SCHUMACHER’S REAL MOTIVATION
Schumacher banked his third victory of the season Sunday in the rain
plagued O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. He came
into round eight of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series holding the
Top Fuel point lead, and leveled Larry Dixon in the finals with a
4.555-second pass at 306.81 mph.
Did Fuller think there wouldn’t be payback for his comments?
Schumacher banked his third victory of the season Sunday in the rain plagued O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. He came into round eight of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series holding the Top Fuel point lead, and leveled Larry Dixon in the finals with a 4.555-second pass at 306.81 mph.
One had to look no further for inspiration than Hot Rod Fuller’s comments which suggested there was a dark side and insinuated he wasn’t it. When Fuller lost in the first round at Bristol, the door was opened for a Schumacher-Johnson throw-down.
If they want to call us something, they should call us champion – it’s that simple – Tony Schumacher
“They can call us what they want but we have a great team and we win races,” said Schumacher, when asked about those comments from rival Hot Rod Fuller. “Everybody out here knows we don’t cheat. They know we play a fair game. I’m not the only person that’s ever had Alan Johnson and ran fast. He’s just a good tuner and hard person to beat.
“If they want to call us something, they should call us champion – it’s that simple.”
Those comments came moments after Schumacher tried to play off the media exchange.
“He said there’s a dark side and a light side, you just misunderstood him,” Schumacher said, cracking a smile. "He’s the one with the dark helmet.”
The more Tony talked, the more intense his responses got.
Sources within both teams admitted that both drivers discussed the comments behind the scenes, and depending on who was discussing the topic, the conversation ranged from an acknowledgment of jest to a serious discussion.
Even team owner Don Schumacher was concerned with the comments.
“I just told dad to let it go because there’s nothing really wrong to be on the dark side,” Schumacher admitted. “We’ve won a lot of stuff and we’ve got a good team, but you do know Dale Earnhardt did run pretty good as ‘the Man in Black.”
Schumacher added, “You just don’t get any better than that.”
So how did the whole Dark Side implication get started? After all the initials of the team are DSR.
“That’s dad’s fault,” Schumacher admitted. “He should have kept it Schumacher Racing. He just didn’t want any to confuse me with owning his company. He had to put the Don in front of it.”
Lost in the shuffle of Schumacher’s clean-sweep weekend was the fact he won his 400th round victory.
“Of course, my focus after beating Hillary was immediately on the match up with Dixon, but it did cross my mind that I got to 400,” he said. “That’s really pretty neat. Like I said earlier this weekend, it’s not like John Force getting 1,000 round wins, but it’s a milestone just the same. I certainly couldn’t have gotten to this point without my great U.S. Army team.”
