Interview by Jeff Burk and Darr Hawthorne
Photos by Tim Marshall, Steven Bunker and Darr Hawthorne

Bob Glidden is, by almost any set of criteria, the greatest Pro Stock racer the sport has ever produced. He is the only one who has won NHRA World Championships in both a Ford and a Mopar. He has had great success in every type of Pro Stock from NHRA small-block weight break racing to IHRA mountain-motor Pro Stock racing. He is known to be brutally frank and never politically correct. He is so honest that he outed himself about his team’s use of nitrous oxide in NHRA Pro Stock competition. He remains so popular with the fans that he is recognized everywhere he travels, even on the golf course. In recent years, since retiring as a full time Pro Stock team owner/driver, he has worked for numerous teams. He still occasionally races, as he did recently at the Street Car Supernationals in Las Vegas when he wheeled a ten-wide car. When he agreed to an interview at that race, DRO jumped at the chance. Bob didn’t disappoint us. Enjoy.

: What made you come out to race at the Street Car Supernationals at Las Vegas?

Bob Glidden: Well, one of Bill’s (Glidden) best friends is Kenny Perry, the Pro golfer and it’s his car, well Kenny was going to come out and run this event, but he wanted to go out and make some test runs a couple of weeks ago.  And as it happened one of his family became very ill and one of Kenny’s daughters got married last weekend, which they had planned, but would work around that.  So about a month ago, they decided it would be better if he didn’t (come here to race) and he asked me if I could come out and drive it and I said yes.

: In watching you go down a dragstrip, it doesn’t appear that  you’ve lost any of your driving talents.

BG: I don’t know about that. I’m old and things have changed. But you know Bill does a good job getting the car set up to where I can drive it. We’ve been pretty lucky so far.

: Are you having fun?