after I created what is now the Factory Stock Showdown category,( originally the Super Car Showdown in ADRL competition). We discussed my involvement with the book during that conversation and, soon after, I began contributing to Drag IllustrateD.
� Do you have a favorite or most memorable issue?
The simple fact the magazine has shown improvement with every edition is memorable enough for me.
� What’ s your favorite memory of working with DI?
My personal approach to the business of drag racing journalism has always been to offer news or details which are overlooked by other publications. A half-century ago, there were two dozen monthly magazines all chasing the same race results, news and features. I always made it a priority to read everything printed by the opposition and find out what they were NOT offering the reader. I would then make sure those news items were available in the procudt in which I was working. Drag IllustrateD is the sixty-fourth different title with which
“ IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL PRODUCT WHICH STOOD OUT AT THE VERY, VERY END OF THE DRAG RACING PRINT PUBLISHING ERA.”
� KEPNER
I’ ve worked. Everything about the industry has changed except the simple fact there is so much more news out there to which people are never exposed simply because the writers don’ t bother to follow the sport deeply enough to find it.
� What are you most proud of when you think about your own involvement with DI?
I means a lot to me to be involved with the last of the independent drag racing publications. That’ s where my career started fifty years ago and I’ m well aware it will be the last of the politically-sovereign magazines where all opinions and facts can be openly shared. The fact Drag IllustrateD recently became tied with National Dragster as the largest product,( in page count), in drag racing history is a huge achievement by a handful of independents who dared to buck the system at the end of the print medium. Watching Wes, Mike and Nate work for a decade on the final, functional DI Top 8 record listing,( which is now the only source for all records in the sport), fills me with pride and gives my forty years of weekly work a viable and visible home.
CRAIG COOK
Senior Editor
� How and when did you join DI?
I first joined Drag IllustrateD in early 2019. Wes was looking for new freelance writers, so I submitted some of the work I’ d done
“ BUDDY, WE NEED TO GET YOU ON AN ASSIGNMENT IMMEDIATELY.”
� COOK
years earlier covering NHRA for The Kansas City Star. I was extremely nervous, so when Wes replied with,“ Buddy, we need to get you on an assignment immediately,” I couldn’ t have been more excited to get to work.
� Do you have a favorite or most memorable issue?
The obvious answer would be DI 144, which included my first published feature in the magazine. However, I’ m going to go with DI 158( July 2020). Not only was it my first DI cover story – an interview with Justin Keith and Chase Lautenbach discussing Street Car Takeover – but it was a total surprise. I had no idea the story would be on the cover until the issue was released.
� What’ s your favorite memory of working at DI?
Oddly enough, my favorite memories don’ t involve the magazine itself, but rather, our time together putting on events. Specifically, organizing the PRO Superstar Shootout and World Series of Pro Mod within a few weeks of each other in 2024. The stress level leading up to those races was through the roof, but seeing
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