Indy Has Provided Fitting Throne For 'King Of Speed'

Bernstein In Indy 500, Brickyard 400, U.S. Nationals

By Dick Mittman
indy500.com
Thursday, September 2, 2004

There's really been no one else in major league auto racing to compare with Kenny Bernstein. Not even Roger Penske.

Bernstein celebrates his 60th birthday on Labor Day, Sept. 6, as son Brandon tries to win the Top Fuel dragster title during the 50th anniversary of the NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, this weekend at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Brandon drives the Budweiser King/Lucas Oil 320-mph machine on the same track where his father won in both a Top Fueler and Funny Car.

A father and son have won the same race before, but Kenny's exclusive feat is two-fold.

In 1992, Kenny Bernstein became the first driver to crack the 300-mph barrier at the U.S. Nationals after his Indianapolis 500 driver Roberto Guerrero became the first driver to top 230 mph in winning the pole three months earlier. Thus, his teams held the speed milestones at the two foremost tracks of their types in America at the same time. The tracks are just 6 miles apart.

Second, Bernstein is the only car owner to record victories in Indy-car, NASCAR and NHRA racing. His cars have won the U.S. Nationals, finished second in the Brickyard 400 and sixth in the Indianapolis 500.

But 1992 was the incredible year for Bernstein. On March 20, he made the first 300-mph run in drag racing history with a speed of 301.70 mph at Gainesville, Fla. Two months later, Guerrero drove Bernstein's Quaker State Buick to a four-lap average of 232.482 mph at the Speedway to shatter the track record by an incredible 7 mph. Come late August in the U.S. Nationals, Bernstein thundered down the quarter-mile strip at IRP in his Budweiser King Top Fueler to put 300 on the board there.

Afterward, he was dubbed "The King of Speed."

"It was a very special situation and a great year for those two things to happen," Bernstein said about '92. "It's probably one of the most proud moments that we've had in motorsports to take place within the same three- or four-month period.

"It was special. The bottom line was there was nothing like doing it at the U.S. Nationals. That's a special race, a special place. Dale (Armstrong, crew chief) really wanted to run 300 there for the fans and the prestige of doing it at the Nationals."

Bernstein wasn't the driver, but the car owner at the Indianapolis 500 that year. He felt the same joy over Guerrero's pole run.

"I was so proud of Roberto and the team for accomplishing that," Bernstein said. "We thought we could do it all month long. And when we did get it done, it was very special.

"For me as a driver, I could relate to what Roberto was feeling, how great he felt about it all. To win the pole was phenomenal at the Indianapolis 500. Today, it is one of the best memories we ever had."

Bernstein ran King Motorsports from 1988 through the 1994 season. Three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford drove his final Indianapolis 500 for Bernstein in '88. Scott Goodyear won the only CART race for Bernstein in 1994 at Michigan. Scotsman Jim Crawford came close to putting a Bernstein car in Victory Lane at the Speedway in '88.

"Crawford actually finished sixth that particular weekend with the Mac Tools car," Bernstein said." They thought at the time he had finished second, which was great, pretty phenomenal.

"I remember being in Baton Rouge, La., and not being able to be in Indianapolis, and we were watching it on TV, the 500. And I remember in between rounds of what I was doing with the Budweiser King (dragster), I looked up at the TV, and there was Jim Crawford actually leading the Indianapolis 500. That's was a great memory I'll never forget."

Bernstein's ties with the Speedway don't stop there. Bernstein operated a team in NASCAR for nearly 10 years. His drivers included Ricky Rudd and Brett Bodine. Rudd won Cup road races at Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen, N.Y., in Bernstein's cars.

"We finished second there at the Brickyard, almost won that one," he said.

That was in the inaugural race of 1994. Bodine, driving the Quaker State Ford, led 10 laps and chased Jeff Gordon across the finish line in second, falling short by 53-hundredths of a second.

"We've run Daytona (500)," he said. "I know we didn't have much good luck down there. Daytona, the Indy 500 and the U.S. Nationals, I guess that's the three biggest in this country."

Bernstein retired at the end of the 2002 season and turned his car over to his son, Brandon. Eight races into the 2003 season, Brandon crashed and suffered a fractured vertebra that put him out for the season. Kenny stepped back into the car and won four more times in 14 races.

"The driving part coming back was easy," Kenny Bernstein said. "What was rough was Brandon and the fact he got hurt and the recovery period it was going to take. Watching him get around and live for those few months (in a body brace) to get himself strong again was the hardest part."

Brandon is third in the 2004 Top Fuel standings and feeling no pain. He calls his father's accomplishments amazing, and he's excited about performing well in his first Nationals with Dad on the sidelines.

"It's such a huge race," he said. "As a kid, it's one of the races I came to see."

And how would Dad feel if Brandon should pull out a victory on pop's birthday?

"It would be special," Kenny Bernstein said. "I mean, we've had a lot of special things happen, and this would be another one. It's the U.S. Nationals." ***

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