WHIT BAZEMORE – MATCO TOOLS FUNNY CAR DRIVER/DON SCHUMACHER RACING:  I think it’s interesting.  I think it’s got potential and the reasoning behind it is valid.  Obviously, it’s going to be a more contrived championship.  What concerns me as a competitor is that if you make it to the Final Four, if you have bad luck you’re pretty much done.  There’s absolutely no margin for error.  Throughout history the championships have always been won by the best team, and this new system could change that.  It certainly opens the door to a team winning it that’s not necessarily the best over the course of the year.  Is that fair, unfair, good or bad?  That remains to be seen.  I think (NHRA) is trying to give the fans something very exciting and the media more to talk about, and I think it might work for that, but is an absolutely fair championship?  That’s hard to say, but it opens the door for other scenarios other than the best team winning.

COMPPLUS:  What’s our Plan for next year?

BAZEMORE:  My plan right now is that I don’t have a plan set in stone.  There are some opportunities (for me). I think that obviously, with Matco going to David Powers they’re interested in having me there, but I don’t have a deal yet.

COMPPLUS:  Let’s back up.  Is it Matco that wants you there, or Powers that wants you there, or both?

BAZEMORE:  I would assume both.  I think all parties are interested in having me there, but I’m not there yet.  I’ve had a very good six years with Don (Schumacher), and I don’t think that it would be completely fair of me to just bolt right away.  If Don is interested in retaining me I’d like to give him some time to find the financing for this car, but how much time that is I don’t know.

LARRY DIXON – TOP FUEL DRIVER/DON PRUDHOMME RACING  Honestly, it really doesn’t matter to me.  I think it’s more important what other people think, like the fans, the sponsors and the media.  I’m going to go into every race and try to win that race.   If I have the best car in the pit area, I’m still going to win every week.  If they take all my points away and we start over, I’ll win again.  If you’ve got the best car on the block, it shouldn’t make any difference.  If (the new system) makes it more exciting and puts more fans in the stands and id doubles or triples the TV ratings and brings more sponsors into our sport, then I think it’s a great plan.

COMPPLUS:  What’s your plan for nest year, and how soon do you expect to have a sponsor?

DIXON:  I am very out of the loop on that.  I’m racing and driving, and I know they’re working very hard on getting something.  I know they were looking to make an announcement here at Indy, but it’s not that together, I guess, so I’m sure they’ll make an announcement as soon as they can.  We’re planning on keeping the team in tact.  It’ll be a different color, and we’ll keep racing next year.

TOMMY JOHNSON, JR – SKOAL FUNNY CAR DRIVER/PRUDHOMME RACING:  I knew you were going to ask me that!  I see pros and cons of both systems.  I see that with the old system if someone runs away with it it’s very anticlimactic because you’re crowning a champion early in the season.  With the new system I like the drama at the conclusion.  I see negatives in that you can be put out of the points chase very easy at the end of the year, but in my  personal opinion, using this year as an example, that would be a great opportunity for a team like ours.  We’re running really well at this point in the season, and we’re sixth in the points.  We’re kinda outa sight of the championship, but this would put us right back in the hunt.  It would be a dog fight with a really tough car at the end of the season.  Marketing wise I think it’s great for the sport because it’ll keep people excited until the end of the season.  I am a little concerned with the cut to four cars with just two races left.  That’s a tremendous amount of pressure on four teams to not make a single mistake.  It’s kinda like you’re running the whole season for just two races.  You’ll have to be perfect in those two races, and that’s a lot of pressure on these teams, and with these cars a lot of little things could go wrong and ruin your whole season.    That would be unfortunate.  It would be terrible.  I guess my view is that no matter what kind of points system they have, you still have to go out and win the thing.  Whatever they give us, we gotta win it.  Right now this team is as solid as its ever been, so we’re nt going to change a thing for next year.

We questioned a member of the sponsorship community, who requested anonymity before he’d answer the same basic question, although it was posed from the perspective of a major sponsor, which this individual represents:  My initial thought, and you usually go with your initial feelings – and I haven’t thoroughly studied the plan – is that the Funny Car class could easily come down to four John Force cars at the end.  As a sponsor.  For Castrol that would e okay, and for John Force that would be okay.  For an independent team or anyone else it wouldn’t be okay.  I don’t know if it will drive excitement or not.

COMPPLUS:  Do you think that you, as a sponsor, could be ignored if your car failed to qualify for the Elite Eight or the Final Four?

SPONSOR:  Oh, I think you’ve already seen that in NASCAR, with the Chase.  Everyone’s looking, okay, here’s the 10 cars.  After that the only car that gets any attention is the car that wins the race if he’s out of the Top 10.  Over there they have 43 cars on the track at the same time, but absolutely, I don’t think it’s of value at that point if your car is not among that Top 10 (for the Chase).

TONY SCHUMACHER – TWO-TIME POWERADE TOP FUEL CHAMPION/U.S. ARMY-DON SCHUMACHER RACING:  Well, I think if you ask the guys who win the world championship they’re not going to like it.  Just common sense will tell you that.  I’ve locked (the title) up in Reading and in Las Vegas early on, and I’d hate to win 15 races in a season and still have it come down the point where you don’t even have to win, you just have to average a little better than the next guy, and we’re going to call you the world champion.  I’m not sure that’s right.  Years ago “Ace” McCulloch won seven out of nine races, but you had to go to Amarillo to win the world championship, and Gene Snow won at Amarillo with “Ace” the runner-up, and he’s not the world champion?  Haven’t we proved that that didn’t work years ago?  I guess it evens it out for the rest of the guys.  Overall I guess the majority of the guys would like it, but for me it ain’t gonna help this Army team in any way, shape or form.

(After the recorder had been turned off Schumacher went on at some length about hearing significant negative reactions from the fans – obviously fans of his – that they didn’t like the system.  According to Schumacher, they’re objections were based upon his potentially winning a significant number of races prior to Indy and then losing the title through a mechanical malfunction or the like in the last two races.  In his words, “Some of ‘em told me they’d be wearing black armbands the next year if that happened!”

JIM DUNN – LUCAS OIL FUNNY CAR TEAM OWNER;  I think it’s great if you’re an idiot.  I don’t like it ‘cause it just helps the big guys.  If you don’t have at least a $2 million budget you’ll never be in the top eight.  Like I told Mr. Compton, You’re telling me that if we go to the top four, and Force qualifies first and (Robert) Hight qualifies fourth that Hight’s not going to lay down (for Force)?  If he doesn’t, they’re stupid, because if he qualifies Number 1 that’ll give him one more point than the two Schumacher cars that might be in there.  You could be runner-up and win the deal.  Now it makes the whole team very important.

COMPPLUS:  What’s your plan for nest year?

DUNN:  Tryng to stay alive!

COMPPLUS:  Is Lucas Oil on board for next year?

DUNN:  Yeah, I believe so.

COMPPLUS:  What about your driver situation?

DUNN:  Probably the same one (Tony Bartone).