Lest anyone worry that Sunday’s nitro sweep for his organization’s 299th and 300th NHRA victories might prod Don Schumacher into retiring, he can rest assured. The megateam owner said he’s going nowhere and that his powerhouse racing operation is here to stay.
 
“I have no plans or thoughts to exit the sport or for DSR to exit the sport. So we’re going to be here for a long time,” Schumacher said Sunday afternoon at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
 
Final-round triumphs by Tommy Johnson Jr. in Funny Car and Antron Brown in Top Fuel brought the DSR total to 300 overall and its count in nitro-class double-ups at the same event to 67. Johnson’s victory over Jonnie Lindberg in the Funny Car class clinched the accomplishment, for the Top Fuel showdown was an all-DSR affair, with Gatornationals winner Tony Schumacher taking away the race runner-up finish and the points lead.
 
The latter he swiped from yet another DSR mate, Leah Pritchett, winner of the season’s first two races. John Force claimed the Funny Car Wally trophy at Gainesville, Fla., two weeks before, preventing DSR from dominating entirely. Nevertheless, DSR has won seven of the combined eight Top Fuel and Funny Car final rounds. That includes Matt Hagan’s Funny Car victories in the year’s first two events.
 
It’s a phenomenon, this powerful statement Don Schumacher has made on NHRA drag racing. It even is mind-boggling for the team owner himself, who has contributed only five trophies as a driver to the total.     
 
He said, “A lot of years, a lot of things, have gone past all of us” since he recorded the first victory at the 1970 U.S. Nationals, beating Leroy Goldstein for the Funny Car win.
 
A pioneer racer and safety-features innovator, Don Schumacher has proven to be a master motivator and manager, with a knack for pairing the right driver and crew chief for desired results. But he credited his employees from both his race team and his Schumacher Electric for his success and said he simply set out in 1997 (after a 23-year gap following his 1974 drag-racing retirement) to copy what the legends of the sport were doing.
 
“We fight our battles. We try to come out here and do the best we can, for not only our sponsors and teams, but also for the sport. And No. 1, really, are the fans. Without the fans, none of us would be here. So we have to thank them,” he said. “I would never have been able to do it without Schumacher Electric support. We have 2,000 employees. We’ve got another 150 with the race team.
 
“I just keep chasing after John Force and Alan Johnson and Connie Kalitta and the people who have really taken this sport [forward]: Joe Amato, Don Garlits, Kenny Bernstein . . . It just goes on and on. I’m just kind of following after those guys and trying to emulate what they did out here,” Schumacher said.
 
“I’m blessed with the people I have around me, to say the least. We’ve accomplished some incredible things, nothing that I imagined I’d ever do. I never imagined winning Indy in 1970, no less my 300th NHRA Wally.”
 
In all, he said, “it’s been an incredible ride.”
 
It has had its bumps and bruises, its skirmishes, its controversies, and its love-loathe relationships, in addition to its dominating performances, its high standards, and its displays of people working together as machine-like as . . . well . . . the machines themselves.
 
The experience – including the occasional troubles, maybe especially the troubles – has, he said, “helped me become a businessman. It helped me learn how to manage people. And hopefully it’s helped me learn how to handle people – I make mistakes all the time. I get with my people, and I’m sure I say things they wish I hadn’t have said. And I push them in directions that I probably didn’t want to. We’ve accomplished what we’ve accomplished because of them, not because of me. I’m blessed to be able to ride along with this thing. At 72 years old, I can only be thrilled.”
 
Don Schumacher has jousted with the sanctioning body on several occasions and with fellow influential team owner John Force. They’ve had heated words with and about each other, and Don Schumacher even has received an unsolicited kiss from Force. They swap personnel and grouse about it.
 
But Schumacher, who also has thumbed his nose at serious illness at least twice in recent years, Sunday said, “I love the people. I love everybody who’s out here. I’d just as soon roll onto the starting line and fight with John Force and beat him every time we pull up to the starting line. But I love him. I love every competitor out here.
 
“It’s an incredible sport,” he said. “It creates a family out here. There isn’t another business that you can feel like they’re family even though they’re competitors.”
 
 
Besides, he said he knows Force isn’t going anywhere, either: “John’s younger than I am, so I’m sure he’s going to be out here longer than I am.” That could be a long, long time, for Schumacher (maybe?) playfully predicted his longevity in the sport by saying, “I figure another 20 years.”
 
He said he’s concerned with only one thing at the moment: “I only worry about my cars qualifying at the next race. That’s the way I look at it,” Schumacher said. “Nothing’s a given out here. You have to take it all. My guys have arisen to the occasion this year. We’ve won seven of the eight nitro competitions. So DSR has really been doing its thing out here. We’ve got to worry about qualifying at the next race.”
 
As for the NHRA, Schumacher said, “Back in the 60s and 70s, I raced the NHRA races to get notoriety and get recognized. Today, this is the only place to race. If you’re competing, this is where you have to compete. This is the pinnacle of drag racing, and to come out here and accomplish things, you’re doing the best you can possibly do.”
 
DSR fields three dragsters and the maximum four Funny Cars. Last year, with funding largely from his own pocket, Schumacher ran a fourth Top Fuel car. It has been several years since his stable included Pro Stock cars and Pro Stock Motorcycles. But Schumacher said Sunday he wouldn’t mind filling all the pro fields with as many cars and bikes as he is permitted.  
 
“Bring me sponsors. I’ll put ‘em back out here. I’d love to have four Pro Stock cars and four Pro Stock Motorcycles. Or I’ll start off with one in each class. I’m ready, willing, and able. I’ll just add on to my race shop. In fact, I’m getting ready to build more on it right now,” he said of his already massive Brownsburg, Ind., headquarters.
 
Even if Don Schumacher does stay in his current role until he’s 92 years old, he has a succession plan.
 
“Tony has been the face of DSR for all the years. He’s won eight championships. I’ve tried to stay back a little bit. Megan has come along and wants to step into the management role and take my teams over. And as I’ve told all of my children, ‘I won’t give you anything. Come and take it.’ And she’s working at taking it away from me,” he said. “Same thing with Tony. Tony’s done an incredible job out here. Come on and take it away from me, ‘Ton’ – it’s yours to have and yours to continue to grow and continue into the future.”