Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) has fielded as few as one car and as many as nine.

And Schumacher told Competition Plus that he doesn’t think the single-car team – à la Antron Brown’s and Ron Capps’ new operations – is an indication of things to come.

“No, I don't feel that is ultimately the trend in the direction the sport will go,” Schumacher said. “I believe the multi-car teams with the current owners and the new owners will be ultimately the way the sport progresses and goes forward.”

Who could argue with him? Even Brown and Capps likely won’t remain single-car operations. Brown has said that eventually he’d like to expand his team, with the ultimate limit two Top Fuel dragsters and two Funny Cars. Dean Antonelli, Capps’ co-crew chief along with John Medlen, said, “I would say he has aspirations to grow to a multiple-car team, probably a two-car team, in the next few years – not right away.”

For 2022, though, they’ll likely remain one-car operations, getting used to the daily grind of team ownership. But to prove his point, Schumacher reminded that Brown already has formed an alliance with the Dustin Davis Motorsports team of Justin Ashley.

Matt Hagan and Leah Pruett left DSR at the end of last year to drive for Tony Stewart’s new drag-racing team. Hagan is in a Funny Car and Pruett a dragster, but it’s still a two-car team.

John Force Racing so far has no immediate plans to downsize his team. To the contrary, JFR President Robert Hight said last November that it’s likely Austin Prock will be back in a driver capacity this season. And Kalitta Motorsports still has a three-car team with Top Fuel racers Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon and Funny Car frontrunner JR Todd.

Word late last year that Billy Torrence is planning to run fewer races than in the past, the Torrence Racing group featuring four-time and current Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence still has two cars in its pit. It’s a single-family team but not necessarily a single-car team.

We still see Elite Motorsports and KB Racing – and others – building up their arsenals in Pro Stock. And the Pro Stock Motorcycle class has a blend of multi-bike alliances and single-bike strategies.

While most regard DSR as a single-car team this year, with Tony Schumacher returning to fulltime action in the Top Fuel category, Don Schumacher doesn’t look at it that way.

“I mean, I got three Factory Shootout cars that I'm running. Always working on additional things. But at my age, I have decided to not be as intimately involved in any business as I was in the past,” the team owner said.

Mark Pawuk and David Davies headline that portion of DSR, but a third driver has yet to be named – one who presumably will fill the vacant spot that popped up with Pruett’s departure. (Will Pruett come back to that Factory Stock Showdown ride?)

The biggest contingent DSR has had on the track at one time is nine, in 2005. His drivers then were Tony Schumacher and Melanie Troxel in Top Fuel; Whit Bazemore, Ron Capps, and Gary Scelzi in Funny Car; Jeg Coughlin and Richie Stevens in Pro Stock; and Antron Brown and Angelle Sampey in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

In 2020, his team ballooned to eight drivers, with the late-season addition of Tony Schumacher and Cory McClenathan.

Don Schumacher returned to the sport in 1998, to ensure that his son competed in safe and proper equipment. Together they won the Top Fuel championship the following year. By 2004, DSR had taken on six teams: one in Top Fuel (Tony Schumacher), two in Funny Car (Bazemore and Scelzi), one in Pro Stock (Larry Morgan), and two in Pro Stock Motorcycle (Brown and Sampey).

In 2007, he increased his footprint to eight (Schumacher, Brown, Sampey, Jack Beckman, Capps, Scelzi, Allen Johnson, and Richie Stevens). He averaged about seven after that, rotating drivers in and out but employing such racers as Spencer Massey, Shawn Langdon, Johnny Gray, Chip Ellis, and Craig Treble.

Schumacher did say he isn’t opposed bringing in another Funny Car if the terms are palatable.

“I have some opportunities there but nothing that allows me to look at a full season. I choose not to think about putting together a partial season on any fuel car. It's a very difficult way to compete at the highest level if you only run part of the season. If I'm going to run a team, that's going to be for the whole season or I choose not to do it any other way,” he said. “I will do what's right for my family, myself, my employees and the sport.”

The guiding factor is his ability to win series titles. DSR has 366 victories and 16 championships (including Pruett’s 2018 Factory Stock Showdown title). 

“That's the only reason I've ever raced, is to win races and win championships. That's the only reason I will be out there at Pomona and the future,” Schumacher said.

“And when it gets to the point that that isn't what I choose to do, then I'll turn the reins over to Megan [his daughter, who has served as vice-president of the company], and we will go from there,” he said.

It has been suggested that he might relieve some stress and still be involved in the sport by serving as a consultant to NHRA teams. Schumacher didn’t pooh-pooh the idea, but he was only lukewarm to it: “Sure. But it isn’t something that I would choose to be paid to do.” Instead, he said he’s happy to help anyone, even those who left DSR for greener pastures.

I've accomplished a lot of things in my life, and I'm more than willing to help people and teams accomplish what their goals are. I'm there for all of the teams that have started out on their own, Antron and Ron Capps, and I'm there to assist Tony Stewart in any way. He's got a great organization. I'll assist any and all of them and the sport anyway I reasonably can,” Schumacher said.

And he suspects it’ll be in an environment in which multi-car teams still rule.