Friday, Oct. 25, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.
NHRA schedule
Second annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
TODAY
7 a.m. Pit and spectator gates open
7:30 a.m. Sportsman eliminations
11 a.m. Comp Eliminator qualifying
3:45 p.m. Pro Mod qualifying
4:15 p.m. Pro Stock qualifying (PS Motorcycle/PS Car)
5 p.m. Nitro qualifying (Funny Car/Top Fuel Dragster)
6:45 p.m. Pro Mod qualifying
7:15 p.m. Pro Stock qualifying (PS Motorcycle/PS Car)
8 p.m. Nitro qualifying (Funny Car/Top Fuel Dragster)
SATURDAY
7 a.m. Pit and spectator gates open
7:30 a.m. Sportsman eliminations
10:45 a.m. Comp Eliminator - Round 1
11:15 a.m. Pro Stock qualifying (PS Motorcycle/PS Car)
Noon Nitro qualifying (Top Fuel Dragster/Funny Car)
1 p.m. Pro Mod qualifying
1:30 p.m. Comp Eliminator - Round 2
2:15 p.m. Pro Stock qualifying (PS Motorcycle/PS Car)
3 p.m. Nitro qualifying (Top Fuel Dragster/Funny Car)
4 p.m. Pro Mod qualifying
SUNDAY
7 a.m. Pit and spectator gates open
10 a.m. Pre-race ceremonies
11 a.m. Final eliminations
Kenny Bernstein is a rarity in sports.
While far too many great athletes prolong their careers -- often to the point of embarrassment -- Bernstein is going out on top.
This weekend's ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be the penultimate race in Bernstein's 27-year NHRA career. Following next month's season-ending NHRA event in Pomona, Calif., the 58-year-old Bernstein will retire from driving and hand over the reins of his Budweiser King dragster to his son, Brandon.
Bernstein, one of the most significant figures in drag racing history, will hang up his fire suit with six NHRA championships (four in Funny Car and two in Top Fuel) and at least 65 career national-event victories. One of those Top Fuel titles and 12 victories have come in the past two seasons.
"I don't think there's an athlete alive that doesn't want to go out at least (being) competitive and on top -- and that's not easy to do; not many athletes get that opportunity," Bernstein said. "I owe (crew chief) Tim Richards and the team a great amount of thank-yous on that for the last two years.
"The fact that we won last year's championship, we're in the hunt this year, we've won 12 or 13 races in two years -- those are good numbers by anybody's standards so it does make it, to me, much easier to hang up the hat. If we were struggling and not winning and not having a lot of fun right now, it would be more difficult (to retire)."
Instead, Bernstein will walk away from the cockpit knowing that he was a legitimate contender for the Top Fuel championship in his final season. He goes into this weekend's race with four victories and trails Larry Dixon by 108 points. Although it would take a monumental stumble by Dixon for Bernstein to overtake him in the championship hunt, Bernstein is at peace with his decision to retire.
"We'll be disappointed if we don't win (the championship) but at the same time, as far as retirement goes, it's a helluva way to go out -- it's what you wish for," Bernstein said.
"(Some) athletes stay a little longer then they should and they're just not competitive anymore, we've all seen that, and that's not what I wanted by any means. We're still able to get the job done and that's important."
Bernstein will retire as the only driver to have won championships in both Funny Car (1985-1988) and Top Fuel (1996, 2001) and always will be known as the first driver to break the 300-mile-per-hour barrier -- hence his "King of Speed" nickname. Bernstein holds NHRA records for quickest elapsed time (4.477 seconds) and fastest speed (322.18 mph).
"I have no regrets on anything," Bernstein said. "I feel extremely fortunate to be able to do what I enjoy doing the most and make a living out of it. To do it for 20-plus years with Budweiser and all our sponsors, I certainly have no regrets.
"We won a lot of stuff, we had a lot of things happen to us that were good, a lot of great people worked for us through the years. I don't know what else anybody could want out of a career and I'm pretty happy with that."
Of all the victories, championships and records, Bernstein had a surprisingly easy time identifying the highlights of his career -- and one of them involved The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We've had a lot of memories that have been great but certainly the one that's always a teeny bit ahead of everything else is that 300-mile-an-hour barrier that we broke in '92," he said. "To be the first team to accomplish that is something that will always be with us and people will always remember. It's certainly the last barrier in drag racing -- you're not going to see 400 by any means.
"The second one is last year's championship because of the fact that we were struggling the couple years before and we hadn't had a lot of success and then Timmy came back and we had a great season and won it."
At the 2001 spring NHRA event in Las Vegas, Bernstein snapped a 23-race winless streak by winning the Top Fuel category and then watched his son win the Division 7 Federal-Mogul Series Top Alcohol Dragster event later that day. It marked the first time in NHRA history that a father and son had won at the same NHRA national event.
"Brandon and I, both of us winning in Vegas, was the first time that had ever been done by a father and son in the 50-year history of NHRA. And it was his first (win), too, so that even made it better. The fact that my father and his grandfather was there was very special.
"Those three things are always at the top.""
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