Divide, Then Conquer
Team Mopar makes wholesale changes to their racing program for 2003 and beyond…
by Bobby Bennett, Jr.

PUBLISHER'S MEMORIES: Well before the latest Don Schumacher versus Larry Morgan lawsuit took shape or the unfortunate retirement of Mopar icon Darrell Alderman, there was an incident that took place that would set the Mopar factory team on a rough and tumble road. This story tells how the Team Mopar camp got to the point they were at for the start of the 2003 season. CompetitionPlus.com was the first to bring you the real inside skinny on what was happening. (Originally published in December 2002).

The rumors preceded one of the worst kept secrets in drag racing – there were going to be wholesale changes in the Mopar Pro Stock camp. After taking over the reigns of the Team Mopar Pro Stock operation in the aftermath of the treacherous Wayne County era, David Nickens could only watch as his sponsor not only terminated his contract a year early, but also assisted in taking his hired drivers and dispersing them to his replacements. Some felt Nickens was the victim, and others felt the factory was justified in their decision.

So serious is Mopar about the direction they want to take with their Pro Stock program in the future, however, that they have also discontinued their backing of longtime Funny Car runner Dean Skuza, and they will not be providing any of the other major teams with free Funny Car bodies from now on. Mopar’s focus will be directly related to NHRA Pro Stock and they make no bones about it.

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Nickens, for his part, maintains that Mopar handled the situation in an unprofessional manner, leaving him out in the cold by pursuing others to replace him. Mopar officials counter that they were not getting the return on their investment they expected, and that prompted the change. Mopar and others close to the situation feel that the manufacturer was only exercising every opportunity to right a ship that was headed in an unproductive direction.

When the smoke cleared, Nickens/Mopar team drivers Darrell Alderman and Gene Wilson were removed from the team and sent in different directions under the Mopar umbrella. Nickens had his sponsorship discontinued and split between the camps of longtime Mopar black sheep Allen Johnson and Larry Morgan, who had run with minimal backing over the years.

Mopar Motorsports Team Manager Brett Fischer points out that this decision should be viewed from the perspective that his company was merely making a business decision, nothing more or nothing less.

“The real reason that we made the changes that we did is that we felt that the consistency level just wasn’t where it needed to be. The amount we spent just didn’t equal the return on our investment. We saw what GM was doing and since we introduced the Hemi, we did well but felt as if we needed to make some changes.”

Some are quick to suggest that there were other factors such as personality conflicts. Fischer adamantly denies any such insinuations and admits that the working relationship was intact until the association was terminated.

Team Mopar’s lone win in 2002 came when Darrell Alderman won at Gainesville. It marked the second win in three seasons for the team.

“What he did with our program was pretty tremendous,” added Fischer. “But, when you look at the performance, which is obviously there, and the consistency over the last three years, well, we just weren’t seeing enough wins. We need to win to make this program work, and that will take more than two wins in three years. With the development time and everything in a factory, we just felt it could have turned out better. Obviously Pro Stock is ultra competitive and winning is crucial, and now I feel like we have four of the best drivers out there.”

Nickens can’t help but feel that he was given the shaft in the whole scenario and thinks that Mopar could have handled the situation more professionally. He was notified headed into Dallas that his contract would be terminated. The accusations flew right after the decision was handed down, and Nickens was quick to point out that the factory strung him along and led him to believe that all was well with his sponsorship.

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The sponsorship was slated to end at the end of 2003. Nickens admitted that Mopar had a clause in their contract that enabled them to cancel at any time. They exercised that option with Nickens.

“They basically put that clause in there with everyone,” added Nickens. He said that Mopar never gave him a reason for terminating the contract.

Nickens wouldn’t go as far as to say that his team was raided and stolen away from him, but he was quick to offer judgment that the scenario certainly could have been better solved by following proper professional etiquette.

Alderman pointed out that some of his problems this season could be attributed to a car that just didn’t fit him properly. He feels that Nickens did all he could to make the program work right.

Nickens pointed out, “I’d heard a lot of the rumors floating around and asked if the rumors were true and we were kinda assured that they weren’t. The more and more rumors I heard, the more and more it led me to believe they were true. I feel like they were working on this for some time. I got a call the week of Dallas and they told us they were going to terminate us.”

Nickens knew headed into Vegas what was going to happen. Did he feel lied to?

“Pretty much,” Nickens answered. “If this was something that they were looking to do, they could have given us some kind of opportunity to go out and search for a new sponsor. Finding out at the end of October and first of November basically leaves me out in the cold for next year. Most of the sponsorship dollars were already allocated at that point for companies.”

Fischer made the decision and notified Nickens at Dallas. “We’re not in this to be nice guys. We are in this for a specific business purpose. We can’t fail to win and continue the program.”

Fischer felt that he owed it to Nickens to give him every opportunity to turn things around before making the decision to terminate the contract.

“We wanted to give him every benefit of the doubt and let him continue in order to prove himself - we wanted to give him enough time to do that. There were times that we couldn’t qualify two cars at the same race. It’s the same thing in all motorsports, we don’t pay them to not qualify and not go rounds. By notifying him before Dallas, we wanted to give him the opportunity to find a sponsor, which I’m sure he can do.”

One of the most widespread rumors that floated around the pits was that Mopar had negotiated deals with the drivers on the Nickens team before informing Nickens that the deal had gone awash. Fischer denies anyone talking to the drivers beforehand and contends that Nickens was notified first.

Gene Wilson was the bright spot for Team Mopar, reaching the finals twice, placing ninth in the points and winning Rookie of the Year accolades. Next season, he will be part of Larry Morgan’s Mopar camp.

Nickens wouldn’t go as far as to say it was an orchestrated plot against him, but it could have been handled better than it was.

“I don’t know,” Nickens responded. “I know professionalism was certainly not used. They could have done a lot better job, no matter how they handled it. They could have talked to us at the middle of the year and we could have started looking around. This could have been handled a lot differently.

“I don’t think it was handled properly - they were negotiating with my team and my drivers while we were still under contract. When you do that stuff during racing season, it creates a lot of unrest among the players. It’s hard to keep them focused on what is going on.”

Negotiating with the drivers was not against the terms of the contract, but Nickens pointed out that it violated the spirit of professionalism. The toughest thing to deal with in this episode of the silly season was the rumor mill. No one could escape the viciousness of this verbal monster.

Morgan pointed out that he chose to ignore it, but that was tough. He admitted that he knew nothing about the upcoming year, other than that Mopar let him know that his current deal was going to be upgraded to a higher level. They asked him if he’d do a second car and Morgan admitted that he’d do it if the money was right.

As he put it, “I was as shocked as the rest of the world.”

That’s when the rumor mill kicked in full speed. Morgan continued, “To be honest, I don’t pay attention to the rumor mill or I’d be mad every five minutes. I just try not to pay any attention to it. You have to realize that people are out there stirring up shit all the time. I never knew about my deal until I was told by Mike Sullivan.”  

So how hard was it to perform with all the rumors floating around? For Wilson, he was inundated with questions regarding what he planned to do and where he’d be in 2003. When it was all said and done, he just wanted to race.

Wilson said, “You know, I didn’t come to be at Mopar for one year. I came as a driver with a long-term relationship in mind when I came. And Mopar certainly supported that. You know, I’m really thankful to be with the guys at Mopar. These guys are really dedicated with what they do. They want to win races just as bad as I do and it really makes a difference when your team and everybody involved really have the desire to win. I came with the intention of forging a long-term relationship with Chrysler and I feel that that’s well on its way. We’ll just have to go year by year and do the best we can and maybe our relationship – well, I’m sure our relationship will stay together.”

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There were other factors in the moves as non-factory teams often got the best of Team Mopar. Often branded the “black sheep” of the Mopar family, the Johnsons came out on the winning end of the stick. Johnson had to assume that it was embarrassing for the factory team and maybe that’s why they caught the eye of the sponsorship decision makers.

Johnson added, “Yeah. I think so. I mean we didn’t set out to embarrass anybody during competition with them any more than the other 40 cars out there. I just think it was, you know – the reason they came with us is like I said, combination of things. As soon as we had the right people in place, we had the performance, we were professionals and that’s what they were looking for.

“I’m sure it was lots of things. You know, the people that are in charge of Mopar now are really bright people. They got a lot of new engineers working on the project and just a combination of perseverance, I guess, and performance, you know. It’s totally performance-based who does the best is going to get the money so I think it was a lot of factors.”

Fischer added that getting outrun by teams such as the Johnsons was not a source of embarrassment, but a testimony as to how good their product was.

“I think it was just the opposite of embarrassing,” Fischer explained. “I think it was a great statement of the public and it showed the potential to people that would want to run our product. I think we will have a newer and more superior product with our Stratus over the Neon. Obviously, the engine components are going to be there and if someone can take our product and outperform the factory teams, then it gives us the best of both worlds.”

While no one from Mopar would admit it, the general consensus among those in Pro Stock is that the pecking order was violated as well. The most common belief is that Alderman was to be the flagship driver. That game plan fell apart at the second-half of the season much to the chagrin of Mopar executives.

Team Mopar started the season on a high note with senior driver Alderman scoring the win at the NHRA Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. By the NHRA Springnationals in Columbus, Ohio, Alderman had ascended to the fourth spot in the points standings. At that point, the downward spiral began for the former three-time NHRA World Champion. Alderman only won two rounds in competition, once by a red light against Ron Krisher and a holeshot over Arturo Delgado, after beating Mark Whisnant at Columbus. At that race, Alderman was forced to shut-off in the finals and eventually drifted into a funk that included six consecutive DNQ efforts. Alderman also qualified in the top-half of the field once in the whole season.

New to the team, Wilson was in the top-half of the field twelve times, reaching the finals twice and finishing tenth in the program and garnering Rookie of the Year accolades. Wilson managed the finish despite not running a full tour.

The one thing that got the factory’s attention is that Team Mopar only scored two wins in the last three years, one of which came this season. This season the non-major backed team of Morgan scored a win at Sonoma, as did Johnson at Commerce, Ga. Research will show that in the last three years Team Mopar had two national event victories compared to Jeg Coughlin Jr.’s 23, Warren Johnson’s 19 and Jim Yates’ 15.

According to officials within Mopar, the thing they saw was that Morgan produced one win with 10% of the sponsorship that Nickens received and while undertaking his own Mopar Hemi development program without factory backing, Johnson also produced the same victory total.

Never was an alleged pecking order made clear to Wilson when he came into the team.

Branded the “Black Sheep” of the Mopar family for many years, Team Mopar opened their arms to Allen and Roy Johnson. The father and son duo will also have Alderman as part of their operation.

“Well, it was never made clear,” explained Wilson. “Nobody ever said anything but you know me just being the way I am, Darrell Alderman is Darrell Alderman. He’s one of the greatest out there and I’d be very naïve to believe that I would have better equipment than him. But I don’t read it that way. I want him to have the best stuff and the best equipment that we have simply because he deserves it. He’s a champion. He’s got many good years left in him and you know he deserves all of my respect and that’s what I’m going to give him.”

One thing that Wilson has no problem with being is a team player.

He continued, “Absolutely not. I said from the get go – the purpose of a program like this is to bring a championship to Mopar, whether it be Darrell, Alan, Larry or myself. A lot of times the problem with a multi-car team is that everybody is selfish enough to want to be the man who brings the championship home and I’m the type of guy that just wants the championship. If it’s me, that’s fine; if it’s somebody else, that’s fine, as long as it’s on our team.”

Alderman confided that he never had the right combination in the car he was driving and that greatly affected his performance.

“We started out the season real good,” Alderman explained. “We won the Gators and then a final at Vegas and then the final at Columbus and what happened was that we were looking for more performance and we changed cars, you know and it was actually a car that was built for Mark Osborne and then, of course, Gene's a lot smaller than I am too. I never was comfortable in the car and to be honest with you, I didn't do a good job in that car and they made changes and stuff for me but there was something about that car that just didn't agree with me.

Alderman continued, “I mean you couldn't cut the wheel at all on it when you were pulling up to pre-stage or stage but once you did your burnout and backed up, you had to go straight to the starting line or it would put load in it and make it go to the left or to the right and we never did find out what was causing that. I mean the other two cars that I drove at the beginning of last year weren’t like that.”

The move to four factory cars gives the Mopar camp their largest program since the Seventies. It also provides them with more chances to win.

Larry Morgan pointed out that the rumor mill is something that makes him mad and as a result, he pays no attention to it. He too heard the rumors before he heard a call from Mopar.

“I think what it will do will give us an advantage,” explained Fischer. “In drag racing, it is different from other forms of motorsports, where you can get a front running car and the camera stays on them all the time. In drag racing, you sponsor one championship-winning car and in the first round you’re sharing that with 15 other cars. Then, in the second round, you’re sharing it with seven other cars and so on. That’s just one class. When you multiply that with classes, you really need to get more cars out there to improve your chances.”

Fischer feels that he has improved his chances by adding superior performing teams. 

“Especially in adding the Johnsons because they are some of the hardest working people in the industry,” continued Fischer. “Not that anybody else doesn’t work hard, they just did a great job of showing what they could do with our product. Their expertise, along with our engineering support, should boost their performance up. It’s exciting because Darrell and Allen will have cars equally capable of getting into the field.  

“With Larry, he’s always proven that he can build horsepower. He’s been trying to go at it alone for a while now, which is tough to do in this class. You might have gotten away with it ten years ago, but not today. When you look at how competitive the class is, and how many quality cars there are, you can’t expect someone to be car owner, driver and tuner. With proper funding, he’ll be able to surround himself with good help. I don’t think many have recognized just what an accomplishment Larry achieved this past season by himself.”

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This is a great opportunity for the drivers and they know it.

“I feel like we’re in a better position right now as Team Mopar to win the championship than they have been forever, probably,” explained Johnson. “You know, we’ve got good parts and pieces; they’ve got good engineers at Mopar and Dodge working on the stuff. We’ve already got stuff planned for two years from now, and they’re working to get all of it sorted out. They’re really doing it businesslike, professional-like and I feel like we’ve got probably some of the best drivers in Pro Stock and, of course, Larry’s got a lot of experience with engineering and motors and that’s a combination right now that really works so I think we’ll be okay.”

Rickie Smith, who was released from Team Nickens earlier this year, will be back with the Mopar camp and will serve as Alderman’s crew chief again. Buddy Ingersoll will wrench Johnson.

Alderman added, “Starting the season out with Alan Johnson and his dad Roy, and you know Rickie (Smith) as a crew chief, you know, I feel good about the season starting and I'm looking forward to doing some testing. They seem to be awfully good people and you know I'm looking forward to it.

“Well, it's really hard to compare today's Pro Stock with the Pro Stock in the 70s, it is so competitive and all. I think that Mopar has a good selection in Larry Morgan and Alan Johnson and myself as well as Gene, I think any of us have a good shot at competing for the championship next year.”

All the parties in the Mopar fold now feel that the factory gave Nickens every chance they could. In Morgan’s case, his win at Sonoma is what he felt secured his deal.

“I think so,” explained Morgan. “I think they gave him every opportunity that they could have. The money that they spent with him, they weren’t happy with the results. I don’t think it was anything personal. I don’t believe that they were happy with the money that they spent. David was somewhat unhappy with me because I got part of his deal. I didn’t do anything to get his deal I felt. Later on I thought I did and when I found out I did, winning that race kinda got me in trouble. If I wouldn’t have won that race, I probably wouldn’t have got this deal.”  

While the decision to remove the sponsorship from Nickens may lead some to look at the Nickens camp in a negative light, Fischer is quick to point out that he holds Nickens in the highest esteem in the industry and couldn’t think of a better transition from the Wayne County days. In this instance, it was just a business venture that didn’t produce favorable results.

“I think Nickens has incredible people in his shop,” said Fischer. “David is one of the best engine builders out there. Where we were when we won our last championship today and what we went through along the way, we have been through a lot. I think we are getting to the point where we can be a dominating force and David had a lot to do with that.”  

As unfortunate as it may seem, some have suggested that the scenario could end up in court.

“I would hope it wouldn’t come to that,” explained Nickens. “I think we still have the same goal. They want to win races and so do I. We have some provisions to where they owe me for some things in the contract. We’ll just have to look that stuff over. "