The sentimentality goes out the window when he the car fires for battle.
That’s precisely how Top Fuel dragster driver Mike Salinas sees it.
Salinas, sidelined for all but one race in the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, makes his return at the second annual SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla., after being sidelined with a medical issue. His heart ailment began to manifest itself in a big way last year at the event, and though he ran the NHRA Gatornationals, it was this event that put him on notice that something was awry.
As he returns to the event, Salinas will likely have a heart issue of another kind.
There’s a very good chance when he rolls his Scrappers Racing flagship dragster to the starting line; he will look over on the starting line at Bradenton Motorsports Park and see daughter Jianna in the other Scrappers team car.
It was Jianna who had a stressful situation dumped in her lap when her father went down, and by all accounts, she handled the challenge with true grit. Some might have been surprised at how well she adapted. Consider the elder Salinas as one of those who expected it.
Salinas was raised where he had to earn everything he got. The tradition didn’t skip a generation.
So, for those thinking Salinas might have a sentimental feeling towards his kid and let her get a win, they obviously don’t know him. Even though he made test runs after last year’s Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Vegas, he might have to fight to keep up with her. In other words, Salinas and the drag racing watched as she stepped up her game with each outing.
“I’ve never been one to let my daughters win,” Salinas said. “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.”
And, when he was standing behind the car, Jianna made it crystal clear she was just like Pops.
“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 added. “In reality, I’m just really glad that he’s returning to the cockpit because I know how much he’s missed it. The SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout is so cool, and drivers have been raving about it all year. I’m honored to be a part of it for the first time and look forward to applying everything I’ve learned since I made my Top Fuel debut back in March.”
So where did all this cut-no-slack mentality come from the Salinas family display?
Mike Salinas Sr., Salinas’ father and Jianna’s grandfather, was a rigid military man with a no-nonsense approach to life.
In an excerpt from a June 2023 article in CompetitionPlus.com, Salinas shared his memories of growing up, and while he was never in the military like his father, you grew up feeling as if you had signed up for enlistment.
“We had a dirt driveway and we would use the giant push broom to sweep it,” Salinas recalled in the article. “If the lines were crooked, he would make you do it again. The driveway was long and he wanted those lines, the dirt lines, straight. All the little rocks because we couldn’t afford concrete at the time, all the little rocks on the side, you had to line them up. He wanted everything perfect all the time.”
Salinas does not have one bit of regret about the way he grew up. As he put it, “I started companies and I knew that they were because of him.”
Mike Sr. passed away in 2020.
Salinas smiles when he recalls a conversation he had with his dad on the way to watch the drag races in Bakersfield, CA.
“We were talking on the way to the races, and we were laughing about how hard and tough he was,” Salinas said. “It was silly because he goes, ‘You were a hard head — you bucked all the way. But that’s why you’re where you’re at. It’s funny that I look at your children, and you’re pretty hard on them.”
The day Salinas had to step out of the Top Fuel dragster cockpit and away from the team only validated his approach to make them earn everything child-rearing.
“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. “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.”
And they are a family that works daily for excellence.
