Tony Schumacher spoke directly to someone without mentioning their name during his post-race press conference at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

Those in the know immediately drew the conclusion he was speaking to Hot Rod Fuller because of his criticism of the championship format in 2007 after leading the majority of the season and then having the lead wiped away per the rules of the reset.

During the post-race press conference, emcee Bob Frey suggested that Schumacher was a fan of the Countdown to the Championship in 2007 because the format worked to his favor. He also suggested this season could generate the opposite feelings since Schumacher has to surrender a tremendous lead.

Tony Schumacher spoke directly to someone without mentioning their name during his post-race press conference at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

Those in the know immediately drew the conclusion he was speaking to Hot Rod Fuller because of his criticism of the championship format in 2007 after leading the majority of the season and then having the lead wiped away per the rules of the reset.

During the post-race press conference, emcee Bob Frey suggested that Schumacher was a fan of the Countdown to the Championship in 2007 because the format worked to his favor. He also suggested this season could generate the opposite feelings since Schumacher has to surrender a tremendous lead.

“I’m a man,” Schumacher said. “We’re going to show up at the race when they take all the points away and try to win the last six. If someone else wins the championship, I’m going to walk over and shake their hand. I don’t think there’s enough people out there like that.

“I get disappointed watching these ballplayers throw their gloves and get angry. We know the rules. I read the rulebook. I knew going into here that if we won every race to this point that they were still going to take every point away from us.

“This is no secret and we’ve been through this for a year now. I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say it was only good last year because it helped us. As good as we’ve been running if we can’t seal the deal, someone else is going to be the POWERade champion. I’m going to be there when they put their jacket on and I’m going to be there when they put their ring on. I’ll call them champ because that’s what they will be.

“No matter what, if we didn’t show for the last six races – I’ve still had an outstanding season.”