✖ DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE ✖
WOODS: I thought I understood what NPK was going to be, but in the beginning, we were on sketchy, small-town, little bitty tracks. Birdman’ s Firebird would run mid-3.90s. My car ran high 4.20s, and I could outrun 3.80 or 3.90 cars because the surface wouldn’ t take it, so it was legit. You can have a 5,000-horsepower program, and it doesn’ t do you any good. You have to get down the surface.
We were in Kentucky and the fire marshal showed up and locked the gate, and there was still a six-mile line in both directions. You can’ t go anywhere without being recognized. I’ m not complaining about that. I’ ll talk to every single person that wants to have a conversation. Without the fans, we don’ t get to do what we do on the platform we’ re doing it on. My hope in this whole thing is that those little kids that are running in Jr. Dragsters never stop drag racing. I want to hook those kids. WHITLEY: Well, a little bit of the history of the show and how it evolved. Every human wants a nicer home and a nicer car. Same thing with racers – they want to go faster. We had run out of real street racers on Street Outlaws to race and the producers started finding us races, and that’ s when you saw Pro Mods show up. All the other guys said,“ Hey, we’ re in front of the world here. We got to step up our game. If we’ re going to be racing Pro Mods on the street, we got to do this.” They did what they had to do to compete.
AZN and I, we knew we couldn’ t compete. We just wanted to keep it simple. So we still have the same old Farmtruck. We put a bigger and better motor in it, but it’ s still streetable, and it’ s still what we wanted the show to be. Our last season, we were driving street cars, we were cruising, we were getting back to our roots. Everybody was having fun, no one was arguing. We were racing in other towns, other states. That was the best the show had been in a long, long time.
WHITLEY: Well, it’ s gone too far for us, but not for them. They did it, and I’ m glad they stepped up and built these awesome cars to compete. People evolved and they got better at what they do. AZN and I, we’ re still stuck in the past. BONNETT: I have to look at it from a business perspective, so it has gone beyond fun. It has gone beyond recreational weekend activities. It’ s now a business, and so the question is can you maintain a level of redneck loyalty with a business? That’ s to say have monster trucks gone too far and should return back to being trucks? Hell no. They can’ t have boring caricatures. They can’ t turn into NHRA where it’ s like,“ I’ m Scott and I’ m sponsored by A & A Attorney Company. It’ s been a good run this year.” You got to lose this monotone; you got to reinvent the wheel a little bit. The cars have got to be fast, they’ ve got to be safe, but they’ ve got to be relatable in some regard. They’ ve got to find a lane outside of what NHRA is. Don’ t be NHRA; be something different. WOODS: That was my fear because the track was always the equalizer. Even Murder Nova bashed what we were doing in the beginning. Then he shows up and he’ s like,“ Holy shit, this ain’ t no joke.” The programs we are racing against today, a lot of those guys spend $ 2-4 million a year. I’ m happy for them, don’ t get me wrong. I would love to be in their shoes. A lot of them rotate their engines and their transmissions every year. To be fair, I still don’ t have two engines. When I put the Noonan Hemi in my car, for three years it never came out. I don’ t push it to the absolute limit. I would love to, but I’ m not in that financial boat. If I break the engine,
“ THAT WAS MY FEAR BECAUSE THE TRACK WAS ALWAYS THE EQUALIZER... THE REALITY IS – AND THIS IS A VERY HARD PILL TO SWALLOW – IF YOU’ RE NOT ON THAT LEVEL, YOU’ RE GETTING YOUR TEETH KICKED IN.”- JOE“ DOMINATOR” WOODS
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With the evolution you talked about – the never-ending desire to continue going faster combined with big-money teams jumping in – do you believe it eventually went too far from what made it popular to begin with? LOVE: I’ ll say something about that. We had some new guys come in and immediately make an impact. Clay Cole, Nate Sayler, the Gucci car, those guys basically built Ryan Martin’ s car in a different body. They literally called Pro Line and said,“ I want to run with Ryan, I want to compete with Ryan Martin,” and they told them how to build the car. It’ s the same tuner Ryan has, so now instead of one Ryan Martin, you have five. That’ s where it went, and I’ ve just never been a follow-the-leader-type guy. I didn’ t want to be like the next guy, nor could I afford to build a $ 300,000 car. So we just do it the Doc Love way and try to make the best of it. If it ever goes back to the way it used to be, I’ m so much smarter now than I used to be, so much more ahead, that I feel I could go back to dominating like I used to.
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