1987 Summernationals

It may not equal California Golden Bears center "Wrong Way" Roy Riegels' follies in the 1929 Rose Bowl game or Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall's forehead-slapper in a 1964 NFL game — both Riegels and Marshall picked up fumbled footballs and ran toward their own end zone instead of their opponents' — but Mark Oswald's drag racing "D'oh!" at the 1987 NHRA Summernationals made for one of Kenny Bernstein's most memorable outings at Englishtown's Old Bridge Township Raceway Park and one of the most unforgettable moments in that event's history.

Bernstein was in his Funny Car heyday in the mid-1980s, when he won four consecutive Funny Car championships (from 1985 to 1988) and entered that year's summer classic literally as hot as the weather. (Back then, the event was contested in the sweltering climes of July.) His radical Budweiser King Buick LeSabre had won three of the season's first six events and held a commanding points lead of nearly 1,600 points (almost two full races' worth) entering the event.

Kenny Bernstein locked horns with Mark Oswald in the final round of the 1987 Summernationals in a race that won't soon be forgotten. Oswald took the lead and appeared to be headed toward victory when he pulled the parachute too soon, allowing Bernstein to win by .002-second.

Bernstein opened the event in typical fashion, grabbing the No. 1 qualifying position with a 5.563 blast, more than two-hundredths ahead of Oswald's 5.586 from the Candies & Hughes Motorcraft Thunderbird, but the tide seemed to turn once eliminations got rolling.

Bernstein looked strong in round one, running a 5.57 to beat Johnny West in Roland Leong's Hawaiian Punch Dodge. In the same round, Oswald checked in with a routine 5.64 that rocked Bruce Larson's Sentry Gauges Beretta.

Oswald's red T-bird heated up with the temperature. He cranked out a stunning 5.52 in the 95-degree heat to set low e.t. of the event and defeat Billy Meyer in round two and followed with a 5.65 to trailer Don "the Snake" Prudhomme's Skoal Bandit Pontiac in round three. Bernstein, meanwhile, ran 5.62 to edge John Force, who an event earlier had finally claimed his first NHRA Wally at Le Grandnational in Canada, and 5.63 in the semifinals to best Mike Dunn, who in qualifying No. 3 with a 5.588 had set the national speed record at 270.43 mph with Joe Pisano's pretty Olds Firenza.

The immense turnaround by the Candies & Hughes camp stole a page from the Bernstein playbook; on many occasions throughout the season, Bernstein and crew chief Dale Armstrong snatched victory from the jaws of apparent defeat in just such a manner. Despite the Bud King's successes, Oswald had been quite a thorn in Bernstein's side. In 1986, Oswald bested Bernstein three times in final rounds and finished second in the standings behind Bernstein, and the week before the 1987 Summernationals, Oswald had sent Bernstein packing in the first round.

There was every reason to expect that Oswald would continue to have Bernstein's number in their final-round meeting in Englishtown.

The two staged under skies that had suddenly turned cloudy with lightning cackling on the horizon. No one expected a lightning strike at the track, but they got one.

Bernstein got the jump on Oswald at the green, .528 to .558, but the Candies & Hughes machine stormed around the Bud King at midtrack and seemed well on its way to an easy victory.

Bernstein reflects "Mark had us covered on that run, no doubt. He had it won. I could see him out there ahead of me, and then he just disappeared. I couldn't believe it. He told me later that he lost track of where he was; I know that's easy to do. Sometimes you get a little anxious on that chute or you think that you're farther down the track than you really are. "We were both a lot younger then and were still learning, but it taught me something very important that stays with me today: Never kick the chute out until you see the finish line go by. It's easy to anticipate the finish line and hit the chute at the right time, but you can pull the lever too early. I have done it before; I don't know if I've ever lost a race because of it, but I've done it. It's like throwing out an anchor. Even under full power, it'll slow you down."

"I saw him most of the way down the track," Bernstein said at the time, "but about the time we hit [the first timing] light, he disappeared from my view."

Quite simply, Oswald goofed.

With a strong lead over Bernstein and his car on a monster pass, Oswald threw out the parachutes and stepped off the gas well before the finish line, the chutes blossoming fully before he ever hit the win stripe. His run, still a wild 5.53 at only 232 mph, could well have been a high to mid-5.40 that could have stolen Bernstein's 5.48 national record for an additional 200 points; instead, it came in second to Bernstein's holeshot-aided 5.563, 265.33 by a mere .002-second.

"I made a mistake," Oswald admitted. "I shut it off a little too soon. I saw Kenny in low gear on the first part of the track, and then I lost him. I just lost him, and I felt like I had won the race."

Bernstein collected career win number 21 and left with a 2,334-point lead over Force en route to his second of four straight championships.