On the eve of the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals, over a soft drink and a plate of nachos in the lobby of their St. Louis hotel, Jim Brissette, Doug Herbert's longtime sidekick and team consultant, took a enjoyable jaunt down memory lane with an on-track rival from long ago.

 

John Muldowney is back on the scene.

 

Muldowney, fabricator extraordinaire who helped his famous mother Shirley win four Top Fuel championships (three in NHRA, one in AHRA), is attending this seventh stop on the Powerade Drag Racing Series tour as part of Herbert's Snap-On Top Fuel Dragster team.

 

"I'm going to enjoy the races. I'm going to do what Doug Herbert asks me to do," John Muldowney said.

 

 

On the eve of the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals, over a soft drink and a plate of nachos in the lobby of their St. Louis hotel, Jim Brissette, Doug Herbert's longtime sidekick and team consultant, took a enjoyable jaunt down memory lane with an on-track rival from long ago.

 

John Muldowney is back on the scene.

 

Muldowney, fabricator extraordinaire who helped his famous mother Shirley win four Top Fuel championships (three in NHRA, one in AHRA), is attending this seventh stop on the Powerade Drag Racing Series tour as part of Herbert's Snap-On Top Fuel Dragster team.

 

"I'm going to enjoy the races. I'm going to do what Doug Herbert asks me to do," John Muldowney said.

 

"I don't want anybody's job. I'm not going to hover over the clutch guy. I'm going to hang back. I'm not going to get in there and say, 'We're going to do this' or 'We're going to do that.' That's not my style," he said. "I'm going to sit back in the shadows and take notes. I'm not going to give tuning information and opinions. I don't want them to think that."

 

Herbert extended the invitation with a win-win scenario in mind.

 

"I've been friends with Shirley for 100 years," Herbert said with his booming laugh.

"I don't really have a job or title for John. But he has great fabrication skills. John's biggest assets are racing with his mom and his fabrication skills.

 

"He's in St. Louis to take some notes and see if he sees a place where he can fit in. We're going to let him look and see what he sees and how he might be able to fit in with this team," Herbert said.

 

After a Full House of bad luck -- three first-round losses and a pair of DNQs -- Herbert rebounded with a runner-up finish at Atlanta last week. And he said he's committed to chasing an NHRA championship trophy that would complement the four he won in IHRA in the 1990s. He said Muldowney might end up being a pivotal player down the stretch.

 

"Whether it's a basketball team or a drag-racing team, the teams that are the best out here have a deep bench," Herbert said. "We've been working hard for a year or more to fit all the right pegs into the right holes. Maybe John will be a key piece in the puzzle."

 

Herbert said he first met John Muldowney years ago, when, he joked, "I was a dumb alcohol guy and he was a fuel guy, working on his mom's car.

 

"I think he's got the desire to get back into this. I remember his remote-control cars. He built absolutely the most bitchin' remote-control cars."

 

"I can work metal," Muldowney said. "Metal's my thing."

 

No telling what will be John Muldowney's thing. He has such a keen eye -- a gift both he and his mother say he inherited from his father, Jack -- and a tremendous talent for building and crafting and imagining.

 

The Walt Disney Company calls its engineers "imagineers," and that would describe Muldowney. In fact, he has designed some fascinating technological pieces for Disney and Universal Studios in Orlando. "I've even welded stuff for the Space Shuttle," he said.

 

He still builds. While he said he still owes "Big Daddy" Don Garlits a model of his Swamp Rat I, he did present him recently with a Swamp Rat XXXII one-sixth-scale replica. "It's trick!" he said. And when he isn't building, Muldowney -- who can tutor about tires, wheels, wings, fuel pumps, bellhousings, or just about any other part of a dragster -- collects die-cast cars. His stash is up to about 2,500.

 

But he acknowledged that he has been out of the drag-racing industry "for quite some time, but I've been getting up to speed. These cars are very different. I respect that."

 

Brissette told him, "They're like 'Star Wars!' " They're radically different than they were when John was helping his mom to the 1977, 1980, and 1982 NHRA Winston Top Fuel championships and fighting off Brissette and partner Mike Drake with their driver, Kelly Brown. Story-swapping aside, he and Brissette -- a 2006 International Drag Racing Hall of Famer along with Shirley Muldowney -- recognized they were on the same page.

 

"These cars go in the 4.40s, not the 5.70s. But more is not necessarily better," Muldowney said. And he knew all too well what unholy damage a dragster could do when something went wrong in the 5.70-second elapsed-time range. "My mom, she's crashed 'em. She's slid to a stop on fire. The day [as in "back in the day"] was dangerous."

 

And of course, he was by her side after her ghastly crash in 1984 at Montreal and with her resurrected team for awhile when she came back in triumph. So he has seen both the cool and cruel sides of the sport.

 

"These care are not little kids' toys," he said. "They'll peel your eyelids back when you take off and go 350 feet a second. They will hurt you severely."

 

Knowing what his mother has endured has made him appreciate her all the more.

 

"She's my everything," Muldowney said with pride. "We have had more fun in the past few weeks than we've had in 20 years. We have been spending so much quality time."

 

They tease each other. "Your yard work is brutal!" he mock-complains. She'll jab at him, "You mess with my chihuahuas, I'll take ya out!" Theirs has been a wonderful time of reconnection lately. And however  John Muldowney might hook on with Herbert team manager Brad Fornes and car chief Dave Fletcher or however he might step back into drag racing, nothing can match the satisfaction he has had just making up for lost time.

 

"I had a couple of demons, and I beat 'em. I won," he said. "It's weird how things come full circle."

 

For Shirley Muldowney, it's simply rejuvenating.

 

"I'm happier than I've ever been in years," she said.

 

But she said she hasn't forgotten just how hard he worked to help her win and earn that NHRA Top Fuel championship ring that's on his left hand.

 

"John did the dirty work. He never had anything handed to him. He proved to me that he deserved the highest spot on the chart," she said. "He was a huge part of my championship years. He can't ever be denied that his talent and contributions to my team helped me win four championships. And I will be forever grateful.

 

"I've always admired John's talent. He is very bright."

 

Spoken like a true mother. And with Mothers Day coming up May 13, he already has given her the greatest gift -- his love and respect.

 

Herbert said he respects them both. And he's hoping that maybe John Muldowney might find a place somewhere among his machine shop, dynos, flow benches, and pits on the circuit as he pursues his NHRA championship goals.