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By Susan Wade August 20, 2018NBC-TV has a new drama series that will debut this fall about a relatively uneventful airline flight that lands – and the passengers learn the world has aged five years. Researchers in Poland this summer unearthed a time capsule filled with Nazi artifacts and propaganda from 1934, and a historical monument restorer in Vermont discovered a time capsule from the early 1900s. The 1985 movie “Back to the Future” and all of its coattail merchandise still are popular.Everyone seems to be fascinated with time travel, time capsules, and time warp. So maybe longtime Pro Stock driver Mark Pawuk picked a perfect time to return to the drag-racing scene.

After slipping away for nearly a dozen years, “The Cowboy” is back in the saddle – in a second Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak for Don Schumacher Racing, as a teammate to moonlighting Top Fuel ace Leah Pritchett in the SAM Tech NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Series.

Pawuk missed the cut in his first NHRA appearance since the 2006 Richmond, Va., race. But once crew chief Kevin Helms had his Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger entry operating properly the following weekend, at Norwalk, Ohio, Pawuk looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.

I was really struggling. I wanted to finish my career on a high. I ran good for a lot of years, but I really struggled the last few years. I didn’t want to finish my career the way I did.He qualified second and finished as runner-up to back-to-back winner Joe Welch … by the length of a yardstick (.0113-second). So Mark Pawuk sat on the sidelines for 271 NHRA national events races, then qualified No. 2 and advanced to the final in only his second race back on the tour. No one in recent memory has accomplished such a revival.

“You don’t know how bad that hurt. I thought I had it won. Would that have been a hell of a comeback or what?” Pawuk said of the narrow Norwalk loss, signaling his competitive spirit. “My home track, where I’ve raced from the ‘70s, and I came back there after almost a 12-year hiatus, go to finals, and almost win … it’s just awesome.” Especially attractive is this Factory Stock Showdown class, which has awakened the memories of a Pro Stock class brimming with fierce rivalries and fan fervor.“What’s really cool about Factory Stock is that you’ve got all three manufacturers involved again,” Pawuk said. “The fans are enjoying it. We do wheelies. My first run at Norwalk, the first full run I’ve made since 2006, the wheels were two feet up in the frickin’ air and I’m hanging on for dear life! I haven’t done that in years! It was like, ‘Holy moly!’ It got my attention. These cars weigh 1200 pounds more than my Pro Stock car did, and they’re running 8.0s at 170 miles an hour! The fans are lovin’ it!”Teams in this class receive their supercharged cars from the factories. Then they are permitted to modify them within the rules. And these cagey crew chiefs – such as Pawuk’s and Pritchett’s four-time sportsman-level driving champion Helms – have these 3,550-pound-minimum-weight cars pumping out more than 1100 horsepower. Pawuk, an Akron-Cleveland-area native, finally has the chance to race at Norwalk, Ohio’s Summit Motorsports Park, which was the IHRA’s crown-jewel track for all of his previous career. And now he will have the experience at competing on Bruton Smith’s “Bellagio of Dragways,” zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C., which the NHRA added after Pawuk took to the sidelines. Like the E3/J&A Service Pro Mod Series racers, Pawuk said he appreciates only a handful of events each year. He still operates Empaco Equipment Corporation, a company that serves thepetroleum storage and dispensing industry. And he and wife Bonnie are active in the lives of 21-year-old son Kyle, a senior football letterman at the University of San Diego, and his younger sister Kassandra, a Hospitality Management student at the University of Central Florida and an intern with Don Schumacher Racing’s program.

“It’s really cool to be back. I like the abbreviated schedule. I like being able to race in Norwalk. Gainesville was one of my favorites. I always like Bristol,” Mark Pawuk said. “Having a [shorter] season where I can still spend time with my family, still be able to go to football games, still be able to work like I need to work, and seeing the excitement in this class right now and the competition and Don giving me the opportunity to be able to drive one of his cars and be a part of the Schumacher Racing organization – which, to me, is the finest organization in motorsports – it’s pretty awesome and its gives me the opportunity to kind of rejuvenate my career.”