Kenny Youngblood is a complicated guy. He's most recognizable as the premiere motorsports artist. You've seen his work even if you're not into art, because he's done race-car graphics for more than 50 years, including a lot of early Funny Cars needing an artists touch to mimic headlights and grilles on flopper bodies. His art, posters, and prints have been around for decades, and you probably have some framed in your house. He also drove A/Fuel dragsters in the 1960s. He has managed numerous racing teams, including a couple of Top Fuel efforts. He started a Christian counseling ministry called Always An Answer. He says, "I love the Lord, but you'd have to knock me out and drag me to get me into a church." See what we mean? He's represented major companies with his hand-drawn, personalized, giveaway drawings at many races and events. He most recently put his online Fuel Coupe Magazine on hiatus, a project he churned out monthly for two years. And he's an author. He's finishing up his first book on relationships and has more on his list. He's got lots of stories from the golden age of drag racing, too, so we've included a few along with how he ended up being the Michelangelo of Motorsports.

* HOTROD.COM/Thom-Taylor

HRM] Let's start by asking about your first dragster in the mid-1960s, an A/Gas dragster...

KY] A/Fuel! A/Fuel, please! When I started building my first dragster, I thought it would take a while, so I thought I'd start with A/Gas. It took a year or so to finish, so in my mind I'm going faster and faster, so by the time I finished it had to be with nitro.

HRM] Were you any good?

KY] I believe I was great at driving, but not so good as a mechanic. Deep down I knew it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. I felt like the kid with his hand in the cookie jar, but there was nobody else to drive the thing and it was like being in the Army--I did it, but I wouldn't do it again.

HRM] But you love drag racing--isn't driving the ultimate?

KY] Yeah, but that's not what the good Lord wanted me to do. I got out of it in 1969. But I had another opportunity; with my partner from the 1960s, we built a beautiful nostalgia dragster in 2002. I was fitted for the car and it was tempting, but all along I knew I shouldn't do this and Tom Poindexter drove instead. There's nothing like stepping on that tire, putting my legs down into a slingshot, and sliding down into that seat with my legs over the rear end--it's a real sensual experience.

HRM] That sounds like you feel you should have stuck with it?

KY] To me, there's three kinds of drivers: there's guys like me having fun and doing a good job. I really didn't care who won or lost, and if they beat me it didn't...