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“ I gave them an estimate , Wes and Dave [ Swallow , Distefano ’ s stepfather ] brought the car in , I got the work done when I said it was going to get done , and everything just snowballed from there ,” Russell remembers . “ I ended up doing a lot more work on the car at my personal shop . We took it to the track to test for the first time , and Dave asked me , ‘ Hey , what do you think about doing this full time ?’ It kind of went from there .”
Russell continued working at the chassis shop while working with Distefano on the weekends when Milan ran the Outlaw 632 program . When Distefano decided he wanted to take the next step up into the PDRA ’ s Pro
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Outlaw 632 class , Russell switched to working on smaller projects out of his personal shop so he could devote more time to the $ hameless Racing operation .
At the 2019 season-opening East Coast Nationals at GALOT Motorsports Park , Distefano debuted his current ride , the Musi 632-powered $ hameless Racing ’ 68 Camaro that was formerly known as Henry Dogay ’ s “ Cajun Nightmare ” Top Sportsman car . Distefano qualified third and lost to Johnny Pluchino in the final round . Two races later , he qualified No . 2 and lost to Pluchino in the final again . Towards the end of the season , he qualified No . 1 and won his first race at the Fall Nationals
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at Darlington . It seemed like a perfect weekend , but for Russell , there was more left on the table .
“ Johnny [ Pluchino ] had the record at the time at 4.163 ,” Russell starts . “ We went 4.166 [ in the second round ]. I missed the record by three thou . We ended up winning the race . That was our first PDRA win – everything was great , but as a crew chief , it hurt like hell missing the record by three thou when we knew it was there .”
That missed opportunity sweetened the deal when Distefano wrecked the record at the inaugural PDRA Doorslammer Derby in Bowling Green , Kentucky , earlier this year .
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Russell made wholesale changes to the car going into the weekend : engine , torque converter , transmission gearing , rear gear , and tires . The changes went into the race untested , as rain washed out Thursday testing . Still , Distefano ended up with the record after three rounds of qualifying .
“ We come off the trailer , it goes 4.15 ,” Russell says . “ We didn ’ t change the tuneup for all three qualifiers . I moved some weight in the car . It got a little aggressive and shook the tires in Q2 . I moved a little bit of weight around for Q3 and it goes out there and goes 4.105 . The planets aligned and everything did what it was supposed to . The . 987 60-foot on that
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