“ People ask,‘ What was the difference between NHRA and IHRA?’ For me, there was no difference. I was driving a Top Fuel car and trying to get to the finish line first.” really, really hard. Donna worked every day. I spent every day on the phone trying to find money to go racing. It was a very, very difficult time for both of us, but she never once said,“ You’ ve gotta get a job.” And I was still racing. I was still going bracket racing and going to national events, which was silly because I was certainly not making any money doing that. But she believed in me more than anybody because she’ s the one who paid the bills at the house. For us to do that was just insane. I wouldn’ t recommend it to anybody. We spent all the savings that we had, all the 401k stuff that I had from working at Kroger for 11 years. We lived on every dollar that was in savings for those couple years until Peter put together the dot-com deal. It’ s nuts. I can’ t believe we did it.
The success that you had with the IHRA, whether it was the winning itself or everything that came long with it, how did that prepare you for competing in the NHRA full time beginning in 2007?
When we started winning as much as we did, I learned a lot, from doing morning television to radio to even TV shows. I ended up doing a lot of TV shows( like PINKS All Out and Drag Race High) and that opportunity came from the success we had in the IHRA. I still say this all the time: We didn’ t look at it as IHRA versus NHRA. We looked at it as“ Our team is going to the racetrack.” People ask that question a lot,“ What was the difference between IHRA and NHRA?” For me, there was no difference. I’ m driving a Top Fuel car and I’ m trying to get to the finish line first.
The IHRA was the training ground for what I’ m doing today, but at the same time it is still the same process. More people just happen to watch the NHRA so they say,“ Where’ d this guy come from?”
A lot of it was really Peter Lehman giving me that opportunity and then exposing me to things I had never been exposed to. I was a bracket racer. Peter giving me that chance certainly exposed me to things that I never would have had the opportunity to do. That guy was and still is a special part of my family. He and I still talk all the time. He’ s just a super, super guy.
When it came time to make the move from IHRA to NHRA, around the 2007 season, that was around the same time the IHRA show started to go downhill. Did your team predict that, or was there another reason for the move?
Again, that goes back to the business side of things. We never made a conscious decision at all. It was a business thing. We have to back up a little bit. After we won our fourth or fifth championship, Peter Lehman came to me at Rockingham. We had just won the race and locked up the championship. It was late at night. Peter walked me over by the racetrack and he said,“ Look, I bought into your dream and we’ ve won all these championships together. We have a sponsorship. I’ ve lived your dream with you. Now I want to go and do what I want to do. You’ re all set. You need to go and find someone to be a team owner and keep this thing going. You’ re in a good position right now so make that happen. I’ m not going to drop you or put you in any kind of bad position.”
We contacted Kenny Koretsky and he bought the team. We won some more IHRA championships with Kenny. Then that‘ 06 season was when the fuel prices just went crazy. Werner has over 10,000 trucks on the road, so when fuel went sky-high, that certainly affected the money their company had. They came to us and said,“ This is our last year.”
The agreement between Werner and Peter was a handshake deal. There was never a piece of paper written. Greg Werner and Peter literally shook on it. Greg said,“ We’ ll do this for a few years.” That few years turned into six. We weren’ t mad that Werner went away. It was just the proper thing to do for their business since fuel prices went so high.
That brings us back to the‘ 07 season. We didn’ t make a conscious decision to go NHRA racing, it was just back to the business side of things. That was a tough time for everyone. Not that it’ s still not hard – it is. We transitioned to the NHRA, ran a year or so, then we had some highs and lows with sponsorship. There were years where I did one or two races. There were some years where I did‘ em all. Just a lot of great people along the way that kept this thing going. The Pickens family out of Memphis ended up buying the team. It’ s been a crazy ride. It’ s amazing the amount of people who stuck with me, and we’ re still here. Next year is 20 years, which is crazy. My wife, Donna, got me to quit Kroger 19 years ago. I was always in trouble at work for missing days to go racing. Donna told me,“ If you don’ t quit this now, you’ re going to regret it.” I was like,“ You can’ t really want me to quit.” But I quit, and here we are 19 years later. It’ s crazy.
Since May 10th of 1998, your full-time occupation has been“ Top Fuel driver”. In recent years. we’ ve seen so many drivers put on the sidelines, temporarily or otherwise, due to sponsorship woes. It certainly hasn’ t been on accident, but how much does it mean to you to still be doing this 19 years later?
This will sound bad, but it’ s almost everything because this is how I’ ve paid the light bill, how I’ ve paid the mortgage. Now, during that‘ 98 timeframe that I was just talking about, my wife had a normal job and when she got me to quit, it wasn’ t like I was on Peter’ s payroll at that point at all. He certainly helped. But when I quit my job, this was back in the days when you would get a credit card in the mail. They’ d send you a pre-approved credit card and I was high-fiving myself, Yay, a credit card came in! We can buy gas to go to the store and we can put groceries on there.
There were a lot of times where it was really,
“ People ask,‘ What was the difference between NHRA and IHRA?’ For me, there was no difference. I was driving a Top Fuel car and trying to get to the finish line first.” really, really hard. Donna worked every day. I spent every day on the phone trying to find money to go racing. It was a very, very difficult time for both of us, but she never once said,“ You’ ve gotta get a job.” And I was still racing. I was still going bracket racing and going to national events, which was silly because I was certainly not making any money doing that. But she believed in me more than anybody because she’ s the one who paid the bills at the house. For us to do that was just insane. I wouldn’ t recommend it to anybody. We spent all the savings that we had, all the 401k stuff that I had from working at Kroger for 11 years. We lived on every dollar that was in savings for those couple years until Peter put together the dot-com deal. It’ s nuts. I can’ t believe we did it.
It’ s amazing to still be doing it. I certainly have been through enough ups and downs to know that this can go away at any moment. It’ s went away for me before and it’ s went away for a lot of people out here. You’ ve got people who are able to somehow find their way back and I’ ve been one of those people fortunate enough to find my way back several times when my dream job has gone away. Look at Shawn Langdon – it’ s happened to him a few times recently. There’ s several people out here with cool stories about how their dream went away and they were able to find their way back, and I’ m certainly one of them. It’ s just nonstop, don’ t-give-up, hard work. That’ s really what it is.
You must be asked all the time about how you find these sponsorships. What has been your secret to finding the funding required to race Top Fuel?
Well, I have a lot of stories on that, but this sponsorship game is like getting a job. You know somebody who may know somebody who knows somebody else. You can’ t go to a sponsor and just say,“ Hey, I’ m going to put your decal on my car.” That’ s out the window, and that’ s one of the biggest things Peter taught me, to figure out what it is that you can do to help those companies to make them want to go racing. Everybody you meet could be your next sponsor.
I tell this story a lot so it’ s nothing new, but it’ s a really cool story. We were in Phoenix testing. I was packing a parachute. It was the PRO( Professional Racers Organization) test session so it was open to the public. A guy comes up, dressed normally – flip-flops, shorts, t-shirt. He tells me he’ s from the Memphis area, and we just had a conversation not unlike the thousands of conversations I’ ve had back there packing parachutes. Fast forward a few years and that ended up being Mark Pickens, who ended up being a team owner for me.
Parts Plus – there’ s another good story. When the budget with the Pickens was coming to an end, the landlord of our race shop in Munford, Tennesee, introduced me to Steve Tucker, the vice president of Parts Plus. I gave him a game plan for Parts Plus to go racing, and that partnership is now in its sixth year.
The Werner Enterprises deal came about when Mike Kloeber hired a local kid, Jaymond Hogue,
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