NHRA News: Forget Tokyo, 'Dougzilla' wants to devour NHRA's Top Fuel class (12/9/2002)

Forget Tokyo, 'Dougzilla' wants to devour NHRA's Top Fuel class

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
12/9/2002

"It's probably the toughest thing to do but when you assemble the right crew it's an awesome feeling."
– Doug Herbert

Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert had a problem on his hands. No, not Clay Millican, that would come later. This quandary involved a lack of sand. You see, after years of hard work in his performance parts business, Herbert bought a dream house on the shores of Lake Norman, near his hometown of Cherryville, N.C.

Problem was, Herbert's wife, Sonnie, their two boys, Jon and James, and daughter Jessie, really wanted to have a sandy beach to play on, and the hard, red clay on the banks of Lake Norman wasn't filling the bill. The solution to Herbert was an easy one – if they couldn't go to a real beach, some 250 miles away, then he'd bring the beach to them.

"I trucked in 10 tons of sand and a bunch of palm trees," Herbert said with a shrug, as though this was the most logical solution. "Problem solved."

Herbert's no-obstacle-too-big approach is exactly what propelled him to four Top Fuel titles and 20 victories on the IHRA tour in the mid-1990s. Now he's hoping a new three-year deal with longtime sponsor Snap-on Tools, his five consecutive seasons of full-time experience in NHRA competition, and an extremely close-knit crew will blend together in a perfect POWERade championship mixture. Then every day will seem like a trip to the beach.

Putting it all together
At 35, Herbert still has plenty of time to realize his goal of winning multiple championships at the top level of drag racing. The only clock he hears ticking comes from within. He wants to win it all, and he wants to win it all as soon as possible.

So what's holding him back? Nothing really. Doug Herbert Performance Parts, which he built from the ground up, has grown to a multi-million dollar enterprise that employs approximately 50 people. The success of the company has afforded Herbert the chance to chase his drag racing dream for 12 years now. Combined with his IHRA accomplishments, his seven victories in 15 final-round appearances and six top-10 finishes on the NHRA tour prove he has the right stuff to get it done in the cockpit.

"We've assembled the pieces it takes to win at various times over the last 12 years," Herbert said. "But we haven't had all the right pieces in place at the same time yet since we've been concentrating solely on the NHRA. I think we've turned the corner in that regard. Just look at how we finished the season. That's what has me excited right now."

With three more years of sponsorship in place from Snap-on Tools and a re-organized crew, Herbert is ready to win his first POWERade title.

Since his last first-round loss, which came 14 national events ago at the Topeka race in May, only new champ Larry Dixon and former champ Kenny Bernstein managed to accumulate more championship points then Herbert.

"We were definitely running quick down the stretch," Herbert said. "And we haven't lost that tune-up so there's no reason to think we'll let off one bit. It's true, we had Wes Cerny helping us out and now he's gone to Schumacher Racing, but Wes was cool with us before he left. He showed us everything he was doing. Between Ron Douglas, who has been with me for five years, Sam Shockley, who's been here four years now, and Jim Brisette, who was with me for seven years and all four IHRA championships, I think we have a pretty good group that can carry this Snap-on Tools team to where we want to be."

At the conclusion of the season, Douglas was promoted from within to serve as Team Snap-on's new crew chief with Shockley providing assistance. Then Brisette and his 40-plus years of experience were added to the equation to provide a veteran sounding board for the group.

"We have four guys who could go out and run a car on their own," Herbert said. "Working together, with the absence of any ego, should make for a pretty stout grouping, I think."

The secret ingredient
Herbert recognizes that a number of teams have the money it takes to win, the parts one needs to race full-tilt throughout the season, and the personnel to get the job done. The difference between the top teams, he says, is the intangible of chemistry among the crewmen.

"We have a real team here," Herbert said. "Not just a group of guys working together. It's a team, in the real sense of the word, and that's what you have to have. Look at [John] Force's guys. They know each other like you know your own family members. You have to have the right people, sure, but you have to have the right people who can get along with each other also. Then, in time, you get to where you know that when Jim raises his left eyebrow a certain way he needs a five-eighths wrench. When you get to that level, then you can start thinking about championships.

"We're there right now. We've been there since Topeka really. The crew I have now – Joe O'Byrne, Ron Freedman, Jeremy Lopez, John Bullard, Nathan Archambault, Brad Fornes, J.T. Stewart, and even my wife Sonnie, who picks up all the pieces and keeps us in line – really have become quite a group. It's probably the toughest thing to do, but when you assemble the right crew it's an awesome feeling.

"At the same time, having the corporate support of Snap-on, and having them sign us to another three years a few months back, that helps tremendously, too. We all know you can't do this without sponsorship, and I feel like I have one of the best backers in the business. I work as hard as I can to deliver for them, both at the track and in the workplace. I constantly want to prove my value to them."

The Dougzilla Phenomenon
Although Herbert gets a little queasy when he talks about it for fear of upsetting anyone, his 2002 season, and possible his career up to this point, was permanently defined in many observer's eyes by a first-round burndown with part-time NHRA competitor and reigning IHRA champion Clay Millican.

The two arrived at the starting line in Reading, Pa., this year and, after their pre-race burnouts, each refused to inch beyond the pre-stage position on the Christmas Tree. Eventually, chief starter Rick Stewart shut them both off for safety reasons, after which an intense argument punctuated by a blindside shove of Herbert from Millican's car owner ensued.

Things got very heated at the starting line in Reading when Herbert and Clay Millican burned each other down.

Herbert's 6-foot-4, 225-pound frame matched against Millican's 5-foot-8, 145 pounds, which looked even more lopsided on television thanks to the fact Herbert kept his helmet on while Millican didn't, led to an instant nickname for Herbert: "Dougzilla." (For the record, Herbert won the rematch an hour later and then blasted his opponent, his car owner, and Millican's IHRA accomplishments to a national audience.)

"The whole Dougzilla thing is probably the best thing that ever happened to me," Herbert said. "It certainly gained our team a lot of attention and I know I gained a bunch of fans out of the deal. I was hot at the other end and said some things about the IHRA that may have gained me a few enemies. Sometimes in the heat of the battle you talk without thinking first.

"I just can't understand their thinking. They won the IHRA championship. So what? Joe Amato won five NHRA titles. If anyone should be arrogant, it's Joe, but he's the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. They won the IHRA championship and they think they invented drag racing.

"People say, 'Well, you won the IHRA championship, too.' That's true; the difference is, when I won it a lot of guys went back and forth between the IHRA and NHRA. You don't have that any more. When I won my four IHRA championships I was racing Shirley Muldowney, ["Big Daddy" Don] Garlits' group, Gene Snow, even Eddie Hill.

"When or if Millican wins one NHRA event he will have accomplished more than he's done the entire time he's been racing over there."

A kinder, gentler Dougzilla
Typical of Herbert, he hasn't cashed in on the Dougzilla craze, instead donating all the proceeds from Dougzilla paraphernalia to injured racer Billy Williams.

"It's the right thing to do, in my mind," Herbert said. "Billy would love the whole Dougzilla thing. Man, it was the least I could do. He's been in a coma now for some time and the bills are piling up. Billy was a SoCal guy. He was there when I lived there and I used to hang at his shop. He was the first real racer that I knew. He's in a bad way now, still in a coma with a brain stem injury. Hopefully, he'll overcome the odds and bounce back."

Nicknames are best when they just happen, like Herbert's new persona of 'Dougzilla.'

Herbert also opens his shop once a year to his legion of fans and customers, catering in food and providing live entertainment as a gesture of thanks. The annual tradition, which always takes place the day before Mother's Day, also features the wildly popular "Big Bang" car explosion where Herbert's crew starts up a junk car on blocks and puts a brick on the gas pedal. Wagers are then made as to how long the car will run until the engine explodes.

"It's usually about a minute or two," Herbert said. "But one time we had this old Ford up there and it ran for about five minutes. We finally threw some nuts and bolts down the carburetor to help it blow up."

His latest plans call for him to give his 7,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster away to some lucky fan at the end of the 2003 season.

"I was looking for something exciting to do next year, aside from winning the championship of course, and this idea came up," Herbert said. "It'll give someone the opportunity to own their own Top Fuel dragster. What they do from there is up to them."

The stunt once again proves that in Doug Herbert's world anything can happen. So just who will be surprised if he wins it all in 2003? Not Herbert. "I plan on sitting on our little beach with a cool drink in my hand, toasting the world one year from now," he said.

"Care to join me?"

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