The following are excerpts from a national media teleconference featuring three drivers previewing the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series: Dave Connolly and Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and John Force (Funny Car). The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season begins at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 5-8 in Pomona, Calif.
THE MODERATOR: Dave, thank you for joining us today. Have you gotten used to that title of Top Fuel driver and how did testing go for you guys?
DAVE CONNOLLY: Yeah, that’s funny. I would have never dreamed that it would have been Dave Connolly, Top Fuel for sure. I’ve always kind of grown up in the Pro Stock ranks. It’s been a fun journey so far, I’ve got to be honest with you. It’s kind of opened my eyes quite a bit to what kind of monsters these Top Fuel cars are. It’s been a fun test session so far. We’ve got to experience a lot of different things, tire shakes, smoking the tire early, smoking the tire down track, even blew up a few times, so we’re trying to get all the things of Top Fuel racing out of the way early in the season, and it’s been, again, a great ride, and looking forward to a very different but very fun and exciting 2015.
Q. What is that learning curve like going from a Pro Stock to a Top Fuel car?
DAVE CONNOLLY: It’s hard to explain because 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. As far as the driving standpoint, obviously a Pro Stock car there’s a few more things going on, but again, you have a lot more time to adapt. You’re covering up so much ground in such a little amount of time, any little movement or small mistake turns into a big one in a hurry. Just getting adapted and acclimated with the speed rate and everything is the biggest challenge so far.
Q. Dave, I remember meeting you a good number of years ago, and the word Top Fuel never, ever entered your words whatsoever. What convinced you to take the step up to the Top Fuel series?
DAVE CONNOLLY: You know, it’s crazy. Again, probably when I met you, I never considered racing Top Fuel, but it’s all about opportunities, obviously, and when Bob (Vandergriff, Jr., team owner) was making a change in his program, and obviously approached me and I was very honored to even be considered for a position in Top Fuel because in my opinion it’s the pinnacle of drag racing, and it’s the fastest cars on the ground, the fastest thing on the property. That’s as high as it goes, and never in a million years did I think about even have the opportunity to race on a pro level like I have in Pro Stock and now in Top Fuel. It’s been a blessing, and again, it’s all about opportunities, and when I was approached, it was definitely I didn’t have to think very long on it. I think it’s going to be very exciting. Not too many people get opportunities like this, so I’m going to try to take full advantage of it.
Q. Was there at any point in your conversation a convincing moment, a word, a sentence that just convinced you I don’t have to think about this anymore, I can say yes?
DAVE CONNOLLY: You know, obviously again, it’s the top tier of drag racing, so you know, I’ve known that, and 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, it’s the first one to the finish line, and again, these things are going a thousand foot in 3.7 seconds and 330 miles an hour. That alone kind of sold the deal for me. I’ve always been interested in all categories of drag racing from Stock Eliminator to now it’s Top Fuel. 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.
Q. Question about your level of competitiveness going into a new category. When I think about Dave Connolly, I think about a great driver but also someone who wins a lot. Tell me about the balance between you’re learning, you’re getting used to a new car, but you want to be competitive and you want to go out and win races, and at some point be able to go out and do what you normally do, impose your will and dominate races. How does that work because you can’t get ahead of yourself with this new car that is so much faster, yet you’re still Dave Connolly as a competitor and he wants to win?
DAVE CONNOLLY: What you’re saying is you don’t want me getting mad the first race of the season if I can’t win, huh?
Q. It’s still fun to watch.
DAVE CONNOLLY: You’re right, it is going to take some adapting. Obviously, any time I think I can speak for any drag racer, you roll through the gate, you want to think that you have a chance or a possibility of winning a drag race or else you wouldn’t even enter. I understand, and I’m very well aware that it’s going to take some time to get acclimated with these cars. Again, they’re a different animal, and just getting them from A to B is going to take a lot of learning and a lot of experience and passes, and it’s going to take seat time, and I understand that. But in the same sense, I would feel very confident and very strong about the people that BVR (Bob Vandergriff Racing) has put in place. We’ve got three great crew chiefs, obviously 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. 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. It’s still getting the car A to B as fast as you can and leaving the starting line on time mentality. I’m just going to go out there and just keep an open mind, obviously, but still, I want to win every time I sit in the car.
Q. Is there a driver that you are particularly excited or thrilled to go up against in Top Fuel?
DAVE CONNOLLY: You know, I guess there’s a lot of them. Obviously Tony Schumacher has got the No. 1 on his car, so you definitely always want to take him out. But there’s a lot of there’s a ton of talent in the class. Big fan of Antron Brown’s. Obviously he’s a past world champion, and I think he’s one of the best drivers out there. You’ve got Spencer Massey, Shawn Langdon, right next door to us with Larry Dixon. I think him and Tony have won a couple races the last few years in Top Fuel for sure. The list goes on to be honest with you. The amount of competition and competitiveness has really, really stepped up the last few years in Top Fuel and Funny Car, and throughout all categories. These guys are out there, which I find very impressive, is they’re going 3.7 seconds side by side every other run. You know, the drivers kind of take a little more role on the starting line just because the cars are running so close together.
Q. I wanted to know before Bob approached you, had you given any thought to racing a Top Fuel dragster?
DAVE CONNOLLY: To be 100 percent honest, no. I was pretty much focused on the task at hand in Pro Stock and staying pretty busy with what we had going on at Gray Motorsports last year. You’ve got to keep an open mind in drag racing because you never know year to year who you’re going to be racing with or for or what you might be driving. It was a shock to me to be honest with you, and I’m very, very blessed and fortunate that he even considered me for a position like this.
Q. How much practice have you had in a Top Fuel dragster?
DAVE CONNOLLY: If you ask me, not enough, going into Pomona. But we got to make quite a few runs down there in West Palm. We went in December, and I think we made, I don’t know, 10 to 12 runs then, and we went down there again just a few weeks ago, and I made another probably 10 attempts or so. But to be honest with you, I’ve made only three runs in the .381 to .376 range, so very, very green to the class still. It’s going to be exciting Q1 just to try to make a full pull and get the uprights under full power.
Q. I think Dixon as a teammate will be a considerable help to you, don’t you?
DAVE CONNOLLY: Absolutely. 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 gave me a heads up on. Having them guys in your corner is obviously going to be a huge factor in speeding up the learning process, but they keep telling me it’s all about seat time, and the more laps you make, things will start to slow down and you’ll start to adapt to them a little quicker.
Again, Top Fuel session 101 is definitely in order.
Q. Dave, as far as it’s kind of like an equation, you’ve got your confidence and your experience, plus some top equipment, and then you’ve got two veterans there to be a virtual bank of information for you. Talk about that equation equaling success.
DAVE CONNOLLY: You’re right, it takes everything working in order and everything gelling. Obviously one of the main key ingredients to success is team chemistry, and so far it’s been great. The camaraderie of the team is there, so that is key, and obviously having the right equipment, which Bob has made a huge investment in getting us all the right pieces and parts we need to go out and play with these guys at the top level, those are huge. 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. You know, I’ve been given great opportunities in the past with some great teams throughout the Pro Stock career, and some you’ve blown your expectations and won more than you thought, and then others you felt like you left some on the table. We’re not going to try to do that, 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 whole class, and they’re going to be at it, and it’s going to be a dogfight at the end.
Q. And what do you like best about your experience in it so far?
DAVE CONNOLLY: So far, again, it’s just the Gs that they continue to accelerate all the way down the track. It’s a fun ride for 1,000 feet, not 900 but 1,000. 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.
Q. When Antron Brown came over from Pro Stock motorcycles to Top Fuel, he made an immediate impact on the class, but he also had a number of seasoned Top Fuel drivers who volunteered advice a lot, and I know you’ve got a couple of good ones right there in your own camp, but did anybody else besides Bob and Larry help you?
DAVE CONNOLLY: Absolutely, and you know, that’s what amazes me, I guess, coming from the Pro Stock world where everything was so tight knit and everybody was afraid to talk to each other, but now in the Fuel ranks there’s been a lot of open arms. Obviously, Shawn Langdon, I’ve been friends with him through the Sportsman ranks. He gave me a few pointers. Antron Brown is always there for me. I can’t say enough about the guy. He’s a great ambassador of the sport. Again, Morgan Lucas, Richie Crampton, that team has been a huge help, as well. There’s been a lot of guys that have offered up help, even Tony at West Palm come over and offered any advice that he has. You know, it’s been very warm and welcoming so far, and I look forward to racing with these guys.
Q. What are some realistic goals that you might have for this year?
DAVE CONNOLLY: A few people have asked me that, and like I said, I don’t want to downplay this team just because of my lack of experience. Again, but I do have to be realistic. Right now just getting comfortable, making the right decisions in the car. You know, there’s a lot of firsts. Right now it’s getting A to B and learning that when the thing smokes the tires what to do. I haven’t been put in a pedal situation or a lot of race day Sunday situations. It’s going to take a lot of experience. For me to say that we’re going to go out there to Pomona and turn 401 lights on, I’m not going to be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. Obviously I want that to happen, and we’re going to do our best to give it our all, but if things start to gel and I can get my confidence level up and get more seat time, you know, I’d love to find BVR in the winner’s circle multiple times this season, myself and Larry included. This team is more than capable of winning, and I’ve just got to do my part and hold up my end and not be the weak link of this group. A lot of talent there, and we’re going to go out there and, again, just try to keep our noses up and get after it. The team has been very supportive and very patient with me so far, and I can’t thank them enough.
THE MODERATOR: Next up we have Tony Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster. Schumacher enters the season as an eight-time Top Fuel world champion. Tony talk about the upcoming season. Dave kind of hit upon it, that when you have that No. 1 on the side of your car, everybody is looking to knock you down a peg when you pull into Pomona. Does that give you, and you’ve obviously been here before, but does that give you and your team a little added step as you head into the opening event?
TONY SCHUMACHER: You know, I wish I could say yes, honestly, but I can’t remember the last time I didn’t try, you know? I think about that all the time. I go, oh, man, they’re going to be really gunning for us, and then I go, wait a minute, they’re always gunning for us. We had the No. 7 on our car last year and the quickest runs in the history of last season were against me, and it didn’t have the No. 1 on the side of the car. I think that Army car is so cool, people love racing it. It’s just awesome. It’s a great car and great team that’s been successful and done a lot over the years, so it’s always a target. That’s the way it is. I’m glad to be the driver. I’m glad to sit in the seat. I enjoy it mostly because I like to know that the guy racing me finds it worthy to try hard, and it’s cool. I think we’re just proud to have the No. 1 on the car, not that we’ve got to try harder or do this or do that, but we’re happy that the year ended like it did, and grateful for the same guys returning back and doing the same jobs, and we’re getting better and stronger every day.
Q. Talk a little bit about the required intensity it takes to win the championship, one championship, and let alone come back and have the intensity to win eight.
TONY SCHUMACHER: You know, I sit in the car a lot of times and think, why do I do this; this is so intense. Before a big run that you have to be really great at, sometimes you sit in the car and you just think, this is nuts. This is just so much pressure. And what I’m so happy to be able to do is look back on all the times that it’s been so difficult and how we’ve pulled it off. It makes it so much easier to get through those moments, because there was a time where it was deer in the headlights. It was so big, you thought, there’s no way. And then you win a few of those and your team pulls off these miracles, and you start to believe. Some of you guys actually joke about it. I believe in stuff that doesn’t seem possible. Well, I do. The funny thing is I’ve kind of lived a lot of those moments that have made it easy to believe. That run in ’06 that was physically impossible. I’m not sure we even knew what was we thought, oh, well, there’s a snowball’s chance, but really? Are we really going to be able to do this? And then you pull it off and you start to think, wow, this is absolutely possible. World records are broken all the time because it’s never been done before. I like those moments. I think, and I’ve said this in many, many press conferences. If you want to see me get beat, come to a race where it’s not important because we drop our guard a little bit, and that happens. But we’re good when it’s important. We’re good when it’s a must, and that’s just how our team is.
Q. Do you think you could ever be able to teach all that to anyone?
TONY SCHUMACHER: Well, first of all, I don’t want to because then they beat me. I think I’ve taught a couple people too much already. It’s just the way it is. I’m one of those dumb guys where people always say, I taught him everything he knows but not everything I know. I don’t stop at that, I kind of teach them, and then I think to myself and how our team has always been, we race; you know everything I know and now we race.
Q. U.S. Army, all about leadership, they’ve been your sponsor for a long time, 77 wins. Here we are getting ready for the 2015 season, another go around in the NHRA Mello Yello drag racing series. They just introduced ‘Baptism by Nitro,’ their new campaign, encouraging fans to bring new fans. If you were going to show leadership with the sport as the winningest driver in the history of Top Fuel, the most champions, what would you do or bring to the table? What are you going to try to do this year to continue to elevate this sport in the mainstream media world? It’s Super Bowl week, they’ve got their radio row going on right now, and we’ve got a sport that we all agree is the coolest, it’s the best, it’s the most amazing, it’s a spectacle. You are the winningest driver in Top Fuel. What can you do to help us all elevate this thing?
TONY SCHUMACHER: I think it’s just personal attention. Like we can blow it up in the media, and we do. We do our best. But you’ve got to be at the ropes and you’ve got to be telling people to bring it, and you’ve got to be out there a lot, because it is the greatest sport in the world.
I am the perfect person to ask. I have asked generals, or esteemed generals be asked to come out, and they get the typical, oh, man, but it’s a drag race. They picture James Dean, a pack of cigarettes and a cool car, and they don’t picture what it is, and they get out for the first time, and it’s an oh, my. That is insane. I saw that on Facebook. That’s exactly what that post is, man. Get people out that have never been there. It is our most difficult thing because we don’t have the marketing dollars NASCAR has to go out and do all the ad campaigns to get people out, so it’s up to the drivers. It’s up to the teams to really push. And when we’re in the neighborhood like I do, I get in early, I get into Pomona on Tuesday, I’ll get in on Tuesday, we won’t run until Friday, and I’ll spend Wednesday doing media, I’ll spend Thursday doing media, and those days are critical, but everyone doesn’t do that. We need to expand that. We need to get the people out there beating the ground, man. You’ve got to get people to come out the first time. Very, very, very seldom, I don’t even hear it, almost never do you hear someone say that was the greatest day of my life, I’m never coming back. They all love it. The generals that come out for the first time, when they’re done, they go, I never expected it to be simply amazing. I just pictured something different and never expected it to be this big, never expected them to be that fast, this professional, and so great for kids. It’s a great kids’ sport. Kids come out and they’re in awe of not the car going fast; that’s always a no brainer, but to watch the men work on the cars and women. These guys do such a great job that these young kids are so impressionable get to watch this thing and go, you mean, I can do something great like that? It gives them a little hope. Right now they’re in school, they’re just working hard and they don’t understand goals yet. Their goals are small and they’re simple. Let them see that these people are doing simply miraculous things as a team. I think the more kids we bring out, the quicker it spreads.
Q. What was your reaction when you got the news about the Al-Anabi team in terms of its effect on just sort of the Top Fuel ranks, and also have you had a chance to talk to Alan (Johnson, team manager) about what happened?
TONY SCHUMACHER: I have not talked to Alan, and honestly I was bummed. I liked having (Khalid al) Balooshi and Langdon out there, and I hope they still come and I hope the team finds something else. But you just hate that late notice. I’ve been there before. I’ve been there when you find out something last minute is changing. It’s terrible. It’s not good for the sport. Not only do we need more cars, but we can’t in any way afford to lose any of them, and not the caliber of crew that those guys are. Alan Johnson is an outstanding crew chief with great drivers, and they had the money capable of going out and running against great teams. I was bummed. It made for a great battle. It was many championships racing each other, and I thought it was a spectacular way for fans to get to see just a monumental battle. I hope they find something soon and get it worked out and get out there soon.
Q. We just had Dave Connolly on talking about his transition to Top Fuel. How difficult is that task going to be for him? He’s taking a very humble approach it seems, and maybe that’s the best way to go, huh?
TONY SCHUMACHER: It’s the only way to go. Once you get in those cars you could be you can think you’re the coolest guy in the world. They start up the cars and all that goes out the window, and the funny thing is he does have a great leader. He’s got Larry Dixon and Bob Vandergriff as a team owner who’s made so many laps, but when the car starts and they step away, you are 100 percent alone, and that’s the humbling part. There’s no one that can help you. My first car I started a Top Fuel car, I was in Denver, Colorado, and after they started it I looked around, I’m sitting in this car buckled in, and there wasn’t one guy that’s ever driven a car around me. I could see the crew chief leaning forward and it looked like he gave me a thumbs up and said good luck, but you can’t hear, and you’re thinking to yourself, oh, my, this is insane, because you are going to hit the gas and go over 100 miles an hour in under one second, and there’s no way to practice it. I think he’s a great driver. I think Vandergriff made an excellent choice, but it’s going to take him time to get used to a Top Fuel car, the difference in staging. 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.
Q. As a follow up, you very likely could tie or pass Bob Glidden on the all-time win list this year. I’m just wondering how numbers conscious you are of things of that nature where you stand on the all-time list.
TONY SCHUMACHER: I honestly had no idea until I heard you guys announce it. And it is not my goal. My goal is to go out and win as many races as I can every year each and every time. At the end of my career I’ll look back on the wins and I’ll appreciate the sacrifice that we all made to get those wins and be proud of those moments. Things were different when Bob Glidden raced. It was different. There were different amounts of races per year. So comparing apples to apples is really impossible. People try to do that with ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits, too, in Indy wins. It’s a difficult thing to relate. Drivers are drivers. Now, back then they drove, worked on cars. It was so different. For me to sit back and try to compare myself to anyone, I’ll let you guys do that. That’s your job as the media. You can compare. You can make up those things and I’ll read them, but I honestly at the end of my career I hope I have 500 wins. Right now I’m just trying to get No. 78, I think.
Q. You won your championship with the regular points system, like whoever gets the most at the end of the season wins. You’ve done it in the Countdown now, and now with NHRA making it one and a half points for the U.S. Nationals, I just wanted to see what was your reaction to that points change.
TONY SCHUMACHER: I was asked that yesterday for the first time. Indy is supposed to be bigger. It’s the big go. It’s supposed to be the biggest race. It has more money, more people show up to win it, and it should come with more points. I think most people always felt that. Just to have it as just another race never made sense. Being an important race for so many cars that can come in and change the position they go into the Countdown, I think it’s really cool. I almost wish it was double points. I’ve won it enough times where it would have always helped me.
But take that out and still, for everybody, because we’re going into a race now where it’s we haven’t even started to qualify yet. All things being even I still wish it was a lot more points. I think it makes the sport bigger, makes it more important and starts to do what it needs to do at Indy.
Q. Are you a fan of the Countdown system then like when they brought that in? Do you think that that has accomplished what was hoped for?
TONY SCHUMACHER: I go back and forth on it, honestly. The last year before the Countdown we won the championship by setting a world record on the last run of the year. If they could do that every year, they’d be sold out shows. The Countdown was really put in effect to keep people watching at the end of the year when most of the time by Reading, Pennsylvania, someone had the championship locked up in the old way and people didn’t even need to see it. Is it doing what it’s supposed to do? I haven’t seen the numbers, but I would assume it’s probably a good call, if not NASCAR would have backed out of it a long time ago, and I think NHRA has got a job to do. They’ve got to look at each way and maybe they can fine tune it, and I don’t know better ways, but they’ve got a marketing department and they can come up with ideas that are great, and we look and we listen, and if we can evolve it even more and listen to ideas and make it better, that’s what we’re going to do. We are entertainment. That’s what it is. We show up and we have to win and it’s our job, but we’re entertainment. We’re competing with a lot of other companies doing the same thing, and we just have to make it better for the fans in any way we can. Better for the fans, more exciting for them at the end of the year when it’s important. At the end of the day we have to sell commercials, TV slots. It’s what we do. Let’s keep it going. Now, if they reverted back, or my crew chief brought it up last year and I thought it was fantastic, he said, you know, once you get into the Countdown, when you qualify you’re the No. 1 pick, you get to walk up and choose who you race. There’s other ideas out there that are floating out there. I thought that was great. You walk up, if I’m No. 1 going into the last race and the No. 6 guy is Kalitta and he needs to beat me to be the champ he can walk up if he’s the qualifier and choose me. There’s ideas. That being said, it’s going to make it so confusing for the fan who walks up to understand who’s racing who. You wouldn’t know until Sunday morning. But we’ll just keep working on it, man.
Q. In light of the Al Anabi situation, you guys have had a tremendous relationship with the Army. There’s been other teams in motorsport that have been cut back by the military. Are you guys pretty set with the Army? What’s your future with the Army?
TONY SCHUMACHER: I think it’s fantastic. To be sitting here right now with the Army on the side of the car after all the controversy in the past few years especially is spectacular. It just goes to show how successful this Army program is, and it’s not just because we go out and win. It is a recruiting tool. It’s what we do. And when the controversy comes up, we can lay the numbers out that says, look, this is NHRA. Every fan has a pit pass. Here’s the numbers we provide. Nothing in the history for recruiting has ever been this successful, and it tends to quiet those situations down. You know, we’ve lasted a long, long time, and it’s because we work extra hard to do it. We go above and beyond. We do what the Army does. We go above and beyond. We do what we have to do to make sure the program succeeds. I’m glad to represent people like your son and his fellow soldiers. It’s a great accomplishment and it’s a great, long partnership that we’ve had.
Q. All the generals that you’ve had there in your pits, what have been some of the most notable remarks they’ve made because you said they’re pretty they get there thinking one thing and leave with a whole different idea.
TONY SCHUMACHER: General Q is the vice chief of staff. His first race was in Reading, Pennsylvania. I had just crashed in Memphis and had a couple fractured ribs, a sprained knee, and in Reading he was at the finish line, the car shook in the final round, I pedaled it, beat Jim Head, it was still a quarter mile, no parachutes, buried it in the sand trap. I don’t know how many negative Gs, but it was more than enough, my chest was hurting, I climbed out of the car, and he comes running through the beaches down there in the sand trap, and he is a big man, six foot whatever big, and grabbed me, picked me up and was throwing me around, I have never seen anything like that in my life. It was absolutely spectacular. Squeezed me like a rag doll, almost broke my other ribs, but just awesome moments where you get these guys and they’re like a kid in a candy store. They’re seeing massive power. The Army car, man. These are guys who get it. They understand the power, the sacrifice, the work, the blood, sweat and tears, and to see them with a smile on their face, knowing how much work they have to do the next day. These are generals. They’re running our country and they’re defending lots and lots of lives and doing what they have to do. To give them a little relief for a few minutes and hear their excitement is spectacular.
Q. Super Bowl, Seattle or New England?
TONY SCHUMACHER: New England and only because of my son. He loves the Patriots, and that’s just the way it is. He’s a Packers fan, but he can convert when the Packers get beat. I’ve got to go with my kids, man. I’m gone way too much to oppose them when I’m home.
Q. You kind of started off the call and briefly talked about your test session. Can you kind of expound upon that, and how the testing down in South Florida went for your Army team?
TONY SCHUMACHER: It went like it always goes. I probably knocked out eight fillings, I shook six runs. I’m happy as can be because, and there’s always that because, that track is so good that if you can get the car down that racetrack, you’re going to Pomona to smoke the tires. There’s no other cars there. It’s not prepared by NHRA. It’s just super tight. You’ve got to be so aggressive to get the car to move that when you get to the next race, no matter where it is, you don’t stand a chance using that tune up. I’m fine with it. Great new car. It’s a beautiful car. We know we can go to Pomona and run fast. We know we can go down the racetrack. We know how to do it. We have the combinations. And when we show up to test, we actually show up to test, stuff that we’ve never had before, way off, distant stuff that we’re going to use later in the year. It’s fine. We have the parts and the pieces at least when I was a runner up in Pomona, we know how to do that, so we’ll go fast at the beginning of the year, and we also know that winning the first 10 races doesn’t win you the championship, so we’ve got a long year of getting stuff together for the end of the year because it’s how the rules are set up, it’s how we’re supposed to do it, we’re supposed to win at the end, but being in the correct position to do that, you don’t want to be coming in 10th. Yes, Robert Hight did it, but it’s such a longshot. You want to be in those top couple and really hit it hard in the Countdown.
Q. Can we get you to change your mind about the Super Bowl?
TONY SCHUMACHER: I love football. I love the game, and honestly, when I set down I don’t always have a favorite. I just choose what my kids like so I can watch it. I want it to be great. Nobody wants to watch a blowout mess. We want to see it be a great contest. That’s it. That’s all we want.
THE MODERATOR: John, coming off that test session you guys from afar, looked like you had a successful test session with some pretty strong numbers. What are your overall thoughts on that test session?
JOHN FORCE: Well, it was good, a lot of work went into it, a lot of preparation. The racetrack there did a great job, and some NHRA help that came in to give us a great racetrack. Of course conditions were great every day. Lanny MiGlizzi worked on the track, as well, and of course my cars have all run in the threes before, so that was no big deal. That many runs in a row, pretty good. The dragster was probably the highlight, even though it’s not official, it doesn’t matter. We know it has the potential to run good, and we’ll have to see what we can do at Pomona. Testing was good. We’ve got our four Chevrolets there, three Chevrolets and a dragster, so life is good. A little overworked, but it’s starting to come together with a lot of good friends helping.
Q. Overcoming all the problems that you had last year and putting a plan together to get a sponsor or sponsors and getting a new car manufacturer and all that and get it all done, that’s got to be a tremendously satisfying feeling to you. Talk a little bit about just getting that done and then being able to roll into the season with that done.
JOHN FORCE: If my hair wasn’t gray enough, it is now. But luckily, in this tough economy, I put it back together. Working with friends, Robert Hight and I seven days a week, the JMI group, we just signed a contract with a new sponsor, No Limits. So we’re pretty excited. PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant coming on board, it led the way to lead the charge for John Force personally to be able to chase the championship. Of course everyone knows that we have Auto Club as one of our greatest partners. They’ve always stood by us, and of course Traxxas with Courtney (Force), and Mac Tools. But then when Lucas Oil signed, boy, he’s going to work us, and I love it, we’ll be filming for him, the Dave Despain show next week with MAVTV next Wednesday, so we’re pretty excited about that, but probably the icing on the cake was Chevrolet coming in with the Camaro SS and all the work that it took to redesign what we had, to put it into play, we’re okay, and then we went to testing and the car went down the racetrack, and we’re pretty excited. I got Mike Neff heads our charge. He’s my new Austin Coil. He runs everything. But Jon Schaffer, I’ve got a young team that put my hotrod in the threes, and Jon Schaffer, he was Little Jon, now we call him Big Jon, but he’s trained since he was 17 years old, and he’s only worked on Top Fuel cars, and Neff said he was ready, and he proved he could get the job done.
Young team, kind of an old guy over here, me, but it’s a balance, and we work great together. And of course my daughter’s dragster, some of the Al-Anabi guys that had left over there because of the changes they have, and we want to wish Alan Johnson, he’ll put it back together, he’s a racer like me, we need these teams. We need Alan Johnson and his drivers. I’ve got some good kids and working with Todd Smith, Ronnie Thompson, they put that dragster. It wasn’t a perfect test session, but it ran some big numbers, so we’re pretty excited.
Q. John, last year, you were just a couple of points, a couple rounds away from back to back NHRA Mello Yello world championships with a lot of chaos on your mind, a lot going on, sponsors, manufacturers, people leaving your team, all of that going on. Now that much of that has been settled and now you’re refocused, talk about driving in 2015, and do you feel freed to focus on what is really the most important thing that you do, get the car down the racetrack and turn on win lights?
JOHN FORCE: Yeah, but driving is what I really do. The rest of this stuff, it’s the day to day business that will wear and tear you. When I got to testing, everybody said my personality changed, because you get back into what you really love, and that’s driving a race car on the NHRA circuit. I can’t wait to get to the Winter Nationals. I’m excited because driving that car is I’m good at it. It’s not like they told me Jeff Gordon, I did some interviews that he’s going to be retiring, and boy, I’ve probably got 25 years on him. But retiring is not an option to me. I love what I do. I’m still good at it. I’ve got sponsors that have stepped up like Chevrolet. That really put me over the top where I could run my four race cars financially, and I’m excited about that.
Already got deals happening. I’ll be at Mark Christopher Chevrolet in Ontario Wednesday, February 4, 6:00 to 8:00. Already the dealers are calling all over the country. Everybody is excited to see John Force back, and then I’m in business and back to my roots where I came from, General Motors. Life is good, but the car is what I do, and that’s what I get in it, I swear to God, I always said, one day at the end of the my career I’m going to drive naked and blindfolded. I believe I could still get the job done. It wouldn’t be pretty but I could get it done. I’m ready to drag race.
Q. (Matt) Hagan, he’s got what you want, the Hagan/Force rivalry building and brewing, incredibly entertaining now for several years, he got one, you got one, he got one, you got one, that kind of deal, and we want to see this next round of great rivalry in Funny Car. What do you think of this match up in 2015?
JOHN FORCE: Well, he’s got when I talked to (Don, team owner) Schumacher the other day just briefly, you know, I said, I need to race you. You’re part of what drives me. You know what I mean? It’s what gets me up in the morning. And Don Schumacher funds a lot of teams, gives a lot of jobs, and we ought to thank him for that. And Hagan is one of his best, him and Dickie Venables. I’m ready, but Hagan will tell you, if he focused on me and I focused on him, well then Cruz Pedregon or Robert Hight or Courtney or Ron Capps is going to go around us. So what do we do? We take them a day at a time. I like Hagan because he’s respectful, and if he loses he’s respectful, and if he wins he’s respectful. Some guys find it hard to handle either way.
But at the end of the day, it is hard when you lose. It was hard on me, especially in the situation I was in. Like I said, we’re in a tough economy, but corporate America, the world is out there starting to realize let’s rebuild America, and John Force, I’m going to help rebuild drag racing. I think we have a great product in NHRA. I think the leaders at the top are trying to get us to build this sport to the next level. We’ve got a lot of work, all of us to do, and if we work together, we’ll get there. I think Pomona is going to be a home run. I know how the fans are reacting to me coming back in the Chevrolet, and with PEAK Antifreeze, so bring it on. Bring on Hagan. I’m ready for you, kid.
Q. You’re coming out to Mark Christopher Chevrolet. I just thought I’d tell you about the local laws that you can’t be naked, okay?
JOHN FORCE: I won’t be naked. Hey, I’m going to bring at least one of my nostalgia cars from my early Chevrolet days I’ll have there, and I’m going to it looks like we’re going to have one of our new Camaros there, so I’m excited about that. Either Robert Hight or Courtney or myself, the PEAK Antifreeze, I don’t know which one. But it was exciting to have the dealers call. I know they’re involved with a lot of different teams, and that’s exciting, but to get to be a part of it and start off for Chevrolet right out of the box, working those dealers, that’s what it’s all about. They’re the ones that pay the bill.
Q. This is a very competitive class this year. How do you see this thing playing out at the end of the year?
JOHN FORCE: Well, Robert Hight wants a championship as much as I do, and he knows how to do it. Courtney, she’s ready. She’s got a race car. She knows how to drive it. She’s living it. This wedding that she’s going to with this Rahal, if she can keep her focus, and she will, she’s my daughter and she knows the drill. We had meetings this morning. But there’s a lot of other kids out there that are overdue. Ron Capps has got a great team. Any day this could happen, and it would be well deserved. We’ll be back in the hunt. (Tim) Wilkerson ran .02 over there, .03; Cruz Pedregon ran 4 flat or 4.01, I don’t know the numbers, at Phoenix. It’s exciting times to watch this. I had a fear that I wasn’t going to get to drive anymore, and I had nightmares at night. I went to bed, I felt like I it was like it was the end of the world to me, and nothing should take you there mentally, but it did because it’s all I know, it’s all I understand. I thought of Hagan being out there and my girls without me, you know what I mean? I had to be there, and I made it. I’m ready to rock and roll.
Q. Did you say you hired some of the Al-Anabi guys and was that for Brittany’s car?
JOHN FORCE: On the dragster, Ronnie Thompson came over, and then a clutch kid. I don’t know from which team. I know they said they were only going to run one of the teams, so there was people looking for jobs. Yeah, they came over there, and it was really funny, we’re all a little bit slow. Neff’s team with Robert Hight, Auto Club was right on the deal right out of the box. Ron Douglas and my son in law Daniel Hood and Courtney right out of the box they were good, but I’ve got to be honest, we were a little slow, and I rented the truck there for four days, and the first day learning it with some of these new guys. We had one kid, it was so funny, he come from a dragster team, and he turned from my Funny Car and he started running, and I said, where are you going, and he goes, no, it’s stupid. Later we found out he’s so used to running around a dragster because they’re real long, he took off thinking when he left the motor that he had to go a certain direction. So what we did, we ran so good, we took the cars back. I said, we know how to run fast, so what we’re going to do is teardown contests. So we filmed it. I think it’s on the internet. We filmed it, but we took the whole car, gutted it, put it back together, first run was like 58 minutes, and they put it back together, I get in it, we fire it up, and then they tore it down again and we went through that process all afternoon, and we got it down to 51 minutes, and really, first I think they looked at me like I was nuts, but after we were done, Jon Schaffer said, boy, these guys got fast, just a matter of drill and training. Same thing they do in the Marine Corps. It was fun, though, watching them, and we’ll be ready to make the call at Pomona.
Q. When you look at this season and everything that you went through last year to get to this point, does this make this season one of the most challenging you’ve ever entered or maybe one of the most exciting that you’ve ever entered?
JOHN FORCE: The most exciting. It takes me back to my roots. I’ve had to go back 10 years of my program financially to address how I was able to race. I had to evaluate budgets, and that’s what Chevrolet said when they come in. Mr. Campbell, he said, we want you competitive, and we want safety, and boy, we agreed on that because that is key to everything in this sport. You want to be able to compete and win, and I’ve got enough money financially now to do that and to still continue to build safety. We’ve got a lot of work. We did a redesign on what we had and we got it approved by NHRA. We haven’t even started on the engine program, but we will, and in time we’ll change it. But the excitement to me is I get to race, and I get to race with my daughters and my grandkids. We’re going out this weekend with Autumn. Robert is taking her out to drive the junior dragster that they own. Challenging, yeah, but I understand the challenge. It’s what you’ve got to do. Nothing is a gift. It was a lot of work, and we’re not done yet. Just signed this company No Limits just a few days ago with JMI. We’re looking at other deals. I’ve got a potential sponsor. I can’t talk about it. I hope it comes any day. They tell me it’ll probably be before Gainesville. But we’re going to be okay. Right now just getting to race and we can be competitive. I built a team I never build a team based off of any one man: Not off of me, not off of my driver or any crew chief or any clutch or bottom end guy. I build a team A, B and C plan; somebody gets sick, somebody quits, whatever happens, we won’t fail. I’ve got to admit this time we got hit pretty hard, but in the midst of it, we recovered. That don’t mean we’re going to run out and win a championship right off the bat, but we’ll be a contender, I’ll give you my word on that.
Q. And I’ve also heard a rumor that you have now established that you plan to at least retire as a driver prior to age 100. Is that accurate?
JOHN FORCE: You had me scared there. Yeah, if I live to 100. I have days I’m not kidding anybody, at my age I wake up and old muscles are aching, but I get down in that gym, and 30 minutes in that gym, I’m 20 years old again. Put me in that fire suit, I’m 16 years old. Maybe I’ll a little nuts, but man, I just love it. I look at my Chevrolets now, I have great partners, and I want to wish all of them well, but I’ve got partners that I feel like I’ve gone home with Chevrolet, that I’ve got back to cars that I won championships in, and I’m able to bring them out of my museum. I already got them on the road heading to a show with Mac Tools at their big convention, I think it’s at the Lucas Stadium. We’re going to have a day there, and now I can show a lot of my history. But my museums are my museums. I have lots of different types of cars. So no, I’m ready. I look at that bowtie, and I’m ready. Going to need some luck, but I’ve got a job, and that’s what’s most important so I can keep my family in shoes and I can help build the NHRA because the fans deserve it, and the future players in our sport, the kids that’ll my grandkids will be racing here someday, I believe.
Q. I know you addressed the little bit of a controversy about rebranding the Mustang bodies as Camaros already, so I was wondering is there going to be a real Camaro body coming out this year, and if so, when would that be happening?
JOHN FORCE: That was one of the issues. We knew financially where we stood with Chevrolet. I knew that four or five months ago. It was about could we deliver a car. Could we have a Camaro that looked like a Camaro and not just because of decals. We had to do a major redesign, and we had help in that. We worked with a group out of Indy that does the aero and stuff there in miniature scale. They’ve worked on this car, Mike Neff was on top of it, Robert Hight. We got the designs, we got them to NHRA, we showed them what we wanted to do, they wanted to see it, we had to go back. They were about $8,000 a pop. That’s why I didn’t go with Pro to West Palm Beach. One of the reasons, I didn’t think up to the last day we made the deal to run Phoenix within a week to two weeks that we thought we’d at least have a couple of bodies done, and my guys worked around the clock in the paint shops branding to get these cars painted, and it has been a roller coaster ride. I didn’t think I was going to make it. But we got the cars done.
Like I said, we redesigned what we had. That’s all we could do. We did get approval from Ford Motor Company and GM. We moved ahead, but GM wanted that car to have all the specs, even though it’s a spec NHRA body and it’s got to get in a mold, it had to have all of the characteristics of the Camaro, and it does. I was amazed when I saw it finished. I was really excited, and it looks good. Now, you put paint on it, I’ve got a Camaro, NHRA approved it. Yeah, they drug us through the hot coals, but we made it right at the last day and we rolled. Yeah, the bodies are heavy. They’re 15, 17 pounds heavier and we’ve just got to live with that. But sometimes it just works. And they ran good, so the proof is in the pudding.
Q. So the bodies that you’re running right now, is that what we’re going to see all of this year, or will there be a new dedicated Camaro body still to come?
JOHN FORCE: I apologize, I never answer a question I get so excited. When we spoke with the group at Chevrolet, there’s a brand new car coming in 2016. We even looked at unveiling I thought we could unveil it at Indy. We looked at what it really takes to build a car, you’re talking about an eight to 12 month project to do it right, to get it approved, because you build a mold, you end up changing it. I know, I build the molds. I’ve been through this process with metal crafter and these guys, and there was no way we could make it, and the truth is, they’re selling the 2015 Chevrolet SS Camaro right now. There was no reason for them to try to put out a 2016. I don’t know anything about it. They’ve got it under wraps. They won’t talk about it. I tried to get to a few insiders, and they said, we don’t know. When it’s time, the bosses will tell me, time to start the process. We just got this thing signed, and so we’re going to be talking in the next few weeks, in the next month, but I guarantee you a new car by 2016. I hope before that, but by then we’ll have it. That is in the plan.
Q. Are there a bunch of new Camaros in the John Force Racing parking lot? Are the girls driving one now?
JOHN FORCE: Yeah, we haven’t got our new demos yet. I want to thank Ford. They’ve been nothing but good. They said, use our cars if you need them. You know, they were just a great partner. And I want to wish them luck. But I want to say that dealers are calling me, everybody is trying to give me cars, you know what I mean, and trying to make sure that we’re right for Pomona. Yeah, the girls are excited. They picked out they got these hotrod Camaro SS’s and they’re loving it. They look like IndyCars. They don’t look like drag race cars. They’re really cool. We’re moving that way. All this went down just after Christmas, before Christmas, and when we started making the move, and we got our orders in now. We’ll be okay. We’ll be flexing our muscles in Chevrolets from now on.
Q. You talked about this new sponsor. Can you give us a little bit more about who that is, and then also, you had spoken in Las Vegas last year about you said, one of these days I’m going to be milking cows or selling milk or in the milk business or something like that. Are you talking about the Coca Cola new milk brand by any chance?
JOHN FORCE: No. Let me tell you, I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement; hell, I can’t tell anybody. NHRA has asked me, but it’s a Federal Government deal, and that’s why I know the deal is real. It isn’t like someone has promised me a deal, and it could still not happen. Things could not happen. But I met the president of the company, that started the company. He personally told me where we stood and why. They’ve wrote me a contract. It’s going together right now, but it’s all based on this thing happening. It has happened because the stock has already gone up, and that’s about as much as I can say about it. But we’re continually chasing new sponsors. I’ve got JMI in San Francisco as we speak today talking with other groups. We’re not done yet. It’s just a lot tougher than we thought, and that’s why it was so key. I kept telling you, I had an announcement at Vegas. Well, we unveiled PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant and Blue Def, and then I said we’d have an announcement by SEMA. Couldn’t get it done. Couldn’t get the bodies approved even though we knew what the deal was, and if I can’t get them approved, I can’t announce something.
Then Lucas Oil, we finally announced it at Pomona. Those deals are what’s keeping me alive. The Chevrolet deal, like I said, was the icing on the cake. It put me in the business. I’ve got my own personal money. I have endorsement monies. I have Mac Tools, I have Auto Club. They sponsor all my cars, Auto Club. I have extra money there to help fund this dragster. We’re moving ahead. My daughter worked hard to get a shot at racing, Brittany, and it would break my heart not to give her that shot. I had to go. I had to make a move. I’m tied to too many sponsors for the next five years. I just sat down one day, and I said, what am I really? Is this about money or spending my retirement? I didn’t have any money when I started. This is about I am a drag racer. This is all I do. This is all my family it’s what we do. Let’s get over whether we’re going to go racing or not. Let’s go, make the move, I made the call, and we’re going, and we’re going to make it, because that’s the way it is. I’m not the only race team out there, and I’m financially like Robert said, if you look at our budget, we’re probably still in the top three. Just my operation got big, TV studios, road shows, midways. I’ve had to change a lot of stuff of how I’m going to run it and how we’re going to make it work, but we’re going to make it. But right now the focus is running, not building, not growing any more buildings or rentals or bigger movie theaters. None of that. Everything is building race cars that can win and keeping the drivers safe, and that’s where we’re going, and that’s what John Force does until the day he drops, and then my kids and Robert Hight will take it on from there.
Q. Have you had enough time or have you been paying attention to the Super Bowl match-up, and if you have, are you for the Seahawks or the Patriots?
JOHN FORCE: You had to tell me who was playing? I knew Brady was playing because I read all the stuff about the flat footballs. No, I’m kind of like Tony Schumacher on that. I follow quarterbacks. I don’t know Seattle much. I know that they’ve got a guy out there on defense, a corner guy that’s just a killer, that boy, he says what he feels. They’ve got this quarterback that’s a hot rod. You know what I mean? But Patriots, you know, I follow him, so I don’t know. It’s really funny, the big football game, college football, Graham Rahal is going to marry my daughter, I guess, and Rahal, you know, is from Ohio, that’s his team, and when they put in that fourth string quarterback that looked like a linebacker and he ran over everybody, I really kind of got into that game, too, against Oregon. No, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to the phone and back to the table and maybe I’m watching it passing the screen. Super Bowl Sunday I’ll be working. I’m not done yet. I ain’t going to be done probably until the middle of the year putting this thing back together. But I do love football. No, I don’t have a pick really.
Q. I think it’s really kind of a miracle the way things happen with losing Ford and Chevy picking you up. I think it shows how important you are to the sport to pick up Chevy as a sponsor. Would you agree with that?
JOHN FORCE: I really appreciate you saying it. Maybe my timing, timing is everything in life. I was coming home last night thinking about, you make the wrong turn on a corner and somebody runs into you, and you don’t know why you went that way, you just did. I’m giving that as a hypothetical, but timing in life is everything. But I also know that you don’t give up. Maybe I got a little religious in my older years, but it’s like if you keep beating that road and you keep chasing what you love and you don’t lose the dream, if you don’t lose the dream, you won’t lose the fire, and every time you get turned down, you just pick yourself up and you go back and you start again. I stood on the start line with a young kid, Jon Schaffer, and I looked at this kid, and I thought, I have dumped the weight of the world on him. Now, I know he’s got Mike Neff. Mike Neff is now the teacher. He’s running Robert’s car but he’s overlooking all these cars, and Jon Schaffer worked underneath him for four years. We knew John could run a race car. One of the things Robert said to me, John, you’re forgetting something. Some of these kids have come from pro mods, dragsters, alcohol, super comp cars, and they’re working with a legend. I don’t think of myself as a legend. I’m just a race car driver and I love it, but he said, you need to give them more love, you need to get in there with them. They all had a big dinner Saturday night after the races. It’s a matter that I didn’t realize the pressure that I put on these kids without even saying it, with never raising my voice, just telling them, hey, come on, let’s get it done, that pressure is built in to deliver because they know as a driver I deliver championships just like Robert Hight. I looked down at Jon Schaffer, and I thought, God, I never thought about that, Robert. And I said that, had a sit down with Jon. If we win, we win together. If we lose, we lose together. But as long as we’ve got the dream, we’re going to be okay, Jon, and we’ve dumped a lot on you, and boy, he rose to the occasion. Never panicked when it smoked the tires, when it got sideways. He was right down there, okay, let’s go back again. He really led that team, and I know Mike Neff is helping him, but I was truly impressed with this team because Jimmy Prock ran my cars, he’s one of the great ones, but Jimmy Prock was 26 years old when he came out. Somebody said he ran one of the quickest runs in history, young kid, and he evolved to a champion. And yet I’ve got a kid the same age, 25 or 26 years old. I’m going to be okay. And it ain’t because I ran a good ET, that we ran in the threes. It ain’t because of that. We did it a number of times. It’s because of the attitude of the people, the ones that are with me now. I know where I’m going. I don’t have to wake up living in fear. You know what I mean? You can’t bind somebody by a contract. It don’t work that way. If somebody needs to leave for whatever their reasons, God bless them. But you’ve got to know where you stand, and I stand tall right now with 50 of them at Phoenix, from my media to my marketing team, Dean Antonelli is my general manager now of John Force Racing. He overlooks all my headaches over me and Robert. We just expect him and Kelly, his wife, the day to day, and it’s working, and the proof is in the pudding. Let’s see what we can do at Pomona. Could be terrible, could be great, but at least I get to go. And that’s what I love. I love NHRA. I’m sorry, I just do.
Q. I saw the video that Elon was the cameraman and you were talking about your early days. That was excellent.
JOHN FORCE: Thank you. The early days, that’s where you find your dreams. You know, the other night Ashley was going to drive back to California and she had the two babies with her, and Danny had his truck, and I said, honey, I don’t want you driving across the desert without somebody with you. I said, let me drive your car back. No, dad, go get on the plane. Let me drive your car back. I need a little time in the middle of the desert. I need to find myself. There was so much going on in my head. I was back to Chevrolet and all my partners, and I’m out in the middle of the desert. I must have drank five cups of coffee. I was wound up and I stopped out there in a windstorm in the middle of I think it was Needles or something. I don’t know where I was at. I saw Needles somewhere, a sign, and I just remembered crossing that desert in a Chevrolet crew cab pulling a Chaparral trailer and Adria was in there and Ashley was in a baby seat. Brittany and Courtney weren’t even born. You know what I mean, and it was like, I’m going to be okay. Now you’re making me emotional. Why you do that to me? Everybody is good.
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