Should John Force win one of ESPN's Espy Awards this year, it would do more to enhance the positive image of drag racing than all of NHRA's institutional ad campaigns combined, certainly more than last year's pricey "We Have Ignition" promotion which was noteworthy primarily for being the butt of the joke in IHRA's short-lived ad "They Have Ignition; We've Got the Whole Damn Car."

"We Have Ignition" featured lots of smoke, but little fire. It was indicative, however, of Tom Compton's willingness to try new things. Some of those things, like the 75-minute rule and the 90 per cent nitromethane restriction, worked extremely well. Others, like fining the racers for oiling a poorly surfaced track, did not.

Unfortunately, the trap into which too many of us fall is that we focus almost exclusively on what DOESN'T work in the sport, ignoring the fact that even when a plan doesn't come together, at least an effort was expended.

Considering much of our 50-year history, perhaps we should applaud the fact that this particular administration, for all its problems, seems committed to a course of action rather than inaction. If it fails, it won't be because it didn't try.

I mention this only because the current regime was so quick to seize on the significance of having a drag racer merely nominated for an Espy, as Force was a year ago. What a refreshing departure from the "cars-not-the-stars" mentality that was pervasive in those years in which NASCAR put the rest of the motor racing fraternity laps down in the Popularity 500.

On the international stage provided by ESPN, in an event that honors the best athletes in EVERY sport, Force has a legitimate shot at becoming the first drag racer to win the Driver of the Year Espy. If he does so, however, it will not be a singular achievement.

Well in advance of Monday's ceremonies at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, the NHRA committed its resources to making the media, especially those with Espy voting privileges, aware of the 10-time Winston Champion and his accomplishments. It was an expansion of a program inaugurated the year before by Jerry Archambeault, NHRA's VP/Communications.

Should those efforts be rewarded, it could be a defining moment for drag racing, bigger even than Force's 1996 anointing as Driver of the Year for all American motor sports. The Driver of the Year award was big because it provided the sport a new measure of legitimacy within the auto racing community. The Espy Award is bigger because it impacts a broader audience, one composed of individuals whose support drag racing covets; casual fans who, intrigued by Force's story, might be inclined to attend a race or tune into a TV show.

Why should Force win the Espy? Well, he won 11 races last year, 12 if you count the Big Bud Shootout. That's three more than the combined total of the other three nominees: Winston Cup Champion Bobby Labonte, CART Champion Gil de Ferran and IRL Champion Buddy Lazier.

Of course, the stigma attached to drag racing is that, really, it takes no talent to drive a Funny Car or a Top Fuel dragster. Too many see the challenge as simply mashing down the accelerator for four-and-a-half seconds and then deploying the parachutes. How hard can it be?

It has been suggested that Jeff Burk, our sizeable editor-in-chief, could have won those 10 Championships had he had an Austin Coil turning the wrenches.

How pervasive is such thinking? Well, last year, Force was nominated for an Espy in both the Driver of the Year and Driver of the Decade categories. Even though he won 11 of 22 races, he was second best in the Driver of the Year balloting to Winston Cup Champ Dale Jarrett.

The bigger travesty was that he was runner-up in Driver of the Decade voting as well. Here's a guy who won nine of 10 championships in the 1990s - and was runner-up for the 10th -yet he still wasn't considered by the voters to have been more dominant than Dale Earnhardt who, over the same period, won twice.

Why should this year be any different? For one thing, the voting has been legitimized through the audit of a national accounting firm. For another, ESPN no longer is joined to NASCAR at the hip, the stock car association having dumped its old TV friends for a more lucrative contract. For a third, thanks to the efforts of NHRA and others, results of the just completed AutoZone Winternationals were for the first time carried on ESPN's award-winning SportsCenter, a further source of legitimacy in today's pro sports arena. And, finally, Force is more familiar this year than he was last. Each year he's back, he's bound to make a few more converts.

If he doesn't win? Well, the sport won't have lost anything (since it hasn't had a winner before) and Force will have made more friends for all of us simply by being there.

If nothing else, Sheriff Compton's posse understands that the stars drive the cars. The reverse simply isn't true. Just ask NASCAR.

Dave Densmore, a paid columnist for DRO, also works for John Force.

Photo of Densmore by Jeff Burk

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