Never mind what was going on at the racetrack. Khalid alBalooshi had a lot to learn before he simply could get dinner on the table at his new digs in Los Angeles.
 
The second-year Top Fuel driver has been learning how to cook for himself and is proud to declare that he knows how to prepare, if nothing else, a tasty lamb or chicken and rice entrée. He said that took him about 10 or 15 tries to find the right technique in the kitchen.
 
“In our home, life is way different,” the native of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said, stretching out the word “way.” He said, “Every family has two or three people working 24 hours, doing everything in the home. But you show up here [in the United States] and you have to do everything for yourself.”
 
What alBalooshi is accomplishing in the kitchen he can compare with his learning curve on the National Hot Rod Association dragstrips in the Al-Anabi Racing Dragster. To his credit at both endeavors, he doesn’t set things on fire — and he’s seeing progress.
 
His Jason McCulloch-led team definitely is cooking. The recipe for success is a combination of more seat time for alBalooshi, a better handle on the tune-up and general set-up, and encouragement from his crew members.
 
Especially helpful in motivating al Balooshi is newest team member (but veteran drag-racing hand) David Karcanes — a.k.a. “Shafty,” who left John Force Racing and Robert Hight’s Funny Car crew after last season and rejoined Alan Johnson, the Al-Anabi Racing Team manager.
 
“He’s a real motivator. Balooshi works really well with motivation,” McCulloch said. “We want him to know he’s our driver, we’re a team, and we’re behind him.”
 
“Shafty has brought a spark to our team. His positive attitude, his outgoingness . . . If you’ve been around Shafty, you know what I’m talking about. He’s full of energy, and it’s infectious. He straps Balooshi in, and he’s the last guy to talk to Balooshi [before he makes a run]. He’s the perfect guy for it.”

The story last July at Denver, where alBalooshi broke his 12-race jinx, was that McCulloch pinned a note of encouragement onto al Balooshi’s fire suit. The note was on there, but McCulloch said, “It wasn’t from me. We have a guy, Kevin [Eckstein, the tire specialist]. He’ll leave notes to everybody. He’ll leave notes to Alan. And he’ll sign them ‘Jason.’ “
 
Regardless of the sources, McCulloch said, “Every Sunday it’ll be something to motivate” the 33-year-old driver who’ll turn 34 July 27.

 
Actually, seeing how far he has come in the Top Fuel class could be motivation enough for alBalooshi, who came to the Top Fuel ranks as the reigning NHRA Pro Modified champion.
 
This driver — the first Middle Eastern driver to compete in a major U.S. motorsports series — experienced the ultimate frustration as Top Fuel rookie in 2012. Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, the Al-Anabi team owner, hired alBalooshi as a Pro Mod driver when he formed his diverse organization in 2009, and  alBalooshi raced in both the Arabian Drag Racing League and American Drag Racing League. Besides bringing the 2011 Get Screened America Pro Mod championship to the Top Fuel table, he had earned 158 career victories in various forms of competition.

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

But he couldn’t win a first-round race in his first 12 tries. But 2012 told a true tale of sudden improvement. After he won that first elimination round at Denver, alBalooshi advanced to at least the second round of eliminations at 10 of the last 11 races of the season, including the final nine. And then came his breakthrough victory at Reading, where he defeated eventual series champion Antron Brown in the final round.
 
This year, he kept his momentum going. With his quarterfinal appearance at Topeka, alBalooshi arrived at Englishtown, N.J., with eight round-wins in the season’s first eight races. Last year, his eighth round-win came in his 21st race. He has qualified in the top six at six of the season’s eight races, including No. 2 April 27 at Houston.

alBalooshi hasn’t led the field yet or made the Countdown to the championship. So he still has goals to achieve.
 
He said he didn’t really long to go back to Pro Modified action when all seemed  hopeless early last year. However, he said, “When I start, everything’s been way different for me. The big things what I miss are I miss the winners circle. I miss keeping winning. But when I get my first win, in Reading, I feel way different.
 
“I’m more comfortable in the car. Everything’s been way better,” alBalooshi said. “When I started, it was hard. There was a lot of pressure because I was the new guy with a championship team. Now I am more relaxed, more confident, and what I am 100-percent sure about is that the more you keep doing something, the more you will relax. In any job, you will have bad pressure when something is new, but it will get better and better the more you do it. Our team is not racing with a rookie driver anymore.”

 
Teammate Shawn Langdon said he understood: “Balooshi was just in a huge learning curve. I’ve been there. My first year I was the same way. At the end of the year the team chemistry started to click a little bit more. Balooshi kind of came into his own element a little bit more. He started to understand what was going on. He started to understand the cars. He started to understand the crew chief. The crew chief started to understand him.

“They should be a top-10 team, no problem — hopefully a top 5, even a championship contender,” Langdon said. “Hopefully we can end the year with the Al-Anabi cars [Nos.] 1 and 2. That’s our plan.”
 
McCulloch said he’s pleased with the progress, emphasizing that alBalooshi’s inexperience in Top Fuel wasn’t the entire reason for the 2012 struggles.
 

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

“Last year, yes, he was a rookie driver, and we had lost a lot of rounds on reaction times. But the performance of the car wasn’t there, either,” McCulloch said. “I’m never going to point the finger at him. The performance of the car was not there. And he didn’t come back and point fingers and [act] negative and he wasn’t throwing a fit. You’re not going to find a more positive guy. He was positive through the whole thing about everything. He’s still positive — win, lose, or draw, he’s still very positive. And that goes a long way in a team sport.
 
“It was the car way more than it was him, and I’ll take the blame for that,” McCulloch said.
 
He said alBalooshi had to win over his own crew last season: “My team last year, at the beginning of the year, didn’t know Balooshi. But now that they know Balooshi, they’re his biggest cheerleaders.”

McCulloch blamed the misunderstanding on several factors. First, he guessed that the crew had been spoiled with three-time champion Larry Dixon and “weren’t very supportive” of the notion of a driver change. They enjoyed winning.
 
“We started off and we were losing rounds on hole shots,” McCulloch said. “I was in their shoes at one time, but I think that the older you get, you understand that things take awhile. When you’re younger, in your 20s, you want success and you want it right now, not remembering that someone along the lone somebody had to teach you and be patient with you.
 
“Sheikh Khalid has the faith in him. Alan Johnson has the faith in him. I’m working with him,” the crew chief said. “We’re eventually going to get there.”

alBalooshi never used the word “intimidating,” but McCulloch figured the driver might have added pressure to himself because of Alan Johnson’s experience and strong reputation.
 
“I’ve worked for, or with, Alan Johnson for a lot of years now, and just because Alan is so good, it’s kind of intimidating for anybody,” McCulloch said. “I’ve learned not to be intimidated by it, but I can see easily where some drivers and [other] people are intimidated by it. You want to be as good as he is, to his level, as good as you can be.”

 Said alBalooshi, “Al-Anabi for five years has been one of the top teams in the show.” He said last year he noticed both McCulloch and crew chief Brian Husen constantly were “trying a lot of stuff on both cars. They keep trying something new, keep trying something new, keep trying something new. And this is one of the good things. The cars will be faster and faster and more consistent.”
 
His assessment of last year was: “It was not my fault. It was not Jason’s fault. Sometimes I catch a good light. The car has been flying. I do everything and I keep losing. I think I don’t find good luck in the beginning of the year last year. I hope this year everything will be far better. So far so good.”
 
As he knocked on the door to a top-five place in the standings, alBalooshi’s performance definitely is far better. He’s on Top Fuel’s front burner.
 
Maybe he will learn to bake a cake in celebration.