SCHUMACHER NO LONGER HOLDS BACK
Dragster
team that might have devastated another race-car driver or exposed some
snarky side. Alan Johnson tuned Schumacher to five straight NHRA Top Fuel championships for six overall and a class-record 59 victories. But Johnson left Don Schumacher Racing at the end of last season to form his own team that features dragster driver Larry Dixon and Funny Car veteran Del Worsham.
Since then, Tony Schumacher has chosen not to respond to those who doubted his ability to win races in Johnson's absence. He never needed to, really -- he has let his record speak for itself. This year he has won three events, led the standings after four races, and never been out of the top five.
He’s Held His Tongue, No More Holding Back for Schumacher …
For nearly a year, Tony Schumacher has been extremely careful to be respectful and gracious about the changes to his U.S. Army Dragster team that might have devastated another race-car driver or exposed some snarky side.
Alan Johnson tuned Schumacher to five straight NHRA Top Fuel championships for six overall and a class-record 59 victories. But Johnson left Don Schumacher Racing at the end of last season to form his own team that features dragster driver Larry Dixon and Funny Car veteran Del Worsham.
Since then, Tony Schumacher has chosen not to respond to those who doubted his ability to win races in Johnson's absence. He never needed to, really -- he has let his record speak for itself. This year he has won three events, led the standings after four races, and never been out of the top five.
Moreover, as the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series tour heads to Brainerd, Minn., next weekend and the Countdown cutoff looms Labor Day weekend, Schumacher is second only to points leader Antron Brown.
In a guest appearance Wednesday on Michael Knight's Internet radio show "The Race Reporters," Schumacher spoke publicly for the first time about his feelings in the wake of Johnson's departure.
He said on the VoiceAmerica.com's Power Up Channel program, "My focus is really on trying to prove a lot of people wrong that we can win a championship without A.J."
Said Schumacher, "When Alan said he was leaving, you'd get these comments that 'Oh, Schumacher will never win a race again.' Well, I beg to differ. It's not about one guy. It's about a group of people working well together.
I, quite frankly, was tired of hearing that it was all about Alan Johnson, that he was the only guy who could win a championship, I hate to say this, but . . . We beat him before. We raced against him and we beat him. (With Dan Olson as his crew chief) we won one race in 1999. We won a championship (that season) by being consistent, by being just a good, hard-working group of people.
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"I knew we'd be able to put it together. And I knew it would be very gratifying when we went out and won our first race together as a new team," he said. "The best part was that I had to get through Alan Johnson and Larry Dixon and my old team to win that first race. I think that's what made it so incredible."
It came in March, at Houston, in the fourth race of the season. Schumacher eliminated Dixon in the semifinal. (In the following four races, he earned two more victories, at Las Vegas and Bristol, Tenn.)
"I, quite frankly, was tired of hearing that it was all about Alan Johnson, that he was the only guy who could win a championship," Schumacher said. "I hate to say this, but . . . We beat him before. We raced against him and we beat him. (With Dan Olson as his crew chief) we won one race in 1999. We won a championship (that season) by being consistent, by being just a good, hard-working group of people."
Schumacher said he took the news of Johnson's decision last August almost as a dare.
"I thought, 'You know what? This is great. This is a new challenge,' " Schumacher said. "I don’t want it to ever seem easy. I don't want to feel like it's easy."
That's why, in his words, "it kind of ticked me off" that during his domination with Johnson, photographers would joke about seeing him in the winner’s circle again and again. Their comments suggesting that they skip the picture-taking and "use the ones from last week" struck him as disrespectful. It aggravated him that they didn't seem to understand that each victory -- each round-win -- was so hard to achieve.
So with "a group of guys that I really didn't even know, probably never had a conversation with a single one of them before this year," Schumacher started his pursuit of a seventh series title this February. He said the new environment made him "wake up and have a spark" to his work. His motivation: "I have always said that the trophy that means the most is the one that's hardest to earn."
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Crew chief Mike Green, new to Schumacher's Top Fuel team but certainly not new to the NHRA fuel-car scene, has proven his mettle. No doubt he has had to weather public scrutiny not unlike Ray Perkins had to endure after succeeding Bear Bryant as head football coach at the University of Alabama.
Nobody is dismissing the Schumacher-Johnson legacy at all. But Green has performed sensationally under pressure, helping Schumacher write a whole new chapter of success.
With his U.S. Army sponsorship that began in September 2000, Schumacher said, "I get to be a part of something a lot bigger than myself." And his Army support team helped him with the transition, telling him, "When a general retires, we don't wave the white flag and give up. We hire another general" and march forward.
Schumacher said, "When A.J. left, people said, 'What are you going to do now?' I said, 'What do you mean?' They said, 'Well, you're never going to win.'
"I said, 'Really? I have a beautiful wife and three beautiful kids. I win every day.' " He said, "My life doesn't revolve around having to win. It revolves around having to figure out how to win and enjoying the challenge."
That, Schumacher said, "comes from those soldiers. I'm proud to be part of the U.S. Army."
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