Racers Offer Comfort After Death of Friend

Rob Geiger got lost on the way to the hospital. He and Racers for Christ chaplain Larry Smiley flagged down a St. Louis police officer who escorted them to University Medical Center to see Darrell Russell.

Already there were drag racer Brandon Bernstein, team owner Kenny Bernstein and his wife, Sheryl.

There was also a hospital chaplain who delivered the news: “He didn’t make it.”

Russell was killed last Sunday after his top-fuel dragster crashed at more than 300 mph at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. Cut away from his driver compartment, which remained intact, he was airlifted to the hospital.

Russell and Geiger, a senior editor at NHRA.com, were from Houston, where they played golf, shared meals and hung out together. They roomed with each other on the road when their wives stayed home.

The only family they had in St. Louis was the NHRA. Yet, even family members who don’t always see eye-to-eye often see heart-to-heart when tragedy strikes.

“Kenny’s a hard guy to get along with,” said Geiger, who hadn’t missed a race since 1998. “But I know everything I need to know about Kenny Bernstein right now. He was a rock.”

Bernstein, a 25-year veteran of racing top-fuel and funny cars, had been down this road before.

“I kept telling Rob, ‘I know it’s hard, cry as much as you want, but try to be strong, that’s what Darrell would want you to do,’ ” he said. “And Rob was.”

In his last race, Russell had crossed the finish line a split-second behind Scott Kalitta, going 322 mph.

After Russell deployed his parachute, his left rear tire exploded. His car broke into three pieces and slid down the track in flames. Something cracked the back of Russell’s helmet, and he sustained massive head trauma.

The worst possible circumstance brought out the best in the NHRA family.

On the ride from the hospital back to the hotel Sunday, the elder Bernstein talked to his son, who missed the last 15 races last season because of a broken back after crashing in Englishtown, N.J.

“Brandon was very subdued and upset,” Kenny said. “I made it clear to him that if he didn’t feel comfortable driving these race cars, that if he didn’t want to do this, he didn’t have to. There was nothing expected of him.”

It wasn’t an issue.

“I know what the risks are in this sport, but it’s not going to stop me from getting in the race car,” Brandon said. “I know what happens when things go wrong.”

Brandon tested his car the next day, along with a handful of teams and their cars. But it was more quiet than usual.

Russell’s pit still had not been broken down for transport on the hauler. When the Joe Amato Racing team finally arrived Monday, members from every other team helped them pack up.

Though their public personas were miles apart, funny-car driver Whit Bazemore called Russell “the best kind of person. He wasn’t ever a bad loser. I never saw him angry.”

Bazemore spent Sunday night in the hotel room alongside Geiger, offering support and conversation and helping pack Russell’s belongings for the flight back to Houston. Clothes. Shaving kit. Wedding ring.

Russell, 35, had married his high school sweetheart, Julie Bermel. They dated for 10 years, were married for nine, and this summer planned to start a family.

On a 10-acre ranch in Hockley, just outside Houston, they had a couple of show horses and bred miniature donkeys and Jack Russell terriers.

“I’ve lost my best friend,” Julie Russell said in a statement, “and I see I’m not the only one.”

Burnell Russell, Darrell’s father, headed a family operation that included his wife, Gwen, when Darrell was racing a top-alcohol dragster in the 1990s. Another son, Chris, was Darrell’s crew chief, and together they won four titles -- in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 1999 -- before Darrell was hired by Amato.

Russell was rookie of the year in 2001, finished sixth in the drivers’ standings each of his first two seasons and fourth last year. He won six national events, including his professional debut, at Pomona.

John Force had tried to hire him before this season, but Russell remained loyal to Amato, despite what would have been a substantial salary increase.

His last victory, on June 13 in Columbus, Ohio, was on Amato’s 60th birthday.

Russell reached the semifinals a week later in Englishtown, and was the No. 1 qualifier at the St. Louis stop. After Sunday’s event, he was tied with two-time defending champion Larry Dixon for fourth place.

At the time of his death, Russell was at the top of his game.

Stunned by the news, every team had a story.

Tony Schumacher, like Russell a Catholic and his closest friend among the drivers, found comfort in fans who “reminded you of what you believe in, that he’s in a better place.”

Kalitta Racing had the greatest day in its history, with three dragsters in the semifinals and two in the finals, but there would be no victory celebration. Instead, they consoled anyone -- which was nearly everyone -- who needed consoling.

By the time Dixon’s team owner, Don Prudhomme, left the track Sunday night, he was already talking of increased head protection in the dragsters. Wednesday, the NHRA mandated it, along with a new tire type.

Few took news of the death harder than Wayne Dupuy, Russell’s crew chief.

Dupuy went over the checklist in his mind, beating himself up along the way.

Nearly every crew chief in the pits had assured him that he sent a good race car down the track. “It was a freak accident,” they told him.

Russell’s funeral service Friday in Tomball, Texas, was attended by more than 1,400. Tom Compton, NHRA president, left his family on vacation in Europe to be there. Russell, the neighborhood fix-it guy, was eulogized as the nicest man in drag racing.

“When you have a lot of the racers come around and comfort you, it tends to relieve the pain a bit,” Burnell Russell said before the services Thursday. “It’s a tight-knit group that would cut each other’s throat on the track but kill for each other in the pits.

“With the outpouring from all over the world, it’s been a bit mind-boggling.”