9/24/07

If only we could turn back the hands of time. If that were possible, this past weekend wouldn’t have happened.

It was a thoroughly detestable experience at the Motorplex—one of the worst in NHRA history. How else could you describe a race in which the sport nearly lost not one, but TWO of the greatest drivers drag racing has ever seen. Since I’m a big believer in the power of the Lord in all that we do, He certainly had his hand over John and Kenny on Sunday in what could have been an even greater catastrophe. John will recover from his injuries and the doctors are pretty optimistic about him being able to race again. But in all honesty, John dodged an enormous bullet.

By now, you’ve probably seen the video replays of the crash. At the moment it happened, I was standing with Ashley next to her racecar around the turnoff helping her prepare for her ESPN interview with Gary Gerould after her second-round victory over Del Worsham. There’s a TV monitor located near the interview area where Gary and the rest of the top end crew can see the live video of each run and we stepped over to the monitor to watch two legends pull in side-by-side.

The video can tell the story in pictures much better than I can tell it with the printed word at www.espn.com .

Ashley was immediately given a ride to the remains of her dad’s car with John being attended to by the Safety Safari. It was a chaotic scene as so many racers, officials, and event staff rushed to where John’s cockpit had come to a rest, hoping to see him emerge from the wreckage as he has so many times in the past with a big wave and his irrepressible smile.

This time, it didn’t happen.

There wasn’t a lot of information to be gained from anyone in those long minutes as John was lifted from his car and placed in the ambulance. Laurie and Ashley joined him in the ambulance as a Medi-Vac helicopter was summoned for the short ride to Baylor University Medical Center in nearby downtown Dallas. Then, NHRA Medical Director Dan Brickey let it be known John had suffered injuries to his lower extremities and at least one hand and would be transported to the hospital.

I jumped in my rental car and sped to the hospital knowing the chopper would get there long before I did. When I got there, Gary Scelzi was in the lobby talking to Kelly Antonelli, John’s loyal personal assistant, while Laurie, Ashley, and several other members of the team held their vigil in the hospital’s emergency room waiting area. Soon, Kenny and Sheryl Bernstein arrived, along with Brandon, his fiancé Tracy, Robert, Jimmy, John Medlen, Austin, Bernie, John’s PR go-to guy, Dave Densmore, and Larry Smiley of Racers for Christ, and several other people who felt the need to be there for John and his family all gathered in the waiting room hoping to hear some good news from the doctors examining John.

After about an hour of patiently awaiting some information, one of John’s doctors found us in the waiting room and detailed John’s injuries. Painful to be sure, but not life-threatening. John will be needing some corrective surgery to put all of his broken bones back into place but there’s no reason to think that after enough time to recover and get back on his feet, he won’t be right back in the driver’s seat in time for the 2008 season next February.

Add Robert’s DNQ to the weekend proceedings and it’s clear that this was one trip to Dallas that we would all like to forget. John’s two round wins before the accident (he was declared the winner of his race with Kenny) placed him back into the top four in the Countdown, but it’s now up to Robert to place the championship hunt for JFR onto his shoulders and put a positive punctuation mark on what has been a very difficult season of NHRA POWERade drag racing for John and the whole team.

Two weeks from now, the season and the Countdown continue in Richmond, Virginia. The layoff will come in handy and I know with each day, John’s condition will improve and the road to recovery will be steady and speedy.

I’ll be back with more from In the Groove after the race in Richmond. In the meantime, I know everyone will be pulling for John to get back to the races and a lot of his fans will be sending along their get-well wishes to the shop in Yorba Linda. John will surely appreciate the support.

Until the next race, please buckle up and drive safely.