Last spring, Barry Grant, who has built an extremely successful fuel system company based in Dahlonega, Ga., announced he would join forces with Pro Stock veterans Larry Morgan and Terry Adams to debut a new, two-car team in 2003.
The announced team would campaign Dodge Neons, followed by the soon-to-be-seen Dodge Stratus machines, with Grant and Morgan handling driving duties.
Now, a change in those plans has been announced.
In an exclusive interview Tuesday, Grant revealed that there will be a new direction for the team. There is also a chance it could jump into competition at an event in the fall, too.
"We've decided to make good use of our experience and equipment that's GM based," Grant said from his offices at Barry Grant Fuel Systems. "The new team will be comprised of myself, Terry and Frank Iaconio. Larry's a fantastic engine builder and I have no doubts that our Mopar team would have been in the thick of the battle right from Day 1.
"But Frank, Terry and I have raced together in the past and the combination we used is much more familiar to us than what we would have had with the Mopar setup. It made a lot of sense for us to go in this direction."
Iaconio is one of the all-time great drivers/engine builders in the category with 11 wins as a driver and a host of engine customers running his F.I.R.E. (Frank Iaconio Racing Engines) powerplants, which are built in his New Jersey machine shop. Iaconio's engines currently power the Chevy Cavalier campaigned by Greg Anderson, who is second in the points and bearing down on leader Jim Yates.
Grant's performance with Iaconio power, although brief, was impressive with low qualifier awards and career-best elapsed times during the early part of 1998. A leg injury hampered Grant's efforts at building upon those performances and he returned to Pro Stock briefly in 2000 with his privately-sponsored Pontiac. His new team will race both a Chevy Cavalier and Pontiac Grand Am.
"We may be out before the end of the season," Grant said. "I'm still working at putting the finishing touches on everything so I can't be sure just yet. But if things work out, sometime late this season would be the earliest you'd see us racing."
Grant recently became the title sponsor of the $50,000 King Demon Duel for Pro Stock, the race-within-a-race held annually at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., as part of the Matco Tools Supernationals. It's completely possible that in 2004, he could be taking a shot at winning the event that bears his product's name.