It has bothered him, this perception.
 
It has haunted NHRA icon Don Prudhomme ever since he retired from drag racing at the end of the 2009 season.
 
He helped shape the sport, from drag racing's infancy in Southern California's San Fernando Valley through a career as a multi-time champion driver and owner. So his flippant remark that he's "over drag racing" has haunted him.
 
And as he joined close friend Chip Ganassi in Indianapolis for the team owner's announcement this week of a new two-car Indy Racing League operation, Prudhomme wanted to set the record straight.
 
"I'm so glad to get the chance to clear things up," Prudhomme said. "I wasn't misquoted when somebody wrote that. I said it, but I'm not a master of the English language. I'm guilty of saying things I wish I hadn't.

It has bothered him, this perception.
 
It has haunted NHRA icon Don Prudhomme ever since he retired from drag racing at the end of the 2009 season.
 
He helped shape the sport, from drag racing's infancy in Southern California's San Fernando Valley through a career as a multi-time champion driver and owner. So his flippant remark that he's "over drag racing" has haunted him.
 
And as he joined close friend Chip Ganassi in Indianapolis for the team owner's announcement this week of a new two-car Indy Racing League operation, Prudhomme wanted to set the record straight.
 
"I'm so glad to get the chance to clear things up," Prudhomme said. "I wasn't misquoted when somebody wrote that. I said it, but I'm not a master of the English language. I'm guilty of saying things I wish I hadn't.
 
"It was an extremely hard, hard time on me when I retired. It was a lot tougher than anyone could ever imagine," he said. "I just had some tough times I had to get behind me."
 
Besides, he said, "I never have cared much for people who talked bad about some place that treated them well. Drag racing has treated me really well. I'm a fan of Gary Darcy (NHRA's senior vice-president of sales and marketing) and John Siragusa (senior director of sales and business development)."
 
So over drag racing?
 
"I'm really, really, really, really not," the legend known simply as "Snake" said.
 
"During the last year or two [of his career], I was starting to -- Things changed. I'm not quite sure what happened," Prudhomme said trying to pinpoint his emotions.
 
Maybe it was time to explore new racing territory.
 
"I was doing it for so, so long," he said of drag racing, "but I liked other things, too. I've always been a huge Formula 1 fan, and Indy cars I really liked."
 
He'll be landlord in Brownsburg, Ind., to Ganassi's new team of Graham Rahal (and the No. 38 Service Central entry) and Charlie Kimball (and the No. 83 Novo Nordisk car).
 
"I just got my toe in the water a little bit right now," Prudhomme said. "I'll be hanging out, that's for damn sure, but we'll see from there."
 
Joked Ganassi, "We'll probably see more of him than we care to."
 
Prudhomme's building, which sits directly across Southpoint Circle in Brownsburg from John Force Racing, also houses de Ferran Dragon Racing, the IRL team that 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran owns along with Steve Luczo and Jay Penske.
 
"That deFerran is a smooth talker, He grinds the s--- out of me about the rent. He's a great negotiator," Prudhomme said with a laugh. "I thought there for awhile I was going to have to pay him to be in the building!"
 
The open-wheel scene, though, isn’t some new fascination for Prudhomme.
 
He had stopped by the Clint Brawner-Andy Granatelli/STP garage back in May 1969 at Indianapolis to say a quick hello to Mario Andretti in the days between Andretti's "500" practice accident and his only victory at the storied Brickyard. Andretti waved him into the historic wooden garage where Brawner and Jim McGee sat aside the wadded up Lotus and prepared the Brawner Hawk Ford that made it to Victory Lane and later the Smithsonian Institution.
 
Andretti welcomed Prudhomme (a fellow Ford/Shelby competitor) into his environment, although he teased him through the years for being merely "a squirt racer." Prudhomme has remained friends with three generations of Andrettis, and Michael and Marco Andretti have visited the NHRA races at Englishtown, N.J.
 
Prudhomme has known four-time Indianapolis winner A.J. Foyt, a racer/owner of equal legend, since the 1960s. They were able to do some promotions together during the Copenhagen/Skoal sponsorship days, and when Prudhomme won one of his seven U.S. Nationals crowns at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Foyt stood with him in the winners circle.
 
He has been a longtime pal of Graham Rahal's father, Bobby, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time CART series champion who won the 500 as an owner in 2004 with Buddy Rice. They shared a sponsor in the Miller Brewing Company. He counts star Rick Mears among his buddies, as well. He even spoke with Tony George, the former Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss, about possibly putting together some sort of deal with the George family and actor Patrick Dempsey at Vison Racing.
 
Who else does is his friend in open-wheel racing?
 
"I like to think everybody," Prudhomme said. "Of course, I didn't compete against these guys."
 
While Prudhomme will be watching eagerly the progress of tenants Rahal and Kimball, one gentleman he'll be paying close attention to is Tony Cotman.
 
This project manager for the development of its 2012 technical program will be in charge of all technical parameters when American open-wheel racing morphs from a "spec" series to a competitive field that will include the return of Chevrolet and Lotus. What Cotman comes up with could influence Prudhomme's decision perhaps to become more involved on the business end.
 
"I'm looking at the 2012 season, with all the big changes coming on, and that is going to be interesting to me," Prudhomme said at Thursday's press conference at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
Is he considering the notion of entering into a minority-share partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing Teams?
 
"Certainly. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely," Prudhomme told Competition Plus. "I follow it real close. There's good possibility in it. Chip is one of my best friends, not just in racing but one of my best friends, period."
 
Neither could recall how they met, though.
 
"The guy kind of grew on me," Prudhomme said, "and I guess I kind of grew on him."
 
He said, "I'm not over drag racing. I still have my cars and I go to events, so I'm not over it. I just want to do what I want to do.
 
"When there's something new, it gets your juices flowing," Prudhomme said. "I'll be 70 next year. People still think I'm a kid playing with Hot Wheels."
 
He amused himself with the thought but said, "I kind of like it now." He said the racing industry "is really different." And he meant it in a positive sense.
 
"You know what's bitchin' about drag racing? The nostalgia stuff!" he said.
 
However, he's intrigued by open-wheel racing and its possibilities.
 
Because he has followed the circle-track world, Prudhome understands the evolution of the IRL and recognizes the momentum that's building in the open-wheel ranks, with the unification of the warring factions that killed fan interest for nearly three decades and with the resurgence of American drivers at the highest levels.
 
"It was 'the thing' when I was growing up. But then it was a damn mess with a lot of egos," he said of the upheaval from USAC to CART and then the competing sanctioning bodies once the IRL formed. "Let's hope that open-wheel racing is on the right track."
 
Don Prudhomme, over the hurt of economics and other factors driving him from the sport he devoted his life to, definitely is on the right track.

---

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