POMONA, Calif. — Less than two weeks after his sons Jon, 17, and James, 12, were killed in a North Carolina traffic accident, and only eight days after a memorial service for the boys, Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert was racing again and steering his energy toward a safe-driving campaign targeted at teenagers.
“I’m going to try to do good things to keep other kids safe, because I don’t want anybody else to go  through what I went through,” he said after the season’s first qualifying run at the Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals. “I want to make a difference…with driving-age kids. They’ve got to understand how serious the consequences can be.”
The boys, students at SouthLake Christian Academy in Huntersville, N.C., were killed Jan. 26 when their car collided with another vehicle in the town of Lake Norman.
“I’ve been to my kids’ school three or four times over the past couple of weeks,” Herbert said. “We’re setting up a foundation for safe driving. The kids are coming up with videos. The guys at ESPN are going to help us with some videos. We’re going to come up with a DVD and maybe some 30-second commercials.”
Herbert said Jon’s senior classmates suggested a Web site that will be called www.onthebrakes.com. BRAKES, he said, stands for “Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe.”
 The message is imperative, he said, because young drivers often think they’re invincible.

“You’ve got to grab your kids and hug ’em and you’ve got to tell ’em you love them. You just never know when you’re not going to have another chance." — Doug Herbert

“When you’re 16 or 17 — I should probably have been dead 10 times — but you don’t think about it. You don’t realize there are consequences — and there are serious consequences. I think kids don’t think about that,” Herbert said. “I know there are a lot of kids at SouthLake Christian Academy who are thinking about it, and there are a lot of kids all over thinking about it. And I’m getting them to help me come up with the messages, because they’d look at me, like my kids, and say, ‘Ah, Dad, you’re old.’ They wouldn’t listen to me, but they’d listen to other kids. We’re going to get this message across.”
He has a message for parents, too.
“The last thing I was able to say to my boys was told them I love them, and they told me they love me,” Herbert said. “You’ve got to grab your kids and hug ’em and you’ve got to tell ’em you love them. You just never know when you’re not going to have another chance. I’m lucky that’s what I got.”
Herbert has a 9-year-old daughter, Jessie. “It’s tough on her,” he said, “because James was her best friend. She sent a text message when she got out of school today, said, ‘Dad. I was looking for James and he wasn’t here.’ It’s kind of tough. No, it’s not kind of tough; it’s tough — it’s really tough.”
But he indicated that he’ll move forward with his “For My Boys” Tour as well.
“We’re always motivated, but I’ve got a little bit of extra motivation. We’re calling this [season] “For My Boys” [tour]. We’re going to win races and win the championship, because that’s what you’ve got to do.”
Friends helped him though some of his toughest days. They included NASCAR legend Bobby Allison, who lost sons Clifford and Davey in racing-related crashes, and former Rusty Wallace crew chief Barry Dodson, who about 13 years ago lost his teenage children (Trey, 17, and Tia, 16) — neither of whom was driving — in an alcohol-related car accident in Darlington, S.C.
NASCAR figures Robin Pemberton and Ray Evernham joined drag-racing legends Shirley Muldowney and Don Schumacher and Herbert’s Snap-on teammate/Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Steve Johnson  among the crowd of friends at the service.
“I didn’t know how many friends I had. You really find out your friends,” Herbert said, “and I’ve got a lot of them. I’ve been lucky. Nothing that anybody can say really fixes it. But just knowing that you’ve got friends and some things they say, you know, they help.”
For Herbert, delivering his sons’ eulogy, he said, was “maybe the hardest thing I ever did. You never think you’re going to do that. I felt like if I didn’t, I was going to regret it for the rest of my life. I got up there and I had tears coming down my face, but I kept talking. I don’t even know what I said, to be honest with you, but I talked.
“My life’s changed forever,” Herbert said, “but I’m going to do the best I can to help.” He said the foundation he’s planning “is kind of selfish, because I’m making myself feel good.”
Surely saving lives, then, will make him feel even better.