Jasmine Salinas and her father Mike had a father-daughter date Saturday afternoon. When it was over, the second-generation drag racer had danced circles around the man responsible for putting her in a race car in the first place.
The Salinas family made history during the opening round of the IHRA Triple Crown event at Darana Raceway when Mike and Jasmine became the first father and daughter to face one another in a sanctioned Top Fuel eliminator. Jasmine left first, stayed in front and drove to a 3.774-second pass while Mike’s dragster overpowered the racing surface and lost traction almost immediately.
Their reaction times showed neither driver was interested in sentimentality. Jasmine’s .024 light narrowly topped Mike’s .031 reaction time, proving the family conversation leading into the race wasn’t just pre-race banter.
Before eliminations began, both drivers made it clear there would be no Father’s Day gifts exchanged on the starting line.
“I’ve never been one to let my daughters win,” Mike Salinas said before eliminations. “And they’ve never let me win either. That’s not how life works, and it’s not how racing works. After being out of commission for almost a year and seeing what Jasmine can do, I know it’s going to take a lot of work to beat her. She stepped up and showed who she is as a driver and a team leader.”
Jasmine wasn’t interested in sentimental moments, either.
“Trust me when I say that while I’m excited to have my dad coming back to competition, I’m even more excited to beat him for the first time,” Jasmine said. “In reality, I’m just really glad that he’s returning to the cockpit because I know how much he’s missed it.”
What started as a family story quickly became a drag race. The first father-daughter matchup in Top Fuel history carried plenty of significance, but neither driver approached it as an exhibition.
For Jasmine, the victory represented more than a place in the semifinals. It was another reminder that every opportunity she’s received in racing came attached to expectations.
“Yeah, I definitely had to work for that one because he did not go easy on me,” Jasmine said. “I just wanted to say, I think some people were asking, ‘Are you going to go easy on him? Is he going to go easy on you?’ But he’s never once ever let me win anything in my life, and I knew he wasn’t going to let me do that right then and there.”
If that sounds familiar to those who know the Salinas family, it should. The competitive culture inside Scrappers Racing didn’t begin with race cars. It was shaped years earlier through lessons Mike learned from his father and later passed along to his own children.
Salinas has often talked about growing up under the watchful eye of Mike Salinas Sr., whose standards left little room for shortcuts. Sweeping the dirt driveway meant straight lines. Lining up loose rocks along the edge wasn’t optional. If the work wasn’t done correctly, it was done again.
Those lessons followed Salinas into business and eventually into racing. More importantly, they became the foundation of how he raised his daughters.
“I really wanted them to understand that if I am their father and I’m this tough, what do you think the real world’s going to be like?” Salinas said in an earlier CompetitionPlus interview. “I didn’t give them anything. People don’t understand. My kids work for everything. I mean, they’re at the office; they’re working all the time. We’re a working family.”
Jasmine sees it the same way. When asked whether her father would dominate her in a game of checkers as a child, she laughed before answering.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Jasmine said. “The amount of times I cried and he would be like, ‘Well, that’s life.'”
The irony isn’t lost on her. One of the reasons she wanted to become a racer in the first place was watching families compete together and build their own place in drag racing history.
“A huge reason why I wanted to become a racer in the first place was because of the four sisters,” Jasmine said. “Getting to watch them race against their dad, race as a family, that was huge. And so now seeing my dad and I get to make our own path and pave our own way and leave a little mark in drag racing history was really special.”
The race also marked Mike’s return to competition after spending nearly two years away from the driver’s seat dealing with health concerns and focusing on business. While the first-round loss ended his day, it also gave him something many parents in racing spend years hoping to see.
He has watched his daughter perform exactly the way he believed she could.
“For us it wasn’t about that,” Mike said. “It didn’t even matter. We all both want to win, but you got to look at it. How many people get to do what I just did? Very few.”
The veteran racer left Ohio knowing the driver in the other lane wasn’t just carrying the family name. She was becoming a legitimate Top Fuel contender in her own right.
“I knew she’s getting better and better because I’m watching her practice,” Mike said. “I’m watching her do things, and just watch Jasmine, pay attention to her. She’s smooth. It’s getting easier. She’s calm in the car. She’s not emotional. She’s very relaxed, and I think she’s going to be a force to reckon with down the road here. Good driver, and she’s just very humble. I love that about her.”
