Complete this sentence: The state of the NHRA drag racing today is _____.
 
That's the challenge Attitude's Competition Plus columnist Michael Knight gave drag-racing legend Kenny Bernstein during his Wednesday radio program, "The Race Reporters" on Voice America's Power Up Motorsports Channel.
 
Bernstein served up a response of realism with a garnish of optimism.
 
"I'm going to use the word 'good,' " Bernstein said. "I'm not going to say fair, and I'm not going to say great. I'm going to say good.

Complete this sentence: The state of the NHRA drag racing today is _____.

That's the challenge Attitude's Competition Plus columnist Michael Knight gave drag-racing legend Kenny Bernstein during his Wednesday radio program, "The Race Reporters" on Voice America's Power Up Motorsports Channel.
 
Bernstein served up a response of realism with a garnish of optimism.
 
"I'm going to use the word 'good,' " Bernstein said. "I'm not going to say fair, and I'm not going to say great. I'm going to say good.
 
"I think we've weathered the storm from the economics that have occurred in the last year and a half. Our attendance figures are down, not as bad as some other people. Our TV ratings are just kind of hanging right in there," he said.
 
"I think it’s good. I don’t think it’s outstanding," Bernstein said. "I think there's a lot of room for improvement. But I do believe it’s still a substantial buy in the sport. I think the sponsorships are worth the return on investment in our sport. And I think the exposure is there. If this thing gets going a little bit better here, it may make it better as time progresses. I consider it in good shape -- not outstanding, but good."
 
However, even with a small but established European drag-racing league and the Don Schumacher-aided Yas Marina drag-racing development in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, Bernstein said he can't envision the sport organizing anything on the order of a World Series.
 
"I don't really see that," Bernstein said. "We need to is concentrate on what's going on here in the U.S. right now and what we can do to make drag racing better here, because this is where it is and this is where we're going to be.
 
"I have no problem going worldwide," he said, "but the dollars have to be tremendously different for that to happen. So I don’t look for that to take place. There'll be some things that go on . . . but for a true  worldwide venture for motorsports and drag racing, I don’t see that. Again, we've got a lot of work to do right here in the U.S. to make this even better."
 
Knight concurred. "One of the ways that the CART / Champ Car organizations got themselves in trouble, in my opinion," the show host said, "is these international expeditions that were funded by U.S marketing dollars. Just didn't really make sense."
 
But like the NHRA, Bernstein, who's a team owner and has been active in the racer advocacy group PRO, also has weathered his own economic storm.
 
He faced the stark truth last year that he might have to park his Top Fuel dragster that son Brandon drives after months of no investor interest to take the place of departing Budweiser. Bernstein needed his "State of the Sport" report to be true. He needed to spread the gospel, and he needed good news to spread. It was true for Copart, the online global auto-auction company, who joined Lucas Oil and a handful of loyal associate sponsors to keep the Kenny Bernstein Racing dragster on the track.
 
So Bernstein, the premier pioneer of sponsorship procurement, said he continues to use the same business model to sell pre-used vehicles as he used to sell Budweiser beer for 30 years.
 
"It's all the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s a six-pack of Budweiser beer or sending people to go to an online auction on those cars. The bottom line is: How do we help our sponsors sell their product?" he said.
 
"The way we do it is by getting their customers more involved, getting them to understand what the racing's about, getting them more business through the insurance companies and the car dealers to get those cars, and then getting the public to realize they can go online and bid on cars," he said. "So it’s really much the same principles as anything else."
 
The digital age, he indicated, might have changed the tools but not the instructions.
 
"The idea is to generate two things with Copart," Bernstein said. No. 1, we have to generate the cars that they need to go on auction. That comes from insurance companies, and it comes from car dealership. They have to have a tremendous abundance of cars to auction. Remember . . . 30,000-50,000 different people are bidding per day, so the car number count is high.
 
"Secondly, what they're trying to do is get the world to know who Copart is and the general public to go online and bid. The bottom line is it's still the same principle: getting the name out there and what the company does," he said. "They've been a business-to-business company the entire history, since 1982. They're gigantic in their field -- you just don’t know about them."
 
And this foray into drag racing, with all of its hands-on fan at the grassroots level, he said, is a new way for Copart to think and behave, as well.
 
But armed with the salesmanship that his father, the late Bert Bernstein, taught him years ago on the floor of Levine's department store in Lubbock, Texas, Kenny Bernstein made the switch to Copart seamlessly and already has been hard at work preaching Copart Blue instead of Budweiser Red.
 
Or, as Brandon Bernstein told Knight, "Blue is in!" Ultimately, green is the color that matters.
 
For Kenny Bernstein, making a profit in business boils down to his dad's advice: "Give the customers more than their money's worth."
 
Years ago, when he owned the Chelsea Street Pub restaurant chain, Kenny Bernstein had the attitude that if the customer asked for an extra pickle slice on his sandwich, then that's what the customer should receive. The notion was that such accommodation will bring the customer back, and word-of-mouth advertising will increase business even more.
 
"I give my dad credit for that," Bernstein said. "Those were his words to me when I was a small kid -- 'Always give the customer more than they paid for. If you give 'em more than they paid for, they'll always come back.' I know that's what we've always tried to do."
 
Bernstein credited his employees -- longtime associates, as well as the newer hires such as Copart Dragster crew chiefs Todd Smith and Donnie Bender -- because, he said, they "bought into this philosophy."
 
"The main thing," the six-time NHRA champion said, "is when it all gets said and done, if we do all those things and try our best, and we really work at it and honestly give it the effort that is possible, whatever happens -- good, bad, or indifferent with that sponsor or that customer -- I just want to be able to look in the mirror and say I did everything I possibly could do to make this as good as good as possible. And if it didn’t work out, it wasn't for lack of effort or lack of trying."
 
Kenny Bernstein can look in his mirror every day and tell himself truthfully that he has worked at it honestly, earnestly. He has given the fans more than their money's worth in entertainment and the NHRA more than its money's worth in advocacy, exposure, and professionalism.
 
And he can rest assured that the answers all would be positive if Michael Knight or anyone else asked, "Complete this sentence: Kenny Bernstein's contribution to NHRA drag racing today is _____."


"The Race Reporters" can be heard live, downloaded into an iPod, or accessed for listening on a delayed basis by clicking on the show icon at www.PowerUpChannel.com. Listeners can bookmark the show and sign-up to receive a free “E card” with news on upcoming guests, at the show’s home page, http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1549 . The show also re-airs several times later in the week (check PowerUp's daily programming listing.)