"It was warfare out there": Racers Roundtable with Shirley Muldowney and Don Garlits

When you think about rivalries in motorsport, Shirley Muldowney vs Don Garlits is right up there with Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna. But neither Prost nor Senna ever got to the point of having have to race while their two main crew members were handcuffed in the back of a police car. Nor did either of them threaten to go and fetch their gun.

“I’d get down into Garlits country, and the fans were hard to deal with, you know? It got physical a couple times,” Muldowney recalls in this episode of Racer’s Roundtable.

“My son tapped a few, and in Seattle, they had him in handcuffs. Of course, I’m in the hunt for the win, and this was ’81. Some spectator made a comment, and John punched him, and the cop happened to see it. And they put him in the backseat of the car, and my crew chief came over to fight for him, and they locked him up in the backseat as well.

“So, I have my two main guys in handcuffs and nobody to work on the car for the next round. Well, everybody that was anybody decided they’re gonna get… a lot of showoffs out there, all right? They were gonna get in the act. They were gonna be part of the show. So I went to the starting line. I made the run, and it did a crazy, crazy wheel stand, and it carried the frontend a long way. They had put the discs in backwards. And I was able to make the run like that, but by that time, a local business guy – wish I could remember his name – he was a friend to everyone out there, and he owned a competition facility that provided components for the racers.

"And what he did was, he went to the police chief; called him. The police chief called the boys and said, “Let them go. Well, let them go.” So they were able to come back and work on the car.

“And here we are in the final. No wheelstand, just straight as an arrow, and we did win the race, but all of this excitement, everything going on, and I’m trying to win a drag race.”

Remarkably, that wasn’t as bad as things got during the height of their rivalry, as Muldowney recalls.

“He would cheat,” Muldowney said. “He would cheat on lane choice. He would just automatically just take the lane he wanted, and that was a game that he played on a regular basis, so lo and behold, we mixed it up over that.

“I think it was LaPlace, Louisiana, and he had (crew chief) Herb Parks working…”

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Garlits interjects.

“Yeah, I’m sure you do,” Muldowney responds. “Well, I threatened to shoot Herb Parks if he came out. He was gonna teach John a lesson, and there he is, at the end of the racetrack, and John’s running around the car, trying to put space between him and Herb, and Herb was gonna teach him a lesson.

“I said to Herb, 'If we get back to the pits, I’m gonna go in my trailer, and when I come out, I’m gonna be 10 feet tall.' In other words, I’m gonna come out with my piece. I mean, it got really nasty, so thank goodness we remained friends… I threatened to shoot him, you know, and I was dead-ass serious.”

Of course, that rivalry had its roots in the deep respect each racer had for the other, and over the years that respect has developed into genuine friendship. Enjoy the full conversation between two giants of drag racing below, moderated by Danny Sullivan and Tony Stewart.