Jasmine Salinas was equally as shocked as everyone else when her father, Mike Salinas, decided to step out of his Top Fuel seat temporarily due to a few pressing health issues.
He informed his 32-year-old daughter the Friday before the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals — scheduled for March 21-24 — that she would be taking his place in the Scrappers Racing dragster.
“He’s like, ‘I need you to get on the phone with Rob (Flynn), Troy (Fasching), Arron (Cave) and Adem (Cave), all of our crew chiefs and car chiefs and let them know what’s going on,’” the young Salinas recalled.
The team was planning to hit the road for California on Tuesday, which gave the family-owned operation about two full days to secretly prepare for the switch. They broke the news to the crew and the rest of the world on Monday, March 18.
“I had been fitted and licensed in our spare car and I guess his (Mike’s) car, we later found that I fit a little differently in, so we had to make a lot of adjustments,” Salinas said.
The mad dash continued up until a few hours before she rolled onto In-N-Out Burger Pomona (Calif.) Dragstrip for her first Top Fuel qualifying session, when the Scrappers Racing team was scrambling to perform the final fitting.
“I love to prepare and overprepare for things and so that was really stressful,” Salinas said. “For Q1, there was a lot of nervousness and anxiousness in the pits. But I think once we got that out of the way, everyone was like, ‘OK cool, we got it.’”
While the entire situation was a bit unexpected, Salinas felt as prepared as she could be after spending the last four years racing in the Top Alcohol dragster ranks. She finished runner-up in the Top Alcohol national championship last season.
She also earned her Top Fuel license in 2023.
“We were really thoughtful with the licensing process. I could have easily been officially licensed in one test session, but we chose to extend it out over three sessions and really take my time with it. So I tested at three different race tracks at three different times throughout the year,” Salinas said.
The methodical testing rollout meant she also got to experience various weather conditions and a range of tracks in the team’s secondary car. The crew she obtained her license with just so happened to be her dad’s Top Fuel team.
“I already had a routine with them,” Salinas said. “That 100 percent took away a lot of the unknowns and all this extra anxiety I know I would’ve had (at Pomona), had it been with a team I’d never been with before.”
That didn’t necessarily mean it was any less intimidating when she lined up next to eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher to make her final qualifying run, but it certainly smoothed things out behind-the-scenes.
Salinas qualified 11th in the 15-car field, which set her up for a first-round matchup against reigning champion Doug Kalitta.
“It’s intimidating,” Salinas said about facing veteran competitors. “You have to respect what they’ve done in this sport and what they’ve dedicated their lives to…I think some of them have been racing longer than I’ve been alive, so you have to acknowledge that.”
A broken throttle cable turned out to be the disruptor of her Top Fuel debut, as she was unable to go down the track during first round.
“Stuff happens, that’s drag racing. There are a million things that can go wrong before you even get your car started. And I’ve learned to accept that and go through and process everything. But it was definitely frustrating,” Salinas said.
When considering the rushed timeframe, Salinas sees the Winternationals as a success.
“Had the throttle cable not broken, I was expecting that we were gonna be going rounds. That’s how confident I felt with this group of guys,” Salinas said. “I think it was a really great weekend and it’s just a sign of what’s to come.”
She’s not sure how long she’ll be the lead dragster driver at Scrappers Racing. Her dad is planning to return as soon as his health allows, which means Salinas is racing on borrowed time. However, she plans to make the most of her opportunity behind the wheel of her dad’s race-winning car for as long as she can.
“I think you make the most of it by just being grateful about it. Every single time, whether it’s my Alcohol car or the Top Fuel car, the moment they turn the motor over and start the car, I tell myself, ‘I’m so lucky and I’m so grateful to be here. Let’s have fun,’” Salinas said.
The eventual goal is to turn Scrappers Racing into a two-car operation. However, funding has only allowed for one dragster under the Salinas family banner.