PHOTOS: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER |
a regular Wednesday night and they had a race.
I had no idea anything about drag racing. I did a burnout and I went to stage and the starter taps on my car and he says,“ Hey, dude, you can have the radio on, but your window has to be up.” I didn’ t know.
We got through that and we won that race, just pure luck. Of course, that’ s when your hook sets, and then you want to go faster and your whole goal is to go faster and keep going. I ran some IHRA, some modified Super Stock stuff, and slid over here to the NHRA.
I think, to this day, I’ m the only man in history that went to the U. S. Nationals in Super Stock and I won class( in 2006). That was a big deal. It was great to have a little class trophy from U. S. Nationals. That was as big as winning a national event somewhere else. But I actually won class and I left before eliminations so I could race an IHRA points meet because I was chasing points.
So we drove all night to North Carolina for me to go race, and I finished second that year. We would try to do both, and eventually stepped on over straight to NHRA when I started running Comp Eliminator. I loved that class. It’ s a tough class and it’ s about who is smart enough to find the right combination. I think I’ ve run every class. Whatever it is, we enjoy racing and we enjoy the people around it.
You have raced in a lot of classes and that’ s something we’ ll touch on. But what keeps you passionate about racing Pro Stock?
Of course, in my eyes and a lot of people’ s eyes, it’ s the most competitive thing you could ever do. Today, there’ s probably 12-13 people you could pick to win any race. It’ s the most competitive
|
“ THERE’ S JUST A LITTLE-BITTY BRIDGE THAT WE’ VE GOT TO PUT BETWEEN ALL OF US. THERE’ S ENOUGH ROOM FOR ALL OF US AT ONE EVENT.”
thing, it’ s tough, but it still has that prestige. Bob and I had this same discussion before he passed. It just goes back to the hardcore racing days. That’ s the kind of thing that drew me to the noprep stuff, because if you go to one of those races, these are guys showing up in old duallies and really old trailers, putting every penny they have into their cars. It’ s just a whole different atmosphere, kind of the way I thought this used to be.
Speaking of the no-prep deal, your foray into that a couple months ago really got people talking. How did that all come to be and what was your impression of it?
Harry( Hruska) and I got hanging around each other the last couple years and he let me get my Pro Mod license in his car at Phoenix, and we get talking about this no-prep stuff. He bought the Duster the week of that race. It was a big-tire, outlaw Pro Mod car, so I told him I would meet him in Louisiana, me and my crew guy. I called up and ordered the right set of tires and wheels
|
to make it all legal, and we put it all together in one afternoon, and it looked really funny on those little, small tires. Once we got the wheels on the car, the back end drug the ground, so we had to make some bars, raise the shocks and do a lot of stuff, and it all went smooth. It was a mess up on my part; I think we probably would have went a couple more rounds.
But as we pull in the gates, I had my bus and the Nitro Fish trailer, then our semi because we were on our way out to Vegas for the NHRA race. When I pulled in, the guy was like,“ Hey, don’ t take any offense because you probably won’ t sell much of your apparel and there’ s not going to be many people that know you here.” But we did have a lot of fans there, and I got to meet a lot of the drivers and became pretty good friends with a lot of those guys. I even gave them a shout-out in Vegas. They interviewed me after I called out Vincent( Nobile, on a side bet in the first round of K & N Horsepower Challenge) after I beat him. I said,“ Yeah, that’ s something my old no-prep buddies taught me.” Instantly, when I did that my social media and Facebook blew up. There’ s just a little-bitty bridge that we’ ve got to put between all of us. There’ s enough room for all of us at one event.
It’ s an interesting point, but you’ ve got a unique perspective on it, having raced in both. How do we bridge that gap, where it’ s the best of both worlds for the NHRA and the Street Outlaws, no-prep crowd?
Our numbers are down( in Pro Stock), but our numbers aren’ t much off Fuel and Funny Car. It’ s pro racing altogether that we have to make better. Everybody loves the Street Outlaws guys,
|
||
July 2018 |
DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 87 |