LETTER from the EDITOR
I
’ve certainly
not become any
sort of medical
expert, but I’m
surprised by the
amount of health-and-
wellness-related infor-
mation I’ve consumed
over the last decade as
a parent (the only jour-
ney as wild, or perhaps
more so, than being in
business for yourself ).
Amongst many lessons
learned and consider-
able insight gleaned
from embarrassingly hi-
larious Google searches
and ample time spent
on WebMD.com, is that
some locations on the
human body provide a
more accurate reading
than others when you’re
taking your child’s tem-
perature.
Early on in my par-
enting career it was a
bit of a startling revela-
tion. I remember nearly
every single time I told
my mother I didn’t feel
well, that I probably
needed to stay home
from school, she’d stick
a thermometer in my mouth and find out if I was
full of crap. My eyes are dark brown, so that’s always
been up in the air – a definite possibility – but I di-
gress. Anyway, she’d wait a few minutes – I believe
the ideal time for a reading is three minutes – then
she’d take the thermometer out of my mouth, hold
it up eye-level and share her findings aloud. More
often than not, admittedly, she’d lovingly say, “Well,
honey, 98.6 degrees. No fever; no reason not to go
to school.” Damn it.
I’ve often thought about the profound power
of the number that shows up on a thermometer,
especially now as a parent myself. Back then, that
numerical reading served as the ultimate “go, no-
go”, routinely deciding whether I’d be crawling back
under the covers or hustling off to the bus stop.
Twenty-plus years later, its impact on my life, and
my household, has only intensified. The moment
either of our children (Max and Sophia) act the
slightest bit off, look a little pale or peaked, or claim
to not feel very well, we’re rushing to the cabinet
for the forty-dollar forehead thermometer with the
digital readout to see if we’re running a tepid bath,
heading to the emergency room or simply “getting
over it” (that sounds so mean in writing).
Knowing now that multiple options exist for
taking your child’s temperature, and that your
findings can sometimes vary dramatically, it’s not
Wesley R. Buck
Editor-in-Chief
8 | Drag
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
at all unusual for Ali-
sha (my wife) or me to
test a couple locations.
And we always take it a
couple times.
On the heels of a
seemingly nationwide
flu outbreak and pro-
longed, heightened
attention to my kids’
health, this routine
has been repeated now
more than ever. It’s also
sparked my curiosity,
and had me wonder-
ing why we don’t apply
these seemingly basic,
common principles to
other things in life and
business. It would seem
to me that too frequent-
ly we base our decisions
and our beliefs off a sin-
gle sample, oftentimes
from a single location
or site. Not good.
Nestled into a win-
dow seat inside a blue-
and-red Southwest
Airlines 737-MAX8 air-
craft bound for Valdo-
sta, Georgia, I have to
wonder where exactly
I’m going to take the
collective temperature
of the sport of drag racing in 2018. Will I check
our beloved straight-line motorsport’s forehead
this weekend at South Georgia Motorsports Park,
where fans will be lined up, paying a premium to
step foot on the grounds of a facility quite literally
overrun with trucks, trailers, race cars and racers
preparing to do battle on the outlaw eighth-mile?
Will I lift the proverbial thermometer eye-level
and declare all things perfect and peachy based on a
98.6-degree reading near the Florida-Georgia state
line? Or will I attempt to take multiple samples at
various locations in the coming calendar year and
use that information to determine my prognosis?
To decide whether we’re headed for the promised
land, or for urgent care.
How about you? As a sporting community that
plays host to more than its fair share of glory-day-
itis-infected individuals, I urge you to check the
temperature of our sport in more than one place
in 2018, as well as in the future. Form your own
opinions. Resist the urge to regurgitate the oft-
uninformed, almost always jaded opinions of oth-
ers. Being negative is in style these days. It’s up
to people like you and me to decide whether that
mentality is a passing fad or a permanent part of our
culture. Step out of your comfort zone; stick that
thermometer in a few new places this year. I think
you’ll find drag racing’s running hot (in a good way).
I invite you to email me at wes@dragillustrated.com and follow
me at facebook.com/wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram.
Wes Buck
Founder & Editorial Director
660.988.2313
wes@dragillustrated.com
Scott Dorman
Publisher
615.478.5275
scott@dragillustrated.com
Mike Carpenter
Design & Production Director
704.737.2299
mike@dragillustrated.com
Nate Van Wagnen
Editor-in-Chief
440.986.1480
nate@dragillustrated.com
Andrea Wilson
Chief Operating Officer
660.349.0847
andrea@dragillustrated.com
Will Mandell
Senior Sales Executive
615.426.0465
will@dragillustrated.com
JT Hudson
Sales Executive
660.341.0063
jt@dragillustrated.com
Van Abernethy
Senior Staff Writer & Field Subscription Sales
828.302.0356
van@dra