Call it kid-friendly, nitro-driver-approved. Funny Car driver Bob Bode and Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher are planning their own team, of sorts.

Bode's son Bobby, 8, just became the proud owner of a new Junior Dragster. Right now it has an honored spot in the garage at the family's Barrington, Ill., home. Bobby practices every day -- getting in and out of the car. “They're difficult for a little guy with short legs to get out of,” Dad said. “So I taught him how to get on top of the roll cage and jump out.”

Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher lives nearby and recently bought his eldest son, eight-year-old Anthony, a Junior Dragster. (“He has a baseball bat, too, and he skates,” part-time house-league hockey player Schumacher cautioned.)

And both he and Bode talked about getting their sons together to share the introductory drag-racing experience.

“We're going to team up, work together,” Schumacher said. “We'll start getting the kids together so they have someone to hang out with. It'll be the right way to do it.”

Said Bode, “If you have somebody to go do all this stuff with, it's so much more fun. The more the merrier.

“And if you can get the kids having fun with it. . . “ Bode said. “They truly are the future of the sport.”