Tony Schumacher has a long list of admirable qualities. But his reaction to the National Hot Rod Ass’n’s decision to disqualify him from the Technicoat Shootout wasn’t one of his finer performances.
After beating Melanie Troxel in the Shootout semifinals, Schumacher bypassed the tech scales at which drivers — unless otherwise directed — must stop when they win an eliminator round or if during qualifying they improve their elapsed times.
The U.S. Army Dragster driver stopped at the scales, as required, following his first-round victory over Cory McClenathan. It’s unclear exactly why Schumacher didn’t follow the same procedure when he advanced once again.
The fact is he didn’t. Officials tossed out his run and installed Troxel in his place as Hot Rod Fuller’s opponent in the final round.
Schumacher said he didn’t submit to inspection because The Strip @ Las Vegas Motor Speedway, unlike many other facilities on the POWERade Drag Racing Series circuit, does not have a red-green “traffic light” that reminds drivers to stop and have the car weighed or allows them to skip the ritual.
“The fact of whether there’s a traffic light here is immaterial, in my opinion,” Graham Light, senior vice-president of racing operations, said. “We have a minimum-weight rule. We have scales at the end of the racetrack. Our rules are very simple. They made a mistake.”
Rather than accept the decision, considering that he said crew chief Alan Johnson told him they should’ve stopped at the scale, Schumacher delivered a tirade to members of the media.
“We’re saying the Countdown’s the greatest thing in the world. Are you kidding me? They can decide when they want, whenever they want that’s not a good run. Whoa — that’s kind of brutal, isn’t it? In the rulebook it does not say you have to stop,” Schumacher said.
“Graham’s comment was, ‘You’ve been racing a long time. You know to stop.’ I know when there’s a red light that comes on that says stop. There’s a red light and a green light at almost every track. When it’s on, we stop; when it’s not, we don’t. There’s no light here.
“Graham said, ‘You know the rules.’ What rules? No, I don’t — not in any way, shape or form do I know the rules. They make them up as they go along,” he said.
Schumacher cited past incidents as evidence of arbitrary behavior.
“Who gets to decide who’s your champion? It’s apparently not the points system,” Schumacher said. “Ain’t that a you-know-what?”
Light cited the case of Funny Car’s Tony Pedregon, who was DQed at this track two years ago in a decision that meant he missed the show.
“Then why didn’t you fix it? If this is a problem…then put a light in,” Schumacher argued. “I’d like to see the rulebook where it says we have to stop. There is no rule.”
Schumacher had a salient point: If a traffic light would erase any chance of controversy, install one. If NHRA develops a reputation for making capricious decisions, then it needs to recommit itself to communicating well with its racers. The Countdown’s flaws are emerging, not that it ever was a substitute for allowing the driver who’s consistently better to shine as champion.
Schumacher needs to reflect on the fact that he benefited immensely from arbitrary interpretation of the rules last year. He disobeyed starter Rick Stewart’s orders, received a relatively harmless slap on the hand and remained in the championship hunt right to the last five scintillating seconds of the season. He made his record-setting, title-winning pass fair and square, but some would argue that he violated rules and shouldn’t have had that opportunity.
In this case, NHRA appears to have made the correct decision and Schumacher an unfortunate one. It happened in a specialty race that didn’t have a bearing on Schumacher’s No. 1 qualifying effort.