Ever wonder what Gary Scelzi's up to? The former Top Fuel and Funny Car world champ, one the most successful and popular fuel racers of the past 20 years, is back home in Fresno, Calif., working at the family business, watching sons Dominic and Giovanni race at tracks around central California, and not particularly missing the life of a world-famous drag racer. (Well, maybe a little.)

"I did it for 12 years," Scelzi says. "You fly home for a couple days, work on plane and hotel reservations and whatever appearances you're going to make at the next race, and then you're right back on a plane headed to the next one. There are other things in life, you know? For a guy who's 25 years old, it's great. You'd do any thing to race. I would've – I did. But now I'm 50. Your priorities change."

For two years now, Scelzi has been working at Scelzi Enterprises, which manufactures custom truck bodies for the service and construction industries. And now his boys don't watch him race – he watches them.

Ever wonder what Gary Scelzi's up to? The former Top Fuel and Funny Car world champ, one the most successful and popular fuel racers of the past 20 years, is back home in Fresno, Calif., working at the family business, watching sons Dominic and Giovanni race at tracks around central California, and not particularly missing the life of a world-famous drag racer. (Well, maybe a little.)

"I did it for 12 years," Scelzi says. "You fly home for a couple days, work on plane and hotel reservations and whatever appearances you're going to make at the next race, and then you're right back on a plane headed to the next one. There are other things in life, you know? For a guy who's 25 years old, it's great. You'd do any thing to race. I would've – I did. But now I'm 50. Your priorities change."

For two years now, Scelzi has been working at Scelzi Enterprises, which manufactures custom truck bodies for the service and construction industries. And now his boys don't watch him race – he watches them.

"They run 40 weekends a year," Scelzi says. "They race twice as much as I ever did when I was running all the NHRA events. It's the only thing they want to do. They're both good at baseball, too, but they've completely blown that off. I'm like, 'There's no scholarship for racing, guys,' but this is what they want to do. Dominic averages 65 mph a lap and Gio averages 58, so you know they've got to be going 70 down the straightaway. They have the best safety stuff you can have – fire extinguishers, an extra hoop on the roll cage, whatever there is to make things safer – but it's only recently that I don't feel like I'm going to vomit every time they go out there."

Older son Dominic won a track championship in 2009, and last year he moved up to the men's Super 600 division, where he won four races and Rookie of the Year honors. The younger one, Gio, won track championships at both places he raced.

"Watching Dominic go three-wide with 35-year-old men is just unbelievable," Scelzi says. "Every parent brags about their kids, I know, but I'm in awe of what they can do. If they quit, it would save me a lot of money and a lot of work. I work my ass off on the weekends and at night during the week so we can make the races, and I have a guy, Monty Faccinco, to do the real work on their cars three days a week, but you know what? It's worth it. It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Plus, it keeps me from thinking about ever going drag racing again."

When Scelzi walked away from the sport after the 2008 NHRA Finals in Pomona, he didn't want to think about it. "That last year really wore me out," says Scelzi, who won just 7 of 27 rounds that year, a winning percentage of.259. His career mark, from 1997-2007: .658. "That was the worst finish of my professional career; I never had a year that bad. It's nobody's fault – I don't blame anybody on that team at all. We just couldn't make things happen, and it was time for me to leave."

As a 37-year-old rookie in 1997, Scelzi won the NHRA championship for Alan Johnson's Winston Top Fuel team. He won the title again in 1998 and again in 2000, and won a Funny Car championship for Don Schumacher's Oakley team in 2005. Overall, he claimed 37 national event titles in 58 final-round appearances, and of the dozens of drivers he raced more than five times over his pro career, he had a losing record against just five: Joe Amato, Whit Bazemore, Tony Pedregon, Phil Burkart, and Ron Capps.

"I always wanted to race against the baddest of the bad – Kenny Bernstein, Cory McClenathan, all the big guys," Scelzi says. "And I did. And it was great. But now… I still miss hitting the gas, sure – that's never going away – but the traveling really gets to you after a while. It sucks. I've flown first class and I've flown in private jets, and even that gets old after a while. I want to be home; I want to sleep in my own bed. Every time I drive past the airport, I still cringe. I went to Detroit and Chicago last year for business, and I hated it."

Like most ex-racers, Scelzi doesn't get his kicks out of going to the track to watch other people compete. "I'm a crappy spectator," he says. "All my friends are out there. They're racing, doing their thing, and I don't want to bug 'em. They're at work."

Yet Scelzi still won't say that he has absolutely, positively, ruled out ever returning to the sport. "It's been two years since the last time I sat in a race car, and I've never gone that long in my life," he says. "My kids want me to race. They'll say, 'Dad, what if John Force called you? You don't even have a license anymore,' because I let mine expire. Well, so what? Now I'd have to make six runs to get my license back if I ever got a ride. You think I wouldn't make at least six runs testing somewhere before I started driving for someone? And who would it be? Force, Schumacher, Kalitta – those are the only teams you're going to drive for anyway. I'm 50 years old now. They don't want me."

But what if they did?

"It would have to be a perfect storm," Scelzi says. "If I did come back and everything was right and my family was behind me, I'd be right back into it, badder than I ever was, I can promise you. I'd be back with a vengeance, just to make a point. I'm not vindictive; it would be more like, 'Let me show you what mean and ornery is all about.' And if it ever happened, it would have to be with someone I knew I could win with. Like if Mike Neff ever called me, I'd have to think about that pretty hard…"

 

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