Photos courtesy of NHRA, Damon Steinke, Burghardt Photography, Jeff Pierce
Scott Palmer understands his chances at this weekend’s Snowbird Outlaw Nationals present longshot odds at best, and this doesn’t faze the fan-favorite driver. His entire drag racing career has been longshot odds. His satisfaction is in defying those odds.
Palmer has also proven one doesn’t have to exhibit a dyed-in-the-wool corporate approach to get major sponsorship, nor does one have to win every round to have the time of one’s life. All he does, Palmer admits, “Is be the best version of me I can be.”
This approach has made Palmer the driver that drag racing fans clamor to be around, and companies such as the Professional Bull Riders [PBR] and, most recently, RoofTec to align their brands with.
That is why when Palmer crashed his unique nitro-burning Studebaker on August 20, 2023, at Mid-America Raceway, leaving him with a broken wrist and other bumps and bruises, he vowed to one day come back. Those who supported him stood beside him, and race fans offered support and encouragement to Palmer, who could have easily thrown in the towel after such a devastating accident.
As Palmer sees it, he’s faced more significant dilemmas than a broken bone, bruises and a destroyed race car.
A year after the devastating crash, Palmer is finally finding his groove in the cockpit. Palmer’s comeback began with some laps in his Pro Modified car and then his iconic Top Fuel dragster.
“I went and ran the Pro Mod the first of the year after my crash because it’s a little bit easier to do physically inside the car, getting in and out and all that, than the Top Fuel car,” Palmer explained. “So I went and drove the Pro Mod and got used to how it pulls the g-force and all that. And then I got in the dragster, and that’s one thing that I had trouble with because I got started in the Top Fuel car so late that I had trouble. I just wasn’t as good driving the car as I should have been.”
Palmer’s muscle memory after 20 runs in the doorslammer was much better than the 11,000-horse dragster. Looking back, he figures he should have first made runs in the dragster.
“When you step on the gas in a Top Fuel car, the g-forces are so much more that it was definitely the wrong way to go,” Palmer explained. “So to be honest, coming out of the Top Fuel car, going back to the Pro Mod, is a lot more comfortable making that transition.”
Palmer expects that since he has made more runs in the Top Fuel dragster, where he ran four NHRA national events, he will need a few runs in the doorslammer to fully find his groove, literally.
“I’ll probably back up and put myself in the center of the groove like I’m in a dragster, but they’ll have to move me over to the left because I tend to do that,” Palmer admitted. “But other than that, it will be a good transition.”
Palmer loves Top Fuel racing, but the doorslammer experience is definitely in his wheelhouse of fun.
Once Palmer is done with this weekend’s event, he is leaving his Top Fuel rig, which he is using to transport the Pro Modified, at Mark Micke’s Florida-shop and headed back home to retrieve the new Studezilla V2.
“I’m taking it back down there to the second race, and I’m going to leave it down there and test it in the off-season,” Palmer said. “That’s going to be a perfect place to test it. I just haven’t had the time and ability because I hate to keep harping on the crash, but it’s taken me this long to actually be able to do some of the things I usually do.”
“They have bigger names in the sport going, but I doubt if they have a bigger name that loves drag racing more than me. I would have to argue with that because that’s pretty much all I do and all I think about, which is sometimes a curse.”
The crash might have hurt Palmer physically, and to a point psychologically, but there has been a core group of drag racing figures who picked him up and offered the encouragement to put the negativity in the rear-view mirror.
“Sometimes you can’t replace someone else having confidence [in you], and that means a lot to me,” Palmer said. “Between guys like Rodger Brogdon, Mark Micke, JR Sandlian, who has the red Chevelle, there’s no way I would be back out here.”
Try this on for size. Sandlian had the Studezilla V2 built and gave it to Palmer, and it almost beat him home from the hospital.
“People think, ‘Oh man, you rebounded fast,” Palmer said. “No. No, I lost everything in that car. But he bought that car. He sent it here because we do that together. So last year at this time, no chance I was going to drive a car in January.”
Then Micke got involved.
“Mark said, ‘Hey, if you put an automatic in a car, it’ll be easier to drive,” Palmer recalled. “You could probably get out there racing faster.”
“It’s not a small investment Mark made. He invested $40,000 worth of transmission stuff to put in my Corvette so I could go to Bradenton, but he didn’t do it because I was going to be good for his company. We’ve been friends for 30 years, racing friends, and basically, he did it to keep me motivated. It would be easy to get down when you get hurt.”
Stroud Safety Equipment also jumped in and helped get him back out there. PBR also shared their unwavering support. Then there was Mark Beatty at Red Line Oil, who constantly offered his support and encouragement.
“Situations like this separate those who say they missed you and then those who say they missed you and put their efforts where their talk is,” Palmer added.
And even though Palmer isn’t contractually bound to, his Corvette also bears the name of Brogdon’s RoofTec business. Brogdon regularly communicated with Palmer during his recovery and provided sponsorship for him to race Top Fuel at the final two NHRA events this season.
“What Rodger did helped me so much that even though the results didn’t show they should have at Pomona,” Palmer explained. “The car, I drove good. I just didn’t get aggressive enough. And that’s just the bottom line. That’s just what happened. I can live with that because I got back in the groove, and it wasn’t because of the wreck; it was because I hadn’t driven it all year until the end of the year.
“I painted cars in my garage my whole life and I made the most of what I had and didn’t concern myself with what I didn’t. My shop didn’t even have a paint booth. When I make the most of what I do have, it makes me happy for people to notice that I’m not giving up, and they believe in me enough to keep me going. It’s crazy. My Corvette is the PBR RoofTec car.
“What Rodger Brogdon did for me did more for my confidence than anyone will ever know. That’s why as long as I am out there racing, my cars will have RoofTec logos on them.”
And for Palmer, loyalty is a huge part of his racing brand. So is beating the odds, and he’s prepared to resume business.
