Prudhomme’s legend is all about winning

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 | 10:24 a.m.

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

TODAY

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

8 a.m. -- Sportsman qualifying

1 p.m. -- Comp Eliminator qualifying

4 p.m. -- Comp Eliminator qualifying

FRIDAY

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

7:30 a.m. -- Sportsman qualifying/eliminations

2 p.m. -- Comp Eliminator qualifying

3 p.m. -- Pro Mod qualifying

3:30 p.m. -- Pro Stock/Pro Stock Bike qualifying

4 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

5 p.m. -- Pro Mod qualifying

5:30 p.m. -- Pro Stock/Pro Stock Bike qualifying

6:30 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

SATURDAY

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

7:30 a.m. -- Sportsman eliminations

10 a.m. -- Comp eliminator (Round 1)

10:30 a.m. -- Pro Stock/Pro Stock Bike qualifying

11:30 a.m. -- Budweiser Top Fuel Shootout introductions

Noon -- Budweiser Top Fuel Shootout (Round 1)

12:15 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car qualifying

1:15 p.m. -- Pro Mod qualifying

1:45 p.m. -- Budweiser Top Fuel Shootout (Round 2)

2 p.m. -- Pro Stock/Pro Stock Bike qualifying

3 p.m. -- Top Fuel Dragster qualifying

3:30 p.m. -- Budweiser Top Fuel Shootout (Final)

3:40 p.m. -- Funny Car qualifying

4:30 p.m. -- Pro Mod qualifying

5 p.m. -- Comp eliminator (Round 2)

SUNDAY

7 a.m. -- Pit and spectator gates open

10 a.m. -- Pre-race ceremonies

11 a.m. -- Final eliminations

Back in February, when the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing season opened, multi-car owner Don "the Snake" Prudhomme was on the cusp of adding to his already well-established legend.

After compiling 49 NHRA national-event victories as a driver in both the Funny Car and Top Fuel categories, Prudhomme entered this season needing four victories from his three drivers -- Larry Dixon, Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson Jr. -- to reach the 100-victory milestone in his career.

Considering that Dixon alone had won 23 Top Fuel races the previous three seasons, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Prudhomme would hit the century plateau well before the heat of summer had kicked in.

In reality, it wasn't until mid-June that any of his drivers visited the winner's circle and coming into this weekend's ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Prudhomme still is two victories shy of 100.

"Coming in (to the season), we thought we would walk right through that," Prudhomme said of the 100-win mark. "I was thinking more like something around 110 would sound pretty good," by the time the team reached Las Vegas. "But it just hasn't happened this year."

Not that Prudhomme, 63, has been fixated on reaching the 100-win mark.

"Whether it's 98 or 100 or 101 or 105, it's more about the cars winning and doing well for the sponsor, that's what it's really about," he said. "It isn't about me; I don't get any extra bonus or any extra anything with 100, but it's a number -- a hundred of anything sounds good."

At this point in the season, with two-time Top Fuel champion Dixon sitting on two victories and with Capps and Johnson winless in 2004, Prudhomme said he merely is looking for career win No. 99 this weekend -- and looking ahead to the 2005 season.

"It has been a strange year," Prudhomme said. "Really, both (our Funny Car and Top Fuel) teams went through a big, big change at the beginning of the year, with setting the blowers back and a lot of different stuff on the cars. For both teams, it really has been a rebuilding year."

Prudhomme has reason to be optimistic coming into the Las Vegas race. Dixon has three Top Fuel victories here, and Capps and Johnson each have one Funny Car victory at The Strip.

Prudhomme retired from driving at the end of the 1994 season with four consecutive NHRA Funny Car championships (1975-78) and 49 career victories (35 in Funny Car and 14 in Top Fuel). He is credited with bringing big-time corporate sponsorship into drag racing through his legendary match races with Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen in the early 1970s that spawned the Mattel Hot Wheels Funny Car team, die-cast cars and related merchandise.

Now in his 10th year as a team owner, Prudhomme said he gets the same thrill from watching one of his drivers win a race as he did when he was driving.

"When it ended, I would think about it -- have dreams about driving -- but by the time I'd get to the track and I'd watch Larry Dixon, who took over for me in '95, I (knew that) my timing was just right. I'm real cool with it, really. Fortunately, I get a real bang out of the cars winning and running well ... so that really fulfills everything.

"And to watch the sport grow and to see young people in it and to see them making a good living in it, where Kenny (Bernstein) and myself and (Don) Garlits and Shirley Muldowney, people like that, we used to scrape by for many, many years to get to this point. Seeing these young drivers doing well ... it's a thrill to watch the sport grow."

An even bigger thrill for Prudhomme would be for Dixon to return to the dominance he exhibited in winning the Top Fuel championship in 2002 and 2003 and for Capps and Johnson to break through in the Funny Car ranks. And that, Prudhomme said, is not that far off.

"Things are looking up," he said. "If you'd asked me a month or so ago, I'd have felt a little differently but I feel like we can come in there and be very, very competitive with both teams.

"We've been off this year, but I've seen this before so I'm not real panicked about it. Dixon went out and won the championship two years in a row. While we're winning the championships, there are other teams that are coming up with a different setup and they get a little better than you. Now they're winning and so now we've got to get a little better than them. That's racing; it's a big cycle."