INDIANAPOLIS -- IndyCar Series boss Randy Bernard held court with the media Friday morning and has a plan for future success that follows these points:
• Prop up current road and street courses to make sure they are profitable.
• Add a couple of short-track ovals and a new street race in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• Don't have competing events in the same geographic area.
• Continue to court more manufacturers.
• Say bye-bye to big ovals with too many empty seats.
Brian Spurlock/US PresswireGraham Rahal on the possibility that he or Marco Andretti will win the Indy 500: "As much as I would hate to see an Andretti win this race, it would be really good for the sport. I'm sure Marco probably would say the same thing about me."Will it work? Sure, as long as two or three of their current young drivers find a way to stardom. Otherwise it doesn't matter much.
The key to long-term success is national name recognition for a few drivers. Sort of like Danica Patrick had, except drivers who actually will win races.
Two drivers come to mind right off the bat -- Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal. They have a leg up on the name-recognition thing, thanks to the family history in open wheel. Now they just need to win regularly and compete for titles -- hopefully, against each other.
And the best-case scenario is to have that up-front rivalry come to fruition Sunday in the Indy 500.
"I think it would do incredible things for the sport," Rahal said Thursday. "It really would, without a doubt.
"As much as I would hate to see an Andretti win this race, it would be really good for the sport. I'm sure Marco probably would say the same thing about me. I'm not the guy he wants to see win either, but at the end of the day, we both get it. It would be a great thing."
It hasn't happened yet, but the time is right with the first Danica-less Indy 500 in eight years. Rahal says the best is yet to come for him and for Marco.
"I think what people have to remember about us is I'm only 23 and Marco is 25," Rahal said. "Don't write us off. Marco and I have many, many days of racing together ahead of us. And we want to do it for wins, which we will.
"But right now, it's hard for us to compete against a guy like Dario Franchitti. He's been doing this since 1997, since I was 8 years old. Think about that. He knows so many things that I still have to learn."
Franchitti is 39, a two-time Indy 500 winner and a four-time series champion. But his first win at Indy came at age 34, as did his first championship.
Bobby Rahal, Graham's dad, got his Indy 500 victory at age 33, the year he won his first CART title. Mario Andretti, Marco's legendary grandfather, won the Indy 500 at age 29.
So give the youngsters more time. In the meantime, Bernard has his agenda. Chevy returned to the series this year and Bernard thinks more manufacturers are coming.
"We have some very strong interest," he said Friday. "I think you will see some other manufacturers out there this weekend looking around."
Bernard talked about hopes of returning to short ovals at Richmond and Phoenix, but most big ovals with tons of seats are not in the picture.
"We saw some events last year that weren't very good," Bernard said. "We need races that have that wow factor. It's important we continue to look at ovals, but we don't want to go to a place with 150,000 seats if only 30,000 people are in the stands."
IndyCar racing doesn't get more of a wow factor than high-speed ovals, but it takes big names competing up front to put people in the seats.
Bernard also doesn't want to pit one event against another in the same geographic area. That's bad news for Michigan International Speedway (which falls into the big-oval category's well) with the series returning to Detroit's Belle Isle street race next week.
"It's important for us to give Roger Penske's group [the promoter at Belle Isle] a chance to succeed," Bernard said. "So MIS is not an option for us right now."
Bernard feels the same way about Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. It won't get a race with IndyCar returning to the Milwaukee Mile next month.
"Milwaukee is important to us," Bernard said. "Michael Andretti's group has taken over the promotion there. We are helping them every way we can to make it succeed.
"Let's see how well the Milwaukee Mile does this year. That track opened in 1903. It's the oldest track in America. I don't want to see it shut down on my watch. If we don't make a go of it this time, it will go to the mothballs."
The no-compete theory will be interesting news to Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage, who isn't happy about IndyCar's return to Houston next year for a race around Reliant Stadium.
Bernard said he also hopes to work a deal for a street race in Fort Lauderdale next year, and he has an interest in returning to Australia and possibly the West Coast.
"We are not interested in having dates,'' he said. "We are interested in marriages for many years."
That's great, but track marriages won't matter unless track stars are made, and an Andretti-Rahal rivalry is a good place to start.
Matt Hagan's exploding Funny Car has gone viral. And Hagan is receiving far more attention for blowing up than he did for winning the NHRA championship last year.
The ESPN video of Hagan's incredible exploding car has been seen by 19 million people worldwide via television and the Internet, according to Don Schumacher Racing officials.
The car went kaboom during qualifying for the Four-Wide Nationals last weekend at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.
If you haven't seen it, take a look. It's a shocker as racing car explosions go, even topping Juan Pablo Montoya's jet dryer collision in the Daytona 500 earlier this year that caused a towering firebomb.
Hagan has made appearances this week on "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show." He had a TV interview with the BBC on Thursday morning. Hagan said he was told the video of his accident was the second-most viewed item on the BBC website behind the story about Dick Clark's death.
Mark J. Rebilas/US PresswireThis crumpled heap is what was left of the body of Matt Hagan's Funny Car after an explosion during qualifying at zMax Dragway on Friday the 13th."It has blown me away how much attention this has gotten," Hagan said Thursday from his cattle farm in Christiansburg, Va. "I even have a friend in Australia who called me and said, 'Hey, man, I saw you on the news here.'"
Hagan was about halfway down the track when the engine in his Dodge Charger exploded, virtually disintegrating the body of the car. The firebomb was caused by a $36 broken valve spring getting into one of the cylinders, which destroyed a $75,000 race car.
Along with the stunning explosion, Hagan's reaction as he exits the car has helped make the video such an Internet sensation.
Instead of being happy he was still alive and unhurt, Hagan was furious about the failure. As he climbs out of the cockpit, he grabs a metal plate (about the only piece of the car body left near him) and slams it down on the track.
"I react to things, so that explosion really pissed me off," Hagan said. "I put my emotions on my sleeves sometimes and they caught me doing it on that one.
"It's just been such a frustrating year for us. We're coming off the world championship, but we've struggled this year. I know our car is better than that."
So what was the metal piece he grabbed and abused?
"It was a carbon-fiber shield that protects our hands," Hagan said. "I was climbing out of the car and I saw it hanging there. I thought, 'Well, this is a hunk of junk,' so I grabbed it and spiked it."
Hagan has experienced three car explosions in the four-wide event (the only NHRA race in which four cars race at the same time instead of two) over the past three seasons.
The zMax Dragway officials now have renamed Lane 2 as Matt Hagan Way, but it isn't because of last week's explosion.
"I set the NHRA record [322.27 mph] in that lane last fall with the first 3-second pass in a Funny Car [3.995 seconds]," Hagan said. "So that lane is either going to win for me or kill me, I guess. Next time I go to the four-wide event, I'm gonna wear two firesuits."
Hagan, 29, can joke about it now, but he realizes professional drag racing is a dangerous business.
"That type of thing is [a] way of life out here," Hagan said. "Every run we make is death-defying stuff. It's 8,000 horsepower at more than 300 mph. You roll the dice every time because you are driving a time bomb."
Hagan failed to qualify for the zMax event, something that doesn't happen in NASCAR for its top drivers because they have a guaranteed spot in each race.
In the NHRA every driver shows up every week with no guarantees. Sometimes the top guys fail to make the show. But in this case, Hagan's sponsor received far more attention than it would have had he qualified and won the event.
"It's not what we want to do, obviously," Hagan said about blowing up and failing to qualify. "But this attention is good for our sport and my sponsor, Aaron's. But I don't want to do it again."
FONTANA, Calif. -- Maybe NASCAR can bring John Force in every weekend as the prerace entertainment. The NHRA legend never fails to spark things up whenever he attends a NASCAR race.
Sunday was another example, when he held court in the media center at Auto Club Speedway.
Force, a 15-time Funny Car champion, was asked whether he ever considered racing in NASCAR: "Well, they would need rest stops out there for me. I can't race that long at one time."
Force attended the event with drag racing daughters Courtney and Brittany Force, along with son-in-law Robert Hight, the 2009 NHRA Funny Car champion.
Mark J. Rebilas/US PresswireBrittany Force is the next of John Force's daughters gearing up for a career in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. She's hoping to run Top Fuel beginning next year.Auto Club sponsors Hight's car at John Force Racing, so it made sense for the Force drivers to come to Auto Club Speedway for the Auto Club 400, especially since the team's headquarters is down the road in Yorba Linda, Calif.
As usual, Force didn't disappoint reporters trying to get him to say something funny, not a difficult thing for him to do.
A German reporter asked him: "Do you remember me?"
Force: "Yes. Do you know I'm German? I'm Oklahoma German."
Another reporter to Force: "John, I have one quick question and I hope I get a short answer."
That brought a roar of laughter from the room. There are no short answers from Force.
"That's OK," Force said. "You can make fun of me. Even my family does that."
Force said he just returned from an event in Kentucky. Country singer Randy Travis was there, but Force called him Travis Tritt.
"I think I made him mad," Force said.
Hey, he just got his Travis references messed up. For those who don't know, Force is a constant whirlwind of energy, something his daughters have learned to live with.
"People don't believe it, but he's always like this," Brittany said. "After spending a day with him, you're exhausted."
Brittany's younger sister, Courtney, is a rookie this year in Funny Car. Brittany is spending this season testing in a Top Fuel dragster with hopes of running in Top Fuel in 2013.
She does test runs on Mondays and Tuesdays after each NHRA event with Jimmy Prock, Hight's crew chief. She loves her dad, but she's glad when she gets a break from his super-hyper ways.
"I don't know how Mom [Laurie Force] deals with it all the time," Brittany said.
Then she smiled and glanced over at John and said, "Sorry, Dad."
Mark J. Rebilas/US PresswireNHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mike Austin goes for an involuntary ride Saturday at Pomona, Calif. He walked away from the crash.POMONA, Calif. -- Just call Mike Austin the luckiest man in California on Saturday.
Austin walked away unhurt from a terrifying crash during the O'Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals, where his Top Alcohol Dragster flew over the retaining wall in the first round of eliminations.
Austin, who lives in Medford, Ore., was along for the ride when his dragster made a violent turn to the right from the right lane.
The car turned over on its left side before the nose went over the wall and shot the dragster into the air. At one point, the entire car was more than 10 feet off the ground and twirling around in the air.
Austin's car slammed back down to the pavement between the track and the grandstands. It slid all the way down the support lane, and slammed the underside of the chassis into the base of the timing and scoring tower.
Safety Safari workers rushed to the scene and the crowd sat in silence, hoping and praying Austin was OK. After a few minutes, word came that Austin was alert and speaking to safety officials.
He was helped out of the car and walked away, but safety officials said his first reaction was anger over tearing up his dragster.
Being mad never looked so good.
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Are race car drivers athletes?
It's an age-old debate, and a lame one at that. Of course they are, but trying to prove it backfired on Texas Motor Speedway officials Wednesday.
IndyCar Series driver JR Hildebrand tore the ACL in his left knee in a fluke accident during a promotional gimmick at TMS to prove racers are good athletes. He still will race Saturday night in the Twin 275s doubleheader.
Could anyone possibly have worse luck than this guy? The IndyCar rookie for Panther Racing had the Indy 500 victory in his grasp two weeks ago before slamming into the Turn 4 wall on the final lap. Now this for a 23-year-old guy who, believe it or not, really is a quality athlete.
Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesJR Hildebrand tends to his injured left knee after tripping over a hurdle in the "Driven to Fitness" promotion at Texas Motor Speedway.The promotion was titled "Driven To Fitness." Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson came in to put three drivers -- the others were Ryan Briscoe and Will Power -- through the paces of a boot-camp style obstacle course to prove race car drivers are athletes.
It all went swimmingly until the final test, a short hurdles race. Hildebrand's knee hit a wood board on the final hurdle.
Hildebrand finished the race, then sat on the ground holding his knee. It was iced down before TMS officials took Hildebrand to the infield care center, where he learned of the ACL tear.
So all the skeptics out there who love to rip on racers will say, "See, race car drivers are not athletes."
Wrong, muffler breath.
In almost any test of athletic prowess, I'd take my chances with Hildebrand.
"The guy is a total adrenaline junkie," said Panther Racing spokesman Mike Kitchel. "He boxes, he does MMA stuff and mountain bikes. He can do anything athletically."
Hildebrand was a standout high school baseball player in Corte Madera, Calif., and it showed when he recently took batting practice with the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians.
"He was smashing line drives," said IndyCar spokesman Arni Sribhen. "One Indianapolis player asked, 'Who is that guy?'"
Hildebrand also threw out the first pitch, zooming a strike across the plate that popped the catcher's mitt.
So don't come up with a false conclusion based on one unlucky incident in a goofy promotion.
The next move for Panther Racing officials is to determine when Hildebrand should undergo surgery to repair his ACL. This is a similar situation to what NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin had last year.
Hamlin tore his ACL in a pickup basketball game in the offseason. He started the 2010 Sprint Cup season racing with the damaged knee, but decided a month later to have the surgery in March.
Three weeks after the surgery, Hamlin won in Texas.
Panther Racing officials have contacted Joe Gibbs Racing officials in hopes of talking to Hamlin to solicit his advice of what Hildebrand should do.
The IndyCar Series has three events (four if you count two at TMS Saturday) over the next three weekends, all on oval tracks, including Milwaukee and Iowa.
IndyCar has a week off after the Iowa Speedway race before returning to road/street races for three events.
No decision has been made, but one choice could be to undergo the ACL surgery before returning to the road courses, which are more physically demanding on drivers.
TMS officials feel horrible about what happened in what was meant to be a fun promotion.
"I was crushed and didn't sleep a wink last night," said Mike Zizzo, TMS vice president of media relations. "Now I know how that third-base coach for the Rangers felt when he sent Josh Hamilton home."
Hamilton, the 2010 American League MVP, suffered a broken arm earlier this season in a collision at home plate after third-base coach Dave Anderson gave him the green light to try to score.
Stuff happens. All in all, Wednesday's incident was horrible luck for everyone, especially a talented young driver with a bright future.
Keep your chin up, JR. Things will get better. Someday you will look back at this stretch and chuckle.
Just not today.
Mario Andretti spent more than a decade playing for the enemy, so to speak, during the long feud that almost destroyed Indy car racing.
He was an outcast from Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- the place he loves, the place where he won in 1969 and the place that often broke his heart.
Andretti was a supporter of a rival league (CART/Champ Car) and a vocal critic of former IMS president Tony George and the new Indy Racing League that George formed in the mid-1990s.
All that's in the past now, including the hurtful words and the damaged races and teams from two leagues competing for the same fan base.
Most of the bitterness is gone now, also, for Andretti.
On the centennial celebration at The Brickyard, Andretti has one simple goal: make up for lost time.
"That's exactly what we have to do," Andretti said. "In some ways, this type of racing needs to be reintroduced to the mainstream. It was a lost generation after almost 15 years when things were just chaos. Now we have a true direction."
Andretti believes that all the pieces are in place to regain much of the fan base that open-wheel racing lost during the feud.
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty ImagesMario Andretti says Simona De Silvestro's has just scratched the surface of her talent.The IndyCar series will introduce a new car next season with a revolutionary look and different aero packages. It also brings Chevrolet back to the series as an engine supplier, along with Lotus, to challenge Honda.
"The buzz of the centennial helped everything," Andretti said. "But it's more than that. Now the depth of the field is there again. Try to pick a winner for Sunday. No way."
This is the closest Indy 500 field ever in terms of qualifying times. Some skilled drivers will start near the back, including Tony Kanaan, Paul Tracy, Ryan Briscoe and Marco Andretti, Mario's grandson.
And Danica Patrick, IndyCar's most recognizable name, will start 25th. Patrick is expected to move to NASCAR full time next season.
"She will be missed," Mario said. "Danica has been a very important player in the interest in the series. It was needed at the time, but if the sport has to depend on one individual, we're in deep trouble. I think that is changing. We've grown past that."
Andretti sees one woman on the horizon he believes can become as good as or better than Patrick -- Simona De Silvestro, who will start 23rd Sunday.
"Simona has raced really well," Andretti said. "She has just scratched the surface of how good she can be. She's determined, capable and smart, all the qualities that will bring her to success."
After living through the Dark Ages of open-wheel racing, Andretti believes the Renaissance is coming.
"It will be the product that ultimately speaks the loudest," he said. "All the hype and fanfare won't matter if the product isn't good. But I think that's in place."
INDIANAPOLIS -- Bruno Junqueira lost his job for the Indy 500, and that's disappointing.
But an entire race team could have lost jobs if team owners Michael Andretti and A.J. Foyt had not made a surprising partnership to place Ryan Hunter-Reay in Foyt's car that Junqueira was driving.
A day after Hunter-Reay was bumped out of the field by Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti, Hunter-Reay took Junqueira's seat in Foyt's No. 41 car in an agreement with Andretti and Foyt to keep Hunter-Reay's DHL sponsorship in the race.
The move brought a wave of complaints from fans and reporters about the injustice of the move. Foyt and Michael Andretti were heavily criticized for forcing Junqueira out.
But there are two sides to every story. DHL is the primary sponsor for the No. 28 car that Hunter-Reay drives. Part of the sponsor agreement was contingent on Hunter-Reay making the Indy 500.
"I really feel for my dad,'' Marco said about Michael. "He struck his neck on the line for the livelihood of our mechanics and that team. This was a make-or-break point for that sponsor. People are entitled to their opinion, but we made a business decision for our team."
Hunter-Reay knows some people also see him as bad guy for taking Junqueira's spot, but a lot of people would have been unemployed without the swap.
"It's about keeping the doors open on the 28 car," Hunter-Reay said Thursday. "Deals are being sealed now for 2012. That doesn't happen when the season ends. It happens now.
"I'm just the driver and I don't know all the business details, but I know this is a move the team felt it had to make to keep going. It's an unfortunate situation. Nobody wanted to go do this."
Hunter-Reay said Junqueira was the first person he talked to after the swap was made.
"Bruno was an absolute pro about it with a lot of class," Hunter-Reay said. "I commend him for that. It wasn't easy. I've been racing against Bruno for a long time and I have a lot of respect for him as a person, as a friend and as a competitor."
This type of move has happened before at Indy, but Hunter-Reay understands why some fans are angry about the swap.
"I guess the good side about it is it shows fans are passionate about this race," he said. "And I'm right there with them. Every lap I take around this place I feel like the luckiest guy in the world."
But he has bigger concerns now than worrying about whether people are mad at him.
"I've got a very big challenge," he said. "I have to prepare for the world's biggest race in one hour."
Friday is the traditional Carb Day at Indy when the cars are on the track for one final hour of practice before Sunday's race. It's a chance to fine-tune your setup. But In Hunter-Reay's case, he has 60 minutes to learn all the intricacies of a car he's never driven.
"We have to get a lot done," he said. "We have to get it dialed in, but I have a lot of great talent around me and we'll work through it. We know what we want to get out of it to start the race. I have to trust the people around me, but hopefully I have the skill sets to make the most of the situation."
Foyt's crew on the 41 car is working with Hunter-Reay's No. 28 crew to place Hunter-Reay's setup on the car before he takes the track Friday. Most of Hunter-Reay's crew will be used on pit road to try to make the transition smoother.
Hunter-Reay also has to prepare to race for Foyt, which can be a challenge at times if A.J. gets riled up.
"But A.J. and I talk at every race," Hunter-Reay said. "His perception on things is so unique. Talk to him for a half an hour and you'll learn a lot about racing."
One clear lesson this week is racing is big business, and sometimes, that's bad news for a driver.
"Everybody says this was just a money decision," Marco Andretti said. "Well, I'm sorry, but that's what our sport was built on. It costs a lot of money to do what we love to do."
The 100th-anniversary Indianapolis 500 will have an unusual quirk that hasn't happened in more than a quarter of a century.
This year's Indy 500 will be the first oval-track race of the season, the first time that has occurred since 1985.
It adds a little mystery to this year's event since all four previous races this season were run on road or street courses, a much different discipline than oval-track racing.
Drivers who haven't looked good on the road/street venues (Danica Patrick, for example) might run well at Indy. Patrick is 15th in the standings with an average finish of 14.7. But she has five top-10s at Indy with an average finish of 8.5.
On the flip side -- drivers who have excelled on the road courses this year (Oriol Servia, who ranks third in the standings) might struggle on the 2.5-mile rectangle at the Brickyard.
Servia has finished ninth or better in his four starts this season, but he doesn't have a top-10 in his two Indy 500 starts. Nevertheless, Servia is confident heading into Pole Day on Saturday.
"The good thing about Indy is we test here for so many days that you can take your time to get used to the particulars of the track without rushing things," Servia said. "And I'm entering the race this time with a team [Newman/Haas Racing] that has a lot of experience at this track, but has not gotten the biggest prize yet.
Nick Laham/Getty ImagesOriol Servia says he likes his chances with his new team."The other years here, we knew going in that we were at a clear disadvantage to our competitors. This time it's not that way. We know we have a real shot at winning this thing."
But you can't take the 2011 results and transfer them to what might happen at Indy, and this year, you don't even have another oval race to use as a comparison.
Even so, other ovals aren't a good comparison to the Brickyard, one of the most unique layouts in racing. It has four 90-degree turns, which are relatively flat, and two long, narrow straightaways.
Whether it's an oval or road course, races before the Indy 500 in any given season aren't a good predictor of who might win on Memorial Day weekend.
From 1981 through 1993, the winner at Indy was going to Victory Lane for the first time that season. Since 1994, only six of 17 Indy 500 winners had a victory in an earlier event that year.
It has happened four times in the past 10 Indy 500s -- Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002, Dan Wheldon in 2005 and Scott Dixon in 2008.
Of the three winners so far this season -- Dario Franchitti, Will Power and Mike Conway -- Franchitti is the only Indy 500 winner.
Power and Conway still have a lot to prove on ovals. Power, the runner-up to Franchitti for the championship last year, has 11 career victories, but his only oval win came at Las Vegas in a CART event in 2007.
Conway's best oval finish was eighth at Iowa in 2009. But he missed most of last season after crashing near the end of the Indy 500, suffering fractures in his back and left leg.
The good news for Conway now is he's driving for Andretti Autosport, a team that has won two Indy 500s in the past six years.
That gives him a fighting chance against Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, the dominant teams that have won eight of the past 11 Indy 500s.
If you are looking for a trend to pick a winner, that's the one. Penske has three-time Indy 500 winner Castroneves; Ganassi has previous winners Franchitti and Dixon.
The past four Indy 500s were won by those three drivers -- Castroneves in 2009, Dixon in 2008 and Franchitti (with Andretti in 2007 and Ganassi last year).
But trying to pick a winner off the 2011 results probably isn't the best way to go about it.
Many a father has seen a child follow him into the family business of racing, passing along as much information and knowledge as possible to the next generation.
But no one does it quite like John Force. The NHRA legend is preparing his youngest daughter, 22-year-old Courtney Force, to join him in the Funny Car ranks in 2012.
Some of his lessons have very little to do with learning how to drive an 8,000-horsepower hot rod.
One recent instructive moment (during the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Baytown, Texas) came when he made Courtney listen to an old Johnny Cash song that most people her age never have heard -- "A Boy Named Sue."
John: "You are going to listen to this song."
Courtney: "Dad, I don't even like Elvis."
John: "First, don't ever say that in my presence. And it ain't Elvis. Listen and you'll learn something."
Courtney rolled her eyes and listened to the song.
John: "So, whatcha think?"
Courtney: "It was the dumbest thing I ever heard."
John: "But did you listen to the story? It's about getting tough or die. That's what I do with you. It's called tough love."
Courtney rolled her eyes again and walked away. John shook his head.
"These kids on my team think they know what I know, but they don't," John said. "Courtney already thinks she knows everything."
Courtney raced two seasons in the Top Alcohol Dragster class while attending Cal State Fullerton, where she earned a degree in communications. She won the TAD event at Seattle in 2009.
Ashley Force Hood, Courtney's big sister and an accomplished Funny Car driver, is helping Courtney learn the ropes. Hood is taking this season off because she and her husband, Danny Hood, are expecting their first child this summer.
Courtney travels to every NHRA event with John Force Racing and usually has a test session at the track on the Monday after the event.
John said she is overly anxious to get going in Funny Car.
"She keeps asking me when I'm going to let her drive [in competition]," John said. "So I ask her some questions:
"Do you study your drivers? Do you carry notes on them? Do you know how they stage and how they change their routines? I know the guys that want to play head games. I study them on every pass. I know their crew chiefs. Do you?"
And that ended the unusual lesson. Ashley has warned her sister that there are many more to come.
CONCORD, N.C. -- Big Daddy wonders: What's the big deal?
NHRA legend Don Garlits loves the four-wide drag racing at zMax Dragway, but it's nothing new to him. For Garlits, he's been there, done that.
"I raced a lot of four-wide," Garlits said. "We put four Top Fuelers on the track at the same time years ago. It was a novelty back in the 1960s. It was exciting, but this is much faster."
Garlits is one of the former NHRA stars attending several events this year as part of the NHRA's 60-year anniversary. Three-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney also is at zMax this weekend.
Both of them said they wish they could turn back the clock and race in the Four-Wide Nationals this weekend.
"Absolutely, I would," Muldowney said. "I never raced four-wide, so I might have a problem getting used to it. I relied on the feel and the sound of my car. I might have a problem hearing it with four cars out there."
Last year's inaugural Four-Wide Nationals was the first four-wide event since the NHRA went to a national championship points system in 1974.
Garlits, who won three Top Fuel titles between 1975 and 1985, had no problem racing four-wide back in the day when it was done a few times as a special event.
"Only the winner got timed," Garlits said. "But we only had eight cars. It didn't catch on because we didn't have enough cars."
They also didn't have the safety measures the drivers have today.
"We had no walls in the center and no walls on the outside," Garlits said. "We didn't even have guardrails, just grass and hay bales."
The old-school four-wide shows also didn't have any starting lights. The second Four-Wide Nationals this weekend features a new LED lighting system that is easier for the drivers to see when all four cars have staged.
"We just had a flagman out there," Garlits said. "These lights here look a little tricky, but I'd like to try it. It would be a lot of fun."
Garlits, 79, was voted No. 1 of the NHRA's Top 50 Drivers for the first 50 years of the series. Muldowney, 71, was voted No. 5.
Garlits just shakes his head when he looks at the plush zMax Dragway and compares it to drag racing 50 years ago.
"When I started, drag racers were considered just black-leather-jacket hoodlums racing in school zones," Garlits said. "Now look where we are.
"This place just boggles my mind. I've never seen anything like it. It shows how far drag racing has come."