John Force and Don Schumacher are embroiled in a war of words bringing back confirmation there is room in today’s corporate-friendly world of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing for a good old fashioned rivalry. 

While Force has said he refuses to say Don Schumacher’s name and refers to him as “that man” and Don Schumacher Racing as “the family” he admits the sport has long needed a rivalry. 

“Rivalries are great and important for the sport,” said Force. “The papers picked these up in Boston and here in Bristol. The people need this. Let the people read and believe what they want.” 

Jack Beckman, a member of whom Force refers to as “the family,” knows the importance. 

“The media loves hype,” said Beckman, whose crew chief Jimmy Prock is involuntarily part of the rivalry banter. “The organization thrives on controversy and competition. I cannot be something I am not. But I am okay with this rivalry here. I am absolutely okay with it because I believe it will bring out the best in the sport.”

Whether fans want to believe the latest banter between the two combatants is real or contrived, the primary participants confirm there is a genuine adversarial relationship  

“We don’t have to take cheap shots, but there are definitely shots we can take,” Beckman said. “At the end of the day, Don Schumacher has been unbelievably successful with Top Fuel dragsters. The thorn in his side is that he hasn’t been equally successful with the Funny Cars. Don is a Funny Car guy. He made his name as the Shoe with a body around him and not a dragster. Don’t you know for that reason and he’s so white-hot driven by being the best and John Force Racing has been a thorn in his since he came back full time.”

Ron Capps hasn’t engaged in the war of words, but said Force’s reputation as a racer and champion makes him a natural rival. 

“I don’t know about my teammates, but the reason I came to a Funny Car was to have the opportunity to race John Force and beat him,” said Capps. “That’s the reason Don Prudhomme built a Funny Car when we had the Copenhagen deal and I would be willing to bet you that is the reason Don Schumacher built the first Funny Car with Whit Bazemore and then branched out. It’s a huge feather to put in your hat when you beat that guy. It still is today.”

Capps knows how easily respect can turn to high intensity when one side feels disrespected. The NAPA-sponsored driver still remembers the day in 2002 at Bristol when he emerged from his then Don Prudhomme-owned Funny Car prepared to do the “Bristol Stomp.”

“We came close to blows at the finish line,” Capps admitted. “It takes a lot to get me going in a rivalry but when that switch is flipped, you don’t want to be around me. He flipped that switch one time. That fire burns as big now as it did back then.”

Force smiles when remembering the day Capps confronted him. 

“I always knew Capps from Day One when he was driving dragsters and he had a personality I liked,” Force said. “He was a good looking kid, looked like Brad Pitt. I listened to his personality and knew he could drive a race car. I knew from back then he was capable of winning championships. I saw an up and coming driver, good looking, smart and works the ropes. I saw all that and believed something was missing – the spark.”

Then Force yanked Capps’ chain and he got zapped. 

“Then at the end of the track he got out of the car and got in my face. He chewed my a**,” Force continued. “I was in shock. He was in my face like he was going to slug me. I realized then he had everything it takes. It was clear he had the tiger in there. He buries the tiger and lets it go when needed. He wants you to know he’s got it in his gut to win. I guarantee you in my books he’s already won a championship. I’d hire him tomorrow. I am growing my operation and if I could get him I would.”

Capps warns both the participants of this JFR – DSR feud as well as the sanctioning body, they do a great injustice when they disregard the other worthy rivals out there. 

“This rivalry thing between John and Don is great but I think we insult other drivers when we leave out Del Worsham, Tim Wilkerson and some of the others,” Capps said. “It’s a great insult to say that Force is the only one you are building a rivalry with. I’m not going to fake a rivalry.”

Chad Head, a Funny Car driver operating on lesser fanfare than the two mega-teams, said he is more than willing to mix it up with anyone out there and points out he has no problem serving up barbs. 

“We are all out here to ruin one another, are you kidding me?” said Head. “I’m fine with rivalries and if that’s how he wants to play with Schumacher, then so be it. Someone wants to start one with me, I’m all for it. It will be exciting because we cannot run into one another. Can’t put a fender into someone but if all it takes is talking about wanting to ruin someone. I’m ready.”

In the end, Force said rivalries can have a lasting effect and he still looks back to the days when he used to mix it up with the late Al Hofmann. The Hofmann rivalry, he admits, left him with regrets in the end.”

“Al Hofmann was a guy I respected,” Force said. “But he hated me. He beat on me verbally but I watched him race from the heart. I’m standing there and I’ve got Elvis on the hood of my Funny Car and Hofmann walked by and said, ‘you’re so ugly they had to paint someone else on your car.”

“Later on, I had Frankenstein on the car and he said in passing, ‘they finally put your picture on the hood.”

The last confrontation was the one which left a lasting mark on Force’s heart.

“Years later, after he retired, we crossed paths and I tried to strike up a friendly conversation,” recalled Force. “He went off on me. I said, ‘Al, it’s over.”

“He started telling me, ‘no, I hate you.’ He was right in my face and I never believed he hated me. Al just wanted to win. He was just that great of a fighter that he wanted to win. Then I asked him what was wrong.”

Force said Hofmann demanded the 16-time champion tell him how much he hated him. Hofmann ramped up his demand of Force to say, “I hate you.”

Force said after a moment, he relented and gave Hofmann his wish.

“Okay Al … if it makes you feel better … I hate you,” Force said, recalling the conversation. 

Force said those were the last words spoken between the two before Hofmann passed. 

“I thought for a moment, he finally won – he beat me.

“He got what he wanted and then the sumbitch died on me. I have lived with that, and I said to God or wherever [Al] is … ‘Please tell him I really didn’t hate him.”