before landing the job three years ago, but most of his previous driving experience came at the wheel of modified go-karts, including 120-mile-per-hour shifter karts of the type used by Champ Car drivers to keep themselves in shape during the winter off season.
At one time, Medlen owned three such shifter-karts, but he sold all of them, along with a self-built chopper motorcycle to buy seat time in a Top Alcohol Funny Car at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School in Gainesville, Fla.
His cowboy background notwithstanding, Medlen always has been mechanically inclined. He was an accomplished machinist who spent two and a half years studying mechanical engineering at Terra Technical University in Fremont, Ohio, and two years working for Callies Crankshafts.
