Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 10:11 a.m.
Now that he has scratched his competitive drag-racing itch a few more times, Kenny Bernstein said he expects to better cope with his second attempt at retirement.
Bernstein, 59, retired at the end of last season as driver of the Budweiser/ Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster and put his son, Brandon, in the car that he still owns. Eight races into the 2003 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season, the younger Bernstein suffered a crushed vertebra in his upper back in an accident during a race in Englishtown, N.J.
Kenny Bernstein came out of retirement and has driven the bright red dragster for the past 13 races. Winning two races -- both in his past three outings -- has soothed some of the uneasiness Bernstein felt after getting out of the car after more than 30 years of racing and six NHRA championships (four in Funny Car and two in Top Fuel).
"I wasn't happy (with retirement)," Bernstein said as he prepared for this weekend's ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "It was quite an adjustment for me because I had never been on the outside looking in and it kind of caught me off-guard. Quitting cold turkey, I thought, was going to be great and no problem but sometimes you don't know the other side of the street.
"I mean, 35 years of doing this ... and just stopping and all of a sudden you're just looking, I was pretty lost out there, to be honest with you. The competitive juices in me and the competitiveness of doing it for so long just couldn't die very easily; it just couldn't go away.
"Even though this (accident) happened -- and I certainly didn't want it to happen -- it has been good because it has given me the opportunity to get back in the car and see both sides of the street now. I'm good with that; I'm comfortable. I think when we walk out there in February next year and I'm on the starting line watching (Brandon), I'll be more prepared for it than I was this year."
It wasn't too long into Bernstein's retirement that rumors started circulating in the pits that Bernstein was looking to get back into a racecar as a teammate to his son. As early as April of this year -- four races into his retirement -- Bernstein admitted that he missed driving the car.
Although he has satisfied his desire to get back into the cockpit of a Top Fuel dragster and compete against the best of the best, Bernstein said his stint as relief driver hasn't completely erased his desire to race in the future.
"I can't tell you it has erased it -- I wish I could," he said. "Driving these racecars is a whole lot of fun; I love driving the racecar. But it showed me that I can deal with (retirement) much better now. If we don't decide to drive next year because of the monetary means -- which it looks to me like that's what's going to happen -- then I'm OK with that.
"And if somebody walks up tomorrow and somebody gives me millions of dollars, I'll consider it again but it's not something I have to do now. I felt like, back in the first five or six races of the year this year, I had to get back in there, I missed it so much, and I don't feel that way now."
In 13 starts this season, Bernstein has two wins and has qualified in the top four 10 times. His proudest accomplishment, however, is the fact that he stands seventh in Top Fuel points despite competing in only 13 of 21 races.
"Our goal (after Brandon's injury) was just to get to the top 10 and it looks like we can end up in the seventh or sixth place if we really get after it and maybe fifth if we really have a good last two weeks here," Bernstein said. "That's a great accomplishment and that's the team -- Tim Richards is the greatest crew chief out there, as far as I'm concerned."
Adding two victories to his NHRA career total of 67 (37 in Top Fuel and 30 in Funny Car) has been icing on the cake, Bernstein said.
"My feeling on that is that it's nice to go ahead and win another one before you crawl out of there again," Bernstein said. "If you're going to do the work and you're going to run 15 races, you need to win one just to walk away and say, 'gosh, that felt good again.' "
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