PHOTOS: DAVID SMITH
Y, IT’S ALL NEW
known as the driver of Jay Blake’s familiar orange-and-blue Permatex machine since 2010.
Driving for Blake, the only blind crew chief in
motorsports, Veney won several NHRA divisional
and regional events, as well as his first national
event last year. He also earned the NHRA East
Region championship in 2012.
Outside of the driver’s seat, Veney first worked
as a writer and statistician for NHRA’s in-house
magazine National Dragster when he was fresh
out of college. It was a job that Veney enjoyed
having, and a job that enjoyed having Veney just
as much, as evidenced by the crowd of National Dragster staffers and media members who
August 2016
flocked to congratulate their former colleague
when he won the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk last year. Veney has
also written on a freelance basis for dozens of
publications, companies and fellow racers over
the years. He actually already had a full-time
job as a technical writer from his home base in
Indianapolis when he was offered the FOX gig.
At 50-years-old, Veney maintains both positions,
traveling to all 24 NHRA Mello Yello Series events
and completing his other work when the “LIVE”
light goes out. It’s an incredibly demanding schedule, and driving one of the best alcohol floppers
in the country just didn’t fit in.
“The whole thing just came out of nowhere,”
Veney said in his initial announcement. “I was
already entered for all 13 races this season, but
you can’t work a full-time job, do a TV show every other weekend, and race. This is probably
the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but
I’m going to be an actual grownup for once and
choose work over racing.”
Speaking to us between flights on the NHRA’s
“Western Swing”, Todd Veney revealed to Drag
Illustrated the reasoning behind his decision
and what racing life has been like since peeling
his name off the window of an alcohol Funny Car
and placing it on the back of a producer’s chair.
DragIllustrated.com
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