Kenny Bernstein

Kenny Bernstein began his pro career in the late 1960s in Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, and in 1973 reached the Funny Car finals at the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif. Returned to racing in 1978, and a year later was the Funny Car winner at the NHRA Cajun Nationals at Baton Rouge, La. In 1980, he began an association with the Budweiser brand of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., which stands as the longest-running active team/sponsor partnership in motorsports.

A four-time NHRA Winston Funny Car Champion, and also an IHRA Winston World Championship Funny Car crown to his credit, he is a seven-time AARWBA Auto Racing All-American. Bernstein earned the title “King of Speed” when he became the first NHRA driver to break the elusive 300 mile-per-hour barrier when he was clocked at 301.70 mph on March 20, 1992, during qualifying for the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla. He was the first to reach 310 mph, when he was clocked at 311.85 mph on October 30, 1994, at Pomona Calif. Holds the unique distinction of being the first and only race team owner to have collected wins in each of America’s three major motorsports series — NHRA Winston Drag Racing, NASCAR Winston Cup and IndyCar.

Bernstein won the 1996 NHRA Winston Top Fuel Championship becoming the first driver to win NHRA championships in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. He was honored at the 1997 Car Craft awards banquet by receiving the prestigious Ollie Award with Dale Armstrong for all of their years of dedication to the sport of NHRA Winston Drag Racing. Inducted into Petersen Publishing HOT ROD Magazine’s Hall of Fame as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People within the high performance industry.

He won his second NHRA Top Fuel championship in 2001, by virtue of eight national event wins. In 2001, he won 61 rounds of competition, setting an NHRA record for the number of Top Fuel rounds won in a season, a record that was intact at the end of Bernstein’s driving career. In 2001 he set both ends of the world performance records, speed (332.18 mph) and elapsed time (4.477 seconds), records that were still unbroken at the end of Bernstein’s 2002 driving career. Also in 2001, he was voted in the top ten drivers in NHRA’s 50-year history. In 2003, Bernstein competed in 15 NHRA national events, substituting for his son who was injured May 18 in Englishtown, N.J. Bernstein won four of the last five events of the ’03 season, amassing 39 Top Fuel victories boosting him to second on the all-time Top Fuel win list, surpassing the legendary Don Garlits. His 39 Top Fuel victories, combined with 30 Funny Car victories, make him No. 2 on the career nitro (Top Fuel and Funny Car) win list. Also, Bernstein surpassed 1000 rounds of competition, which ranks him No. 2 on the all-time list of nitro category career rounds of competition.

In 2005 Bernstein was named by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association as one of 12 nominees for the Newsmaker of the Half-Century award. In April of 2006, he was inducted into the Texas Motor Sports Hall of Fame during a gala at the Texas Motor Speedway. Bernstein staged an NHRA comeback in 2007 driving a Monster Energy/Lucas Oil Dodge Charger Funny Car and finished runner-up twice. At the end of the 2007 season, he made a decision to step from the cockpit and continue his role as owner of the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster and the Monster Energy Funny Car.