Four-time NHRA champion Gary Scelzi used to have a comedic shtick in which he would imitate how nonchalant and easy it was to drive a six-second Pro Stock car down a dragstrip in comparison to an über-intense, on-the-wheel, nitro-powered blast in less than four seconds.

Dave Connolly is the lone individual who is qualified either to debunk or verify Scelzi’s premise. He’s the only one who can say he has spent a measurable amount of time in both kinds of pro-class vehicles.

The new Top Fuel convert’s take: “I might not be as busy pulling a lever in there, but there’s a lot going on in these cars. Just keeping them in the groove and getting from A to B is quite a task.”

Connolly, the new C&J Energy Services Dragster driver, said early on, “You are never going to feel comfortable behind the wheel of something that makes 10,000 horsepower.” However, he’s starting to get the hang of it, despite first-round exits at Pomona and Phoenix at the start of this Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

Even in his rather low-key public persona, the boyish 32-year-old clearly is ga-ga about succeeding team owner Bob Vandergriff in the seat of the dragster, and he’s definitely on the edge of glory with this past week’s announcement that heralded tuner Jason McCulloch has joined his crew.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Pro Stock racing, love all aspects of it, love the technology, but it’s just when you think drag racing, [a Top Fuel car is] the first one to the finish line. These things are going a thousand feet in 3.7 seconds and 330 miles an hour. That alone kind of sold the deal for me,” Connolly said. “I must say it’s kind of grabbed a hold of me tightly. It’s very addicting, and I think I’m going to really enjoy just getting to race Top Fuel for a full season.

“The G-meter doesn’t stop going. They continue to accelerate all the way down the track. It’s a fun ride for 1,000 feet, not 900 but 1,000,” he said of a dragster. “These things are impressive. The amount of power that they can apply to the racetrack continually for that period of time and go for 1,000 feet, you’re covering up the last 320 or 340 feet of the track in about seven-tenths of a second. And to me that’s just mind-blowing.”

McCulloch’s jump from an uncertain future with sponsorship-needy Alan Johnson Racing to momentum-gaining Bob Vandergriff Racing to assist crew chief Kurt Elliot underscores Connolly’s natural ability.

“The chance to put Dave Connolly in the winner’s circle really got my attention,” McCulloch said. “I’ve watched Dave for years, and I’m glad someone finally put him behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster. He’s been successful in everything he’s driven, and he’s going to do the same in Top Fuel. I’m excited for the opportunity to work with Kurt.”

McCulloch echoed Vandergriff’s enthusiasm about seeing Connolly – who has won in the Super Comp, Super Gas, and Top Dragster classes – develop as a Top Fuel frontrunner.

“I’ve followed Dave Connolly’s career for a long time. I’m impressed [that] everything he’s been in how good he’s been at it. When you replace yourself, you always want to find the best possible candidate. He’s going to do good in anything he gets in. I’m excited to see what he can do in this car. It’s going to be fun for me to teach somebody like that, just to see his eyes.

“I think he’s going to be great, and I think he’s going to be one of the missing pieces of our puzzle we’ve needed. It’s something I can build for the future, because of his age. We’re going to do this for the next three or four or five years or whatever. It’ll be nice to build around somebody like that.”

Abandoned by former protégé JR Todd, who took a spur-of-the-moment opportunity last April to drive full time for Kalitta Motorsports, Vandergriff got reinforcement from a surprising source that he had made the right decision in hiring Connolly to fill the seat and let him run the business of his race team.

“I think he’s a great driver. I think Vandergriff made an excellent choice,” Tony Schumacher said of Connolly. However, the eight-time and current Top Fuel champion said, “It’s going to take him time to get used to a Top Fuel car. There’s so much that’s different. But he understands how to race. He’s got the perfect attitude, and he’s a good athlete. All those things are going to play right into it, and he’ll go out and make some laps, and he’ll get used to it and become a great driver like everyone expects. That’s why Bob put him in the car.

“No matter what he does, he’s an athletic kid. He’s focused. He knows how to study and pay attention,” Schumacher said. Then, likening him to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown, who made the switch to Top Fuel from the equally incomparable Pro Stock Motorcycle class, Schumacher said, “Antron was especially good at listening to guys that know what they’re doing. If I was going to step in, I would watch somebody like Antron: ‘He’s winning races. What does he do different?’ You can listen and pay attention. Or you can be stubborn and try to do it your way. Most of the smart drivers listen.”

Count Connolly as a listener and a learner.

As predicted, Connolly right away expressed a healthy respect for a Top Fuel dragster. Just the same, he didn’t talk about any paralyzing fear or rule out the possibility of winning races sooner than some might expect.

“It’s bad-ass. It sets you back in the seat, that’s for sure,” Connolly said, grinning, when he climbed from the C&J Energy Services entry last Nov. 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway following his first-ever run in the 300-inch-wheelbase beast. Then he told Vandergriff, “We’re going to have some fun with that.”

But Connolly has no delusions that he’s going to have perfect control over that tameless animal.

“You’re covering so much ground in such a little amount of time, any little movement or small mistake turns into a big one in a hurry,” Connolly said. “Just getting adapted with the speed rate is the biggest challenge so far.”

Even with seven test passes in December and an eventful January test in Florida (in which he said he experienced “tire shakes, smoking the tire early, smoking the tire downtrack, even blew up a few times,” along with his first 3.70-second elapsed time), Connolly called himself “very, very green to the class still” and said, “Top Fuel session 101 is definitely in order.”

He said, “I’ve been able to experience a lot, and I’ve really grown to appreciate the car. These Top Fuel cars are the baddest things on the planet. There’s no way to prepare for it. These cars are so impressive. They just set you back in the seat the whole way down the track.”

His preseason turns in the car, he said, have “kind of opened my eyes quite a bit to what kind of monsters these Top Fuel cars are. I’ve never experienced anything like these kind of cars. The G-forces that they pull all the way down the track is pretty much incredible. They just pull from 200 feet to 700 feet. These things are really covering up some ground and can really set you back in the seat.

“I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’ve got a lot of confidence in the team Bob has put together,” Connolly said.

That includes three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon as his teammate.

“Between Bob and Larry, you’re talking about 40 years’ experience behind the wheel. Larry has been a very big help, and any questions that I may have and even things that he foresees me maybe experiencing, he’s kind of given me a heads-up on. Having those guys in your corner is going to be a huge factor in speeding up the learning process.”

Connolly said he has the tools to build a successful rookie Top Fuel season (although “rookie” seems like an odd word to describe him, considering his 162 races and 26 victories in 46 final rounds and last year posting his fourth No. 3 showing in the final standings).

“We’ve got great crew chiefs [including Mike Guger and Joe Barlam] and an alliance with Don Schumacher Racing, and Bob Vandergriff has done a very good job of putting the right people in place, so to go out there and sell ourselves short just because of lack of experience, I don’t want to do that,” Connolly said. “Anything can happen on Sunday. We’ve all seen that in drag racing. All I can do is just go out there and just keep learning and keep that competitiveness.

“Obviously right now I feel like the weak link because of lack of experience, but again, you’re only lack of experienced because you haven’t had the opportunity or the time. Bob is giving that to us, and we’re just going to try to make this process as fast as possible and get to the level of confidence where we feel we can go out there and win on a regular basis,” he said. “We’re going to give it our all and work as hard as we can and go out there and try to bang heads with these guys. But I know there’s a lot of talented people in the class, and it’s going to be a dogfight at the end.”

And he indicated he has no reason to think he won’t be in the mix.