You mentioned safety, so is the ADRL’s emphasis on safety also an important factor to you, especially now that you’re a father yourself?
Scruggs: You know, I always try to think about safety, even before I was a dad, whether it’s at an ADRL race or a match race where they didn’t even care if you had a helmet on or not. I try to be safe, but really what’s happened to me is I’ve seen a few things happen like “Big Money” Bil Clanton’s wreck where he hit head-on into the wall pretty hard and the really big thing was Bryan Dyar’s fire that he had at the first Dragstock. I saw those things happen and they opened my eyes to, ‘Hey, that can happen to any of us.’ I’d never seen that first-hand in outlaw racing; I mean, I’d seen wrecks, but nothing like that.
Kenny and the ADRL do a great job with the cars and their safety issues and if he sees something that he thinks is safer, he’s the first one to make it mandatory and I can’t argue with that. I feel like the cars are safe and like I tell my wife, the way I personally feel is these cars are safer than the cars we drive around on the street in traffic.
Before each pass you tend to pace in the staging lanes and don’t talk very much. Can you give a little insight into what you’re thinking about?
Scruggs: I don’t mind talking to people, but once I get in the car I don’t really want to talk to anyone unless there’s something wrong. I like to get in my own zone and think about what I have to do, what the track is doing, because you’ve got to bear in mind that I do everything on the car. My dad and I do all of our own tuning; I do the clutch so I have all of that runningthrough my head. Did I make the right decisions for changing track conditions and if I don’t think I did, I think about how I have to leave just right. So I’ve got a lot going through my head, just basically nervous energy.
Is your current performance advantage that much more satisfying after doing the work yourself with only your father and a couple of helpers at the track?
Scruggs: It gives us satisfaction to have any performance advantage, but at the same time, I expect it because we have everything we need. I realize that I’m very fortunate because there are a lot of guys out there who probably could run faster than me if they just had the opportunity. I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity and I appreciate that.
My dad, he’s always worked hard his whole life and he’s made enough to support my racing and he’s always bought me the best parts, and that has a lot to do with it. If I need something he never bats an eye; we get what we need, so that’s a good comfort right there.
Between your family businesses and family life, where do you find the time to race at such a high level?
Scruggs: When we do race a lot I have to stay out there in the wee hours of the morning, but that’s one reason why we’re not racing as much now. When we race once a month I can pick and choose the times to get the car ready so I can still spend time with my family. But the truth is we don’t have the time race; we just make the time to do it. I guess if you enjoy something in life, you’re only here once so you have to make time for the things you enjoy.
My dad was a hot rodder and of course he got me into racing when I was 15 and bought me my first bracket car. It was a ’68 Camaro and I still have it. In fact, I’ll probably go back to racing it when my dad gets to where he doesn’t want to help me on the car as much. But I think we use racing as a time to get away from the business and spend time with each other. We’re just like all fathers and sons, we fight a little bit, argue a little bit, but at the end when you look back on it I know I’ll be thankful for all the time we got to spend together. Racing has kept and brought us together. The whole racing deal has been good for us and when I was growing up it probably kept me out of trouble a little bit, too. Racing’s been good to me.
