SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Drag racing felt stimulated and fresh during the off-season after Ron Capps followed Top Fuel’s Antron Brown into independent team ownership and the sport welcomed Tony Stewart Racing’s two-car operation (with Leah Pruett and Matt Hagan) into each nitro class.
While that’s a positive, the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series has gained new teams but not new drivers. Buddy Hull and Tripp Tatum also have their own Top Fuel teams now, but they aren’t new on tour, either.
Moreover, the terms “single-car team” and “multi-car team” seem straightforward — but that’s misleading, too. Many of these so-called “single-car” outfits are linked with another team for data-sharing, research and development, and marketing/promotional ventures.
Either structure is perfectly fine, as each has its role in keeping the sport healthy and growing. This latest trend seems like a throwback to the heyday of drag racing before budgets ballooned and corporate influence infiltrated the industry. When John Force added Tony Pedregon to his Funny Car team in 1996, some racers expressed disapproval. However, it wasn’t long before his counterparts followed suit.
At the end of last season, Brown, Capps, Hagan and Pruett left Don Schumacher Racing, which already had sidelined or dropped three teams because of funding problems. DSR — the 19-championship, 366-victory powerhouse that once had seven entries — is represented by just one car today.
But Don Schumacher believes single-car teams won’t set the pace in the future: “I don’t feel that is ultimately the trend in the direction the sport will go. 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.”
Hagan disagrees.
“I really don’t think so. I’ve yet to meet a crew chief who was just like, ‘We’re going to share all the information.’ At DSR, we had four cars. We had the same chassis, but we all ran different clutches and we all ran different things,” Hagan explained. “So as much as multiple-car teams are great, I just don’t know that they’re necessary. I think you can get it done with a one-car team. Every year, we were on our own little island. These crew chiefs don’t like to share as much as we hope they would — and for good reason. I don’t think these crew chiefs are as buddy-buddy as you think they are.”
Top Fuel privateer Jim Maroney said, “The one-man shows are good for the sport. We need 50 single-car teams. I think it’ll make racing more competitive, maybe not in final rounds. But in the first couple of rounds of eliminations, you’re going to have names that are not big names. They’re going to start going rounds. I’m not going to tell you that I’m going to be that guy, but I like to think I’m going to be that guy. Why not me? You walk around my pit, you might see some things that aren’t quite as nice as the big teams. But when I pull up to that starting line, I honestly feel like I got as good a shot as anybody to win that round or I wouldn’t be here.”
Maroney isn’t “anti-big team.” He’s grateful the larger teams help him and other smaller-budgeted teams, selling them slightly used parts for a discount as they cycle out those parts: “Things like that I appreciate.”
But can a genuine single-car team win the championship?
“Oh, absolutely. Absolutely,” Doug Foley said. “I think a single-car team has almost got it easier. Who really wants to mess with finding 32 hotel rooms and deciding where they’re eating, what they’re doing? I need that like I need a fricking hole in my head. Do I have any interest in having a multi-car team? Zero. Zero interest. My goal is to be a really good single-car team. That’s my only interest.”
Top Fuel owner-driver Mike Salinas said, “Look at Steve Torrence. That answers your question. Yes, you can … very possible. It’s going to get harder, but multi-car teams, it’s going to get harder for them, too. We’re all in the same boat. It looks like we in reinvented the sport, because now it’s a bunch of single-car teams. Same drivers; they now just own the teams. I think Schumacher was the smartest one out of all of them, and he didn’t do it on purpose.”
But don’t count out a beefed-up DSR. Tony Schumacher claims he told his father he knows they can rebuild and he “guaranteed” DSR will have a second car on track later this year.
These current single-car teams might not be single-car teams all that long. Brown has said he ultimately would be interested in a maximum of two dragsters and two Funny Cars. Dean Antonelli, Capps’ crew chief, said Capps has aspirations to expand his footprint one day.
Josh Hart has a spare dragster and he’s considering renting to an aspiring driver. Justin Ashley was coy about whether his Dustin Davis Motorsports team will add another car.
Maybe most multiple-car teams will limit themselves to two. That’s something John Force says he’s considering.
He took a major hit during the pandemic. And he said, “If I lose it again, I’ll probably head toward two Chevrolet Funny Cars. I stayed in the dragster business because that’s where my daughter wanted to be. But the day Brittany says, ‘I’m done,’ unless the sponsor money is there…”