‘If I had the job of running this . . . I would do it a different way.’
- Mike Salinas says NHRA decision-makers need to adapt to changing culture.
- Promoting Jr. Dragster and Lucas Oil Series racers key to filling pipeline.
- He says he would rejuvenate the sport and put people first if he were in charge.
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel owner-driver Mike Salinas developed a unique business perspective the hard way.
Salinas’ strict father forced him to leave home at age 15. And even though he lived under a bridge at first (and then a shack on property he now owns), he was self-motivated to start an not-so-glamorous but lucrative niche business—collecting and hauling scrap metal—while finishing high school.
Salinas turned that scrap metal gig into a multi-corporation empire that eventually enabled him to send his wife to Harvard and their four children to a prestigious West Coast university, as well as maintain a scholarship program for his employees.
He has a successful NHRA Top Fuel operation—and a fourth career victory from this past weekend’s Arizona Nationals.
Salinas, now 60, has a few ideas as to how the sport can save itself. He’s a survivor, and he knows the sanctioning body can be, too—if it can craft the right path and be disciplined enough to follow it, like he did with his own life.
“There’s not enough people looking at” some obvious facts that signal some changes—a fresh mindset, some marketing initiatives—are imperative now.
Consider:
• Don Schumacher’s once-mighty presence on-track has dwindled to one car.
• John Force Racing is back at full strength, but the Funny Car and business icon has had to pump in millions of his own personal savings in the past two years to keep his operation going – and still works at a frenetic pace to restore stability.
• Schumacher, Force, and Connie Kalitta—the sport’s “Big Three” team owners for the past 20 years—have an average age of 78.
“So the sport is in trouble,” Salinas said, not so much as a complaint but more like an alarm. For the deeper thinkers in the drag-racing community, he said, “It’s trying to figure out what’s going to happen in this sport, where we’re going to go.
“So the sport is in trouble.”
“Just look around. There’s a big disconnect. Look at the age group. There’s no young kids here; there’s very few. To sustain a culture, any culture, what does it take? That will tell you how many more years and this will be gone.
“If I had the job of running this . . . I would do it a different way.”
Before anyone in the NHRA hierarchy becomes defensive, it’s vital to know that Salinas loves the sport and plans to extend his involvement. He’s not planning on going anywhere. He understands that the NHRA faces challenges it didn’t cause.
For example, he said, “Think about this: One-third of our population did not have a driver’s license at 35 because of Uber.”
In an effort to save, or at least grow, the NHRA, addressing a cultural shift is an appropriate place to start.
Mike Salinas raced to the win at Wild Horse Pass in Arizona on February 27.
MARC GEWERTZ
Young adults (men and women) continue to work on and be fascinated with street cars and race cars. But, Salinas said, “They’re doing it in a different way. It’s good. You got to respect them. They’re still doing the same thing. When I was a kid, I had hopped-up cars. Well, theirs is a Honda instead of a Chevy. It’s still a car.
“But these powers that be (in the NHRA) don’t see it that way. They’re not replenishing young people into this sport. You got to reinvent it all the time. I would have those import guys here, racing with the little noisy cars, because those are the Top Fuel drivers of tomorrow.
“There’s different cultures. It’s different. So, knowing that, wouldn’t you want to try harder? Or the powers that be are 60-plus years old that in 15-to-20 years will be dead and they don’t care? You need to care. My daughters are starting to run our companies. They’re the new version of me, and honest to God, they’re doing a better job. They see things that I don’t see—the technology, electronics, everything—and they’re doing it better,” Salinas said.
His daughter Janae, who has expressed more of an interest in sports-car racing than drag racing, has boosted the team’s social-media presence.
“This kid, in less than a month, (has gained) 30-something thousand followers,” Salinas said. ‘We have 40,500 followers right now. Antron (Brown, the popular Top Fuel owner-driver) has been in the sport for years, and he has 48,000. “You got to hire some young kid (to maximize social-media reach),” he said.
Salinas has hired young kids with his Top Fuel team and is sponsoring Jr. Dragster drivers. He has promoted car chief Arron Cave to assistant crew chief behind tuner Rob Flynn. Cave previously had been car chief for Brittany Force when she earned the 2017 Top Fuel championship.
Salinas said, “This year I gave him a shot to be assistant crew chief, because he’s just a brain. He earned the right to do this. How do you think the rest of the guys on our team feel because he’s one of them, and now he’s the guy that gets to be the assistant crew chief? It’s a big role. If we don’t start training, these young people . . . look, there’s a shortage of crew chiefs right now.”
Mike Salinas
Icon SportswireGetty Images
Moreover, Scrappers Racing, which fields Jasmine Salinas in Top Alcohol Dragster and Jianna Salinas in Pro Stock Motorcycle, is sponsoring 10-15 Jr. Dragster drivers across the country, including sisters from Nebraska and two other sisters from Pennsylvania.
“These are kids that deserve the right,” he said.
At least four of them have met Salinas at the racetrack, where he encouraged them to try drag racing. They in turn told their parents. “Mike says, I can do it, so I want to do it.” He said, “These kids, see how they do and there’s a good possibility they’ll get a first chance (in the pro ranks) with us.
“The worst thing you can do to a person that’s hungry and trying to go somewhere is to put a brick wall in front of them. You got to give kids an opportunity,” Salinas said. “My kids are lucky because they’re my daughters—and they’ve earned it. But some other kids aren’t as fortunate, and there’s some real good talent out there. You’d be surprised. You just got to think about other people.”
And “people” is the magic word for Salinas. He applauded the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, which for the past 39 years has hosted legendary classic car shows throughout the United States every year, highlighting vintage hot rods and muscle cars, specialty trucks, and classic automobiles. According to its promotional materials, its two-day events draw a crowd of 30,000-40,000 and its three-day programs attract more than 100,000. Those are numbers today’s NHRA only can dream of at most of its venues.
“They understand people—people, people, people. Take care of the people,” Salinas said. “You take care of the people, the people will give back.”
Promoting the sportsman-level drivers in Lucas Oil Series is a must, he said.
Don Garlits may be on the Mount Rushmore of drag racing, but Mike Salinas argues the NHRA needs to spend more time promoting the future of the sport instead of just bowing to the past.
Joan Adlen PhotographyGetty Images
“What are you going to do, just stick with that same program? That’s what the problem with NHRA and everybody is: they stick to the same thing. You got to change,” he said. “You just got to look at the future. If you keep mentioning (drag-racing legends) Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney . . . These young people don’t even understand who they are. Antron (Brown) is getting older. Steve (Torrence) is getting older. These young kids, you got to push them.
“So if this was my association, what I would do is all these younger people from Super Comp and all these other classes, these people (fans) don’t even know who they are. And those people are going to be Top Fuel drivers and Pro Stock and Pro Mod and Funny Car drivers in the future,” he said. “At every event, they should have a signing (autograph session) for all the (Lucas Oil Series drivers] . . . so all these people start introducing themselves. That’s how they’re going to get sponsors. If you don’t have any money in this sport, you can’t come and do this. That’s just what it is.”
Pioneer Shirley Muldowney grew the sport of drag racing to a new audience as much as anyone.
Icon SportswireGetty Images
Salinas didn’t start his life with any money. He said, “Remember this, being wealthy has nothing to do with money. You can be wealthy with your knowledge and what you do. We all have the same opportunities. If you want to go be somebody in this world—and we’re all somebody—if you want to do something special, work at it. Put the work in. Put the time in.”
He said that at age 15, “My dad threw me out of the house. Old-fashioned people teach you old-fashioned ways. So I lived under a bridge for a bit. It’s funny—one of my sites that I own, I lived in a little shack there for two weeks, then I got the nerve to go ask my aunt to rent a room to me. And I was 15 years old. I finished high school, all that stuff, out of the house. In our world, you either pick yourself up or you go down. The coolest thing is we all have choices.”
He secured a truck that his sister taught him to drive, and he started a business picking up and hauling scrap metal after school, hence the company and race-team name “Scrappers.”
And it’s symbolic. He’s a scrapper, and that’s why he’s an achiever.
“The most key point to all of this is I came from a place that wasn’t very good. It really wasn’t very good. I mean, most of the people aren’t around, and they’re in prison, and they’re dead. One of the kids that came with me, he still works for me, 41 years later, he’s been with me for 40 years. We were in kindergarten together, and he came out of prison, and we fixed him up. He didn’t do drugs or anything, but he was just a mean guy, and he understands (now). So he’s been with me for 40 years. He’s my longest employee. Him and me and six other people are the only ones out of the neighborhood. The rest didn’t make it,” Salinas said.
“(Wife) Monica and I met when we were 16, so we’ve been together more than 40 years. She worked for the police department, the DEA for years, and so we were straight-as-an-arrow people. We worked our butts off. First time we saw America was going on the race tour. We just were working people. Never changed anything,” he said. “I’m really hard on people that sit and whine about everything: ‘You can’t, you can’t, you can’t.’ I’m hard on everybody, because I know where I came from, and I know how hard it was. So if I can do it, they can do it.”
And he knows the NHRA can work harder to improve its image and its bottom line.
“Everybody’s tired of COVID. Everybody’s tired of being at home. They want to get out. So this is the perfect time. This is where I believe NHRA should be stepping up and doing the special things,” Salinas said. “They’re trying—believe me, they’re trying to do all kinds of different things. If they can hit the right one, the sport will be back and going.”
Keyword: Veteran Racer Mike Salinas Sounds an Alarm about the Future of the NHRA