KEN SINGLETON
Ken ’ s family - including his wife Jo ( pictured ) - have been instrumental throughout his ongoing recovery process .
at Parkland Hospital in Dallas . He lost all his fingers and couldn ’ t see anything for two months due to the burns . Over the next four and a half months , Singleton recovered – two months at Parkland , and another two and half at Integris Baptist in Oklahoma City . Singleton says it was a miracle he survived .
While other people in his situation might have given up hope – and Singleton ’ s daughter , Morgan Bratcher , admits there was a time early on when they didn ’ t know if he ’ d ever want to be involved in drag racing again – Singleton decided he wasn ’ t going to let his situation define him .
“ Every day , it was kind of iffy if you were going to live ,” says Singleton . “ You ’ re just lying in bed , hurting , wondering , ‘ Is this going to get better ? Are we going to get over this ?’ Then after 3-4 weeks , I kind of changed my mind . We were going to beat this , get back to working and doing things . We ’ re not going to just sit around .”
In July of 2022 – still bandaged up and admittedly against his better judgment – he was at Eddyville Raceway Park tuning for Shayne Lawson and the Man O ’ War Mustang Funny Car . It was a pairing brought on by Bratcher , who laughingly told her father in the hospital that Lawson was “ running like crap .”
“ He agreed that I needed to help him ,” says Singleton . “ It took me all year , but in the final race of the season , we won the B-field . He asked me what we had to do to win the A-field , and I said , ‘ You gotta spend money .’ So he bought a new car , new body , all this new stuff .”
Even with a learning curve associated with the new equipment this season , nowhere was Singleton ’ s championship pedigree on display more than at the FCC event at Albuquerque Dragway on July 27-28 . Leading up to the event , no wheel-driven vehicle had ever run the eighth mile in under 4 seconds or over 200 mph at the track . Lawson did both , running 200.00 mph in qualifying , and numerous 3-second passes throughout the weekend .
The team then backed up their performance a few weeks later at Mo-Kan , qualifying No . 1 with a 3.719 at 211.07 mph . Despite his disappointment in losing to Williams in the final round , Singleton can still smile afterwards , knowing his team is right where they need to be .
“ The car is haulin ’, but it ’ s taken the whole year to get there ,” Singleton says . “ With my car , I was No . 1 a lot . But we haven ’ t been No . 1 in a while , and Shayne told me he ’ s never been No . 1 in a Funny Car before .”
From the highs of winning multiple championships to the lows of wondering if he would survive the injuries from his horrific crash , to returning to the track as a highly-regarded tuner ,
Singleton has been through an emotional roller coaster over the past year and a half . Sitting with him here in the RV is his wife , Jo Singleton ; his mother , Jeanie Singleton ; and the aforementioned Bratcher . But for Kendall , it ’ s not just his immediate family , but the entire Funny Car Chaos family that helped him get through the difficult months of recovery .
“ Kirk Williams , who just beat us , came to see me in the hospital ,” Singleton recalls , tears beginning to form in his eyes . “ He won ’ t ever know what that meant to me . That was a tough time . Me and Kirk have been in I don ’ t know how many finals together . His whole crew came to see me in Oklahoma City . They brought me barbeque , and we had a good time that night .”
While Singleton hasn ’ t fully recovered yet – he ’ s still dealing with surgeries on his hands , and working on getting prosthetics soon – he says he ’ s getting used to his new life outside of driving , and already looking forward to next season .
“ I ’ m really glad I got to come back and be involved ,” says Singleton . “ I feel like this is my new role , tuning cars . And it ’ s fun , but it puts a little more pressure on you . I ’ ve got other people I ’ m disappointing if I do bad , people that are paying me . But we ’ re not going to back up . We ’ re still going to work , play with cars , and do all that stuff .” DI
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