To understand the magnitude of the offer, one needs to know that the carrot being dangled in front of Dale Armstrong was more like a "karat" – as in five times the salary that one of the top crew chiefs in drag racing was already earning.

Had that offer been accepted, it could have changed how nitro racing has played out over the past three-and-a-half decades. At a minimum, it could have forever altered the destiny of countless racers in terms of the mark they made.

In the mid-1980s, it wasn't uncommon for team owners and drivers to throw insane offers at crew chief Dale Armstrong, hoping to buy his tuning innovations for themselves and, in the process, pry him away from the reigning NHRA Funny Car champion, Kenny Bernstein.

At that point, Bernstein was in the midst of a four-year dominance of Funny Car competition – the champion from 1985-88 – on the strength of 21 national-event wins, 26 outings as a low qualifier, and a multi-time national record holder. Armstrong's creative genius saw the creation of the "Batmobile" – a Buick LeSabre-bodied car – in 1987 that won half of that season's races and was the first Funny Car to dip into the 5.30s. That car was only part of Armstrong's repertoire as a crew chief, along with the introduction of wind tunnel testing, onboard data recorders, and the development of the lock-up clutch.

Had Larry Minor successfully lured Armstrong away from Bernstein, the "Batmobile" may not have been born. And the large-scale potato farmer did his best with an offer Armstrong couldn't have refused – had Bernstein not gone to the extreme to thwart the hostile takeover.

Bernstein got wind of Minor's maneuvering when he least expected it.

"We went to the (1985) postseason banquet on Monday," Bernstein said, "so Tuesday morning I go in the office, and Dale says, 'I need to talk to you. I've been offered a program over at Minor's, and I really'... his words were, 'I don't really want to take it, but it's a lot of money.'

"I said, 'Well, what's the deal?' He said, 'It's a million dollars.' I said, 'A million dollars? That's out of my league, buddy.' He said, 'Well, it's a two-year deal.' I said, 'So it's 500 (thousand) a year then, right?' Holy cow.

"Now, remember, in those days Dale was one of the top players and he was making a hundred thousand a year," Bernstein said. "I said , 'I don't know, you've got to give me some time to work on this. I've got to go back to Budweiser.' I said, 'I have a rule. I don't think it's right to go back to a sponsor when you've got a contract already and try to hit them up again for an additional amount of money. But in this case, I don't have a choice – I have to do it in order to keep ya.

"You don't wanna go, do you?' He said, 'No, I don't want to go, but I can't just turn this thing down, either.' I said, 'I understand. I got ya.' That was the first salvo in our sport when somebody tried to take somebody for a tremendous amount of money."

In fact, Minor had initially taken a different approach to try to secure Armstrong's services, and it would have almost certainly come at a lower price.

 

 

That tactic was to try to hire Darrell Gwynn to drive his Top Fuel dragster. Gwynn was among the frontrunners in the Top Alcohol Dragster ranks in the early 1980s and won the NHRA championship in '83. Two years later, Gwynn and his father, alcohol-racing legend Jerry Gwynn, decided to make a move to the shark-infested nitro ranks.

Gwynn was 0-for-12 in his rookie season of Top Fuel racing, but in 1986, he began his sophomore campaign by toppling Connie Kalitta in the finals of the Winternationals at Pomona.

But that early success literally went up in flames in no time. Over the course of the next four races, the Gwynn team endured major parts breakage to the point they essentially blew up everything they had. The situation was so dire that the Gwynns, who had no major sponsorship at the time, considered parking the car for lack of a solution.

The problem was finally diagnosed with the supercharger, which would later coincide with Armstrong entering the picture. Armstrong wanted to lend a hand, but first, he needed Bernstein's approval.

"When Dale came to me on it, we were rolling pretty good, and I know he wanted to see what kind of results he could get" with our Funny Car combination should a Top Fueler become their future, Bernstein said.

That's where the connection to the Gwynn family came in. In 1980, before Armstrong was on the payroll, Bernstein was racing Funny Car and finding little success. During a match race at Suffolk, Virginia, Bernstein's crew was forced to make a camshaft change. Bernstein, who knew Jerry Gwynn only as an acquaintance, asked the Miami racer for a hand.

"I said, 'Jerry, can you help me? Here's what I've got. Can you help me dial in this camshaft?'" Bernstein said. "It was just a match race, so we had plenty of time, but I was in a helluva mess. He said, 'I sure will,' so he came over and worked almost halfway through the night with us, so we got it installed and did our duty Sunday at the race track.

"I just never forgot that for a guy that I didn't know very well at all – I just met him at the races – to ask him for help, and he didn't even hesitate. I just never forgot it. So when this came up, I had no trouble with it because I wanted to repay Jerry the best I could."

With that, the Gwynns took their car to Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania for the Super Stock Nationals to test the new Armstrong combination. It was readily apparent to them from the early numbers on the runs that they had something special on their hands.

"That's when everything changed. When we put the Armstrong combination in my car," Gwynn said. "Dale wanted to do that for so long, and he and Kenny talked about it, and we weren't running the best when we transitioned to the Bernstein combination."

That short stint as Armstrong's guinea pigs had immediate positive results for the Gwynns. At Montreal, the next NHRA tour stop, Gwynn qualified No. 1 and won the race.

"The first run down the track, it ran a tenth quicker than anyone had ever been," Gwynn said. "When we returned to the pit area – I wish I had a picture – Garlits, Eddie Hill, Kalitta, Frank Bradley, and Dick LaHaie were all waiting in our pit area. They were on their bikes, waiting for that car. They wanted to look and see what the hell was going on."

 

 

He would also win the ensuing event at Englishtown, New Jersey, and Gwynn had been the No. 1 qualifier at seven consecutive races by season's end.

His competitors were obviously taking notice, and Minor began a campaign to get his hands on that combination with a serious nudge from his own Funny Car driver, Ed "The Ace" McCulloch. Minor was fielding a Top Fuel car for Gary Beck, too, but Minor was ready to make a driver change if he could hire Darrell Gwynn … and get access to Armstrong's combination. Gwynn said Minor made a pitch of half a million dollars, a truck and trailer, and unlimited resources for him to come aboard.

Before he made up his mind, Gwynn first showed his loyalty to Bernstein by letting him know about the offer.

"It was way less than what Miller (beer) and Minor were offering me," Gwynn said, "but I felt very loyal to my longtime friend Armstrong and Bernstein, who had bent over backward for me already. I said, 'Find me something, and I'll stay here. I'm a loyal guy. I want to be here.'"

Bernstein responded by going to his sponsor and Miller rival Budweiser and securing $200,000 in sponsorship for Gwynn to continue to field his own team. It paid off handsomely for both operations. In 1986, Don Garlits captured his third and final NHRA Top Fuel title, while Gwynn finished second with four wins, including the season finale at Pomona. In 1987, Gwynn again won four events, including a "Budweiser double" at Atlanta Dragway when he and Bernstein were both victorious.

"That's the whole story and nothin' but the truth," Bernstein said. "I did remember asking Dale in our meetings about the dollars. I found out that the guy that was really instigating it all was Ed McCulloch, and Ed was beating on Dale really hard to come over there. So I went up to Ed and said, 'OK, it's over with, Ace. Don't bother any more of my people, please.'"

Minor wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. So instead of trying to get Armstrong's combination through Gwynn, he went right to the source – Armstrong – with an offer of a $1 million salary for the next two seasons.

When Armstrong spilled the details of the offer, especially on the heels of their championship celebration, it put Bernstein in panic mode.

"So, I called Budweiser and said, 'I've got a problem, boys, and it's a real big one, too. I need to come see you.' They said, 'When do you want to do it?' I said, 'Tomorrow.' So I went to Budweiser the next day and explained it to them. I said, 'I need some help on this on what you're giving me,' because in those days it was good, but it wasn't that good," Bernstein said. "They said, 'We don't want to lose him, do we?' I said, 'No. You just won your second championship, and we're still at the top of the game right now – I sure don't want to lose him. I'll participate, but I can't take the whole thing on.'

"So, they participated, stepped up and made it work for me, gave me an addendum to my contract.' So I came back to Dale and said, 'OK, you've got the 500. Here's the deal: I want your word you won't come back again – no matter what happens, no matter how good we get – and ask for more. Let's do this. We good?' He said, 'We're good.'

"I said, 'It's a good deal, you deserve it, that's a pretty good hunk. I don't appreciate Larry raising the price of sugar, but, hey, I understand. If I'm in his boat and had that kind of money and you're out here winning, I'd probably do the same thing, so I'm cool with it.' We worked it out, and then we went on another ten years or so together, so it turned out good. We structured it where it worked for him, and he got some tax benefits, and I got some out of it that helped us both."

Though Minor's bid to hire Armstrong fell short, he still enjoyed the satisfaction of success via another route. He dropped Beck and replaced him with Dick LaHaie, a low-buck competitor whose family-run operation included his daughter, Kim, as the tuner. Running on his own in 1986, LaHaie won twice and finished third in the points. In '87, with Minor and Miller beer footing the bill, LaHaie had access to resources he'd never before enjoyed – and turned those into a Top Fuel championship. Gwynn, by the way, finished third behind runner-up Joe Amato, whom LaHaie had toppled in the semifinals at Pomona. Minor's championship run as a team owner ended with Cruz Pedregon's Funny Car title in 1992.

Bernstein and Armstrong did alright, too, in their continued pairing, adding the 1987-88 Funny Car crowns to their previous two.

Seeking new challenges, they switched to Top Fuel in 1990, and on March 20, 1992, Bernstein became the first driver to shatter the 300-mph barrier at 301.70. In '96, Bernstein and Armstrong added a Top Fuel championship to their resume, and Bernstein tacked on his sixth nitro title in 2001 with Tim Richards as his crew chief.

 

Thomas Pope contributed to this article.