SCHUMACHER KEEPING BUSY WITH FOXSPORTS TV ROLE

by Bobby Bennett; Photo courtesy of NHRA Media    Wed, 2019-05-01 13:28


Eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher isn't ready to close the chapter of his life story where he races at the highest level for championships. However, he's not opposed to seeing what the future can hold. 

Schumacher, sidelined for the foreseeable future as Don Schumacher Racing hunts for a major sponsor, doesn't mind looking ahead at the other options. 

Last weekend at zMax Dragway, Schumacher was wired up as part of the FoxSports television crew as a pit reporter for the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide broadcast. 

"It’s interesting. You get to watch from a different perspective," Schumacher, an 84-race winner said. "In the past, when you get beat in early rounds, you go up there, and you do some announcing, and it is what it is. But to sit there now for a few races and actually watch what strengths drivers have and the weaknesses it goes a long way. Watching how people stage cars, advantages I haven’t thought of before. It’s kind of a cool deal. 

"What has been said on tv and what is right and what is wrong, the accuracies and the inaccuracies. John Force today is a great example; he goes in and rolls that thing in deep and turns the top light off. Everyone goes, 'oh my gosh, he’s giving up.” 

"Now hang on, he won the round, he threw everyone off. Did he not do it flawlessly? That’s magic. That’s a guy who’s got 149 wins. Sometimes you’re so focused on your little box and your little people and your little world that you forget  there’s other ways to do things."

The U.S. Army, Schumacher's primary sponsor for nearly 20 years, announced last July it was pulling out of NHRA and Don Schumacher leaving the man who carried the moniker "The Sarge" without a major sponsor for the first time since 1998. DSR had a last minute deal fall through just weeks before the 2019 season, forcing team owner and Schumacher's father Don Schumacher to suspend operations for Schumacher's dragster. 

Admittedly, Schumacher has had some wild rides and driven at times to the edge of out of control, but there was nothing about standing in front of the camera which frightened him in the least. He believes being a spokesperson for the U.S. Army for decades prepared him for the moment. 

"I’ve always just been the kind of guy that if ask me a question I’ll give you an answer on what I think and if I don’t have an answer, I’ll say 'I don’t know that answer,” Schumacher said. "I think when you’re walking around interviewing fans and stuff, I’ve had 19 years of Army, discipline, hold it in, don’t say anything, be soldier-like. 

"Now I can have a little bit of fun. I can be me, and I think people are enjoying seeing the other side of me, the part that is 100% sarcastic and quick-witted and enjoying myself. So I like to do that, and I’m really having a good time. Do I want to do it full-time? No. I want to race cars. That’s what I want to do, and we’re working on those deals but is it something I’ll do in the future? Absolutely."

Watching from the sidelines has been tough for Schumacher, but only because he sees every move the former competition makes and laments the fact they rarely made mistakes in competition against him. 

"You watch it and go, 'How come they got .40 lights against me and 2.40 lights when I’m not there?” Schumacher said, shaking his head. "I don’t understand it all." 

"Our caliber of car and the amount of races we’ve won has made people really step up, and I hear that in the pits with people saying, “We need you back. You help us rise to a level.” 

"So I think, the fans, I don’t get to see them enough, and that’s what really makes me smile. The days spent in the studios are great, the tv stuff is good but just getting outside for a few minutes and hugging the kids, that’s what I was always known for, and it’s what I like to do."

Make no bones about it, Schumacher isn't using his spare time to prepare for the next broadcast. He's too busy trying to make his way back behind the wheel. 

"I’m on the phone every day," Schumacher explained. "Literally, it’s a never-ending, constant search for the right partner. People go, “How is that possible that the winningest team ever?” 

"Well let me explain how it’s possible. We have a NAPA car, so all the other car stores we can’t deal with. We have an oil deal; we have Mopar, we have and on and on and on. It’s eliminated stuff, and we have to think way outside the box with the right person on our car."

But for now, Schumacher's biding his time being the man in the box, the television box.
 

 

 

 

 
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