The sight of Pedregon's Q Racing Chevy Monte Carlo sunk in mud nearly up to its frame rails was an especially shocking punctuation mark to the Funny Car driver's 4.681-second pass. It was the second-quickest run in class history, and it made him the No. 1 qualifier for the NHRA's 2005 Winternationals. He said he ended up in the sloppy sandpit because a strut broke, punched a hole through the rear-end bodywork and landed precisely between the parachute levers, causing the 'chutes not to deploy properly. 

Pedregon jumped from the cockpit and plunged to his knees in the muck. He slogged to the edge of the quicksand-like area and pulled himself out, caked, splattered, and spackled in mud.    

Stillings should've been there not merely to watch Pedregon's mishap. He would've been the perfect person to help clean it up, help the 2003 Funny Car champion's clothes look proper and presentable again.

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

Why on Earth would Scotty Stillings do that? After all, he's a champion, too. He won the 2004 Moroso Grand Champion Series in his '99 Pontiac SS Grand Am, after finishing twice as runner-up. He finished second in IHRA's Super Stock class to Slate Cummings by just 27 points and second in Stock to Craig Marshall.   

It was perhaps the Moroso Grand Champion Series title that meant the most, however – a title Stillings battled for over the course of 6 tough seasons. He was in the top ten the majority of the time, and, as mentioned, he claimed the runner-up spot twice, but last year he finally sealed the deal.

When the curtain fell on the 2004 season, Stillings found himself at the top of the list despite the determined efforts of several top drivers to wrest the title away. Thanks to a gritty late-season run to the wire, Stillings held off the competition and took the Moroso Grand Champion Series honors by a mere two points.

So why would the rising IHRA star clean up Tony Pedregon's clothes? 

He does it at home. 

Scotty Stillings does Tony Pedregon's laundry back in Clermont, Indiana. Does Cruz Pedregon's laundry when he's in town, too. He doesn't exactly air the dirty linens of other race teams who work out of nearby Brownsburg's "Nitro Alley," but he cleans their clothes. 

It's not a case of Cinder-fella. It's a business deal. Stillings has owned the Huff & Fluff Laundry on Crawfordsville Road, just down the street from Indianapolis Raceway Park, for three years. It's a coin-operated laundromat with drop-off and dry-cleaning service with ironing extra. His vivacious mother, Linda, runs the store with Hoosier hospitality, but the business is Scotty's.

"I just wanted something to do. We stop racing in November, so it’s just something to supplement things," Stillings said.

After Tony Pedregon hosed the mud from himself at Pomona Raceway that Saturday night in February, he endorsed Stillings' professionalism with the side business. "He would've taken care of it, too," Pedregon said with an authoritative nod.

Stillings is taking care of business on the track, as well. He'll compete in the IHRA Stock and Super Stock ranks this season, make a few NHRA races, and continue to bracket race.

He just might have an eye for driving talent besides his own. He has a third car that he said he plans to let someone else drive, and maybe he'll have instant success, like he did last year with Jeremy Mitchell.

Last October at Rockingham, he turned over the wheel of his 1987 Camaro to hometown pal and fellow bracket racer Mitchell, giving him a chance to compete in an IHRA national event. Mitchell already was at the IHRA Bethesda Softworks World Finals with Pit Pro, working at its booth, selling golf carts and mopeds. Mitchell ended up winning the Hays Stock final -- and he hadn't even sat in Stillings' car, let alone drive it.

But Stillings, who calls himself "still a bracket racer at heart, not a heads-up guy," has understood drag racing since he was a small child.

Linda Stillings said she remembers the days when Scotty was little and would line up his toy race cars. "He would get them all in order," she said, "then he'd stand up and sing the national anthem, then get back down on the floor and play with his cars."

He brushed that aside, saying, "Instead of playing with G.I. Joes or something, I'd play with Hot Wheels." He said he thinks that stems from the fact that he was born into a racing family. "My dad (Joey) raced when I was born, so I was introduced to it from Day 1," Stillings said. "I can remember being at the races when I was a really little kid. I grew up just on the other side of the track (IRP)."

Stillings said it is his Hoosier heritage that makes him what he is today: a young man whose passion is to race.

"There are more race cars per capita here than anywhere else in the world," he said, sitting in his laundramat that's located halfway between the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park, the drag-racing mecca. We have sprint racing, midget racing, drag racing, Indy-car racing, Formula One. Indianapolis, this is what Charlotte is to NASCAR. But NASCAR has become a monster. Marketing has put it in a whole different world."

But Scotty Stillings' world is on the drag strip. He is a drag racer.

"I'm very content with where I am," he said. "I race for a living."