Tony Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA Drag Racing history, will be at the NHRA’s season-opening Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals this weekend.
However, he will not be competing. Schumacher will be watching the action as a fan before heading off for his induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s (MSHFA) class of 2025 on March 11 in Daytona, Fla.
“This is pretty badass,” said Schumacher about his induction. “I’m joking about it, but I’m going down there, and Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi are going to be there. I’m going down there with an autograph book and see how many autographs I can get. This is going to be the biggest group of studs I have been around.”
Other inductees in the MSHFA Class of 2025 include Carl Haas, Dale Jarrett, Skip Barber, Miguel Duhamel, Ed Iskenderian, and Bill Stroppe.
Schumacher will join his legendary father Don Schumacher in the MSHFA. Don, who passed away in December 2023, was inducted into the MSHFA in 2019.
Schumacher has won an NHRA Top Fuel record 88 national events including two last season. He also has won an NHRA record eight Top Fuel world championships.
“An honor like this usually happens to you later in life but I’m one of those guys who sits back, and I think I’m not done yet. I hate to be announcing accolades when I’m in the middle of them. I’m reaching the end of the ride so if I run for five more years….and at the end of the day you have won enough stuff you get to go into this (the MSHFA) with a cool group of guys Everything else is just gravy on top.”
Tony does have ties to one of his fellow 2025 MSHFA inductees in Skip Barber.
“The cool this is that when I was 19, I went through Skip Barber’s Racing School in Seattle,” Schumacher said. “I road raced for a year through the Skip Barber program. I’m not taking anything away from Frank Hawley, he had one of the best schools I’ve been to, but the Skip Barber (School) has probably won me more races because it was completely about weight transfer and car control. It was an open-wheel car with no wings. It was simply amazing how much you learn driving a car that doesn’t have wings to assist you. That helped me so much.
“For a whole year, I drove in open-wheel racing, and it was cool. I needed it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do at that time. People don’t know when I was young my dad was working and I was 5 years old. I didn’t know he was a Funny Car driver. I didn’t know he was cool. I thought he was a businessman who wore a suit and tie.
“I grew up watching the show ‘The Quick and the Dead’ hosted by Jackie Stewart and Stacey Keach. It was great. I didn’t know what path I was going to take so for me I was trying everything out and one thing led to another.”
Schumacher has the record for most Top Fuel wins at the Gatornationals with five. His victories came in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2017.
“I love the Gatornationals,” Schumacher said. “It is a great race. Great town. Obviously, we used to start the season in Pomona (Calif.), but we literally always looked forward to getting to the Gators. I had some great moments there.”
