NHRA MELLO YELLO DRAG RACING SERIES TELECONFERENCE
The following are excerpts from a teleconference featuring NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series guests including drivers Erica Enders (Pro Stock), Leah Pritchett (Top Fuel), Tony Pedregon, Fox Sports color commentator and John Force (Funny Car).
MODERATOR: This is our first teleconference of the year to preview the 2016 season, which begins February 11th -14th at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The 2016 NHRA season is one that will see the NHRA shifting Gears into a New Era with many changes coming for this season, including our new FOX Sports TV coverage package that will debut new rules for Pro Stock and even a brand new series logo, which I’m sure many of you have seen. We’ll start with Erica. Thank you for joining us today. Erica is the two time and defending Pro Stock world champion, and she enters the season again with Elite Motorsports so will have a different car manufacturer, and she will compete in a Dodge Dart for the coming season and be teamed with five time Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin. She had 21 career victories and is second only to Angelle Sampey with 41 wins.
Erica, we’ll start with the off season. It’s always a busy time of year, and with all the new changes to the rules and then the new manufacturer, I’m sure this has been even busier than normal. Where is your team right now in preparation for the first season opening event?
ERICA ENDERS: Yes, it’s been a very hectic yet fun and exciting off season for us. The off season, as you said, in quotes, it’s never an off season, it’s more work than the regular season. But we just took delivery on two brand new Rick Jones built Dodge Darts for myself and for Jeg Coughlin, and we will begin testing the new Dodge’s this coming weekend following up with eight test sessions scheduled for Phoenix heading into the week of Pomona. Things have been nuts. There have been a lot of rule changes for the class as a whole, so everybody is kind of starting from scratch, and there’s a huge learning curve involved with all of the new rule changes, and then on top of that we built two new race cars, so it’s been crazy.
MODERATOR: Is it a good type of crazy, though, going into the year?
ERICA ENDERS: Yeah, absolutely. The past two years with Elite Motorsports I’ve started the year off with a brand new race car, and the guys that built the car, Rick and Ricky Jones, are also my crew chiefs, as well, so they seem to have a pretty good handle on the new cars. As far as driving them is concerned, every car has its own personality, and you have to get acquainted with it, but I enjoy it. I’m very excited. We’re very optimistic at Elite Motorsports and Elite Performance, you know, with four entries this year, two Mopars with Jeg and I driving, and the other two with Drew Skillman and Vincent Nobile driving. So we’ve got a lot going on under the Elite Motorsports banner, but we’re very excited, and I think a lot of good things are to come.
Q. Erica, going for a third championship in front of a whole new television audience and new network, and hopefully fans or potential fans that aren’t quite connected to the sport, as you go for three in a row, a three peat, to quote Pat Riley, what would you like these new fans to know about the sport, and if you are introducing the sport of NHRA Mello Yello drag racing to new fans, what is the primary objective that you want to get across to these people?
ERICA ENDERS: Well, if they’re a new fan to NHRA drag racing, this year is certainly a crazy one to become a new fan, having no knowledge of the past of Pro Stock being carbureted and driving for a different manufacturer this year, you know, it’s going to make it more relative to, I guess, your average motorsports fan, I guess. I mean, not having the hood scoop, not having carburetors, going over to fuel injection, it kind of brings it into I guess we’ve kind of been racing in an archaic format, if you will, with the carburetors. My team owner always jokes you can barely buy a lawnmower with a carburetor on it. Hopefully we breathe a breath of fresh air into our class with tuning these cars with computers now instead of screwdrivers, and it should be an exciting year. Following the fuel injection rule changes, the 10,500 rev limiter, shorter wheelie bars, and the no hood scoop deal, so it’s definitely a season for change, and it should be an exciting one, especially if you’re a new fan, and then of course the FOX coverage is going to be really unique in the aspect that they’re going to spend a lot more time in the pits and at our race shops and getting introduced to the personalities of everybody on the teams out there, so it should be exciting.
Q. Quick follow up: People are talking about how the cars drive differently, the procedure in the cockpit might be different and require some adjustment. What have you heard? What are you anticipating as you get ready for your first test?
ERICA ENDERS: Well, I have not been in the race car since we switched over to fuel injection, so I’ve only talked to a couple of friends out there who have tested, Allen Johnson, of course, I’ve read Shane Gray’s press release about the different procedures that go on in the cockpit, and driving Pro Stock, it’s already extremely challenging in there with a lot of things going on. Anyway, the Pro Stock cockpit is always really busy. With the switch over to fuel injection, staging procedure and burnouts are going to change dramatically. You’ve kind of got to go back and erase everything that you have learned driving with a carburetor and learn it with fuel injection. I was just with Allen Johnson this past weekend, and he was saying how frustrated he was a little bit just trying to learn the new procedure, so I’m going to try to go in there with a clear head and just figure it out as we go. My goal is to stage the car a whole bunch of times before we show up in Pomona because that’s something I really pride myself on is the staging procedure, obviously being able to let the clutch pedal out on time, but doing a burnout with throttle control is going to be a challenge with the new fuel injection and throttle body, whatnot.
We’ll see how it goes. Again, I’m optimistic, but change is always challenging, and we’ll try to get ahead of the game.
Q. You talk about the changes, the challenges, and you’re carrying over your momentum into this year. What do you expect from your competitors? They’re going to be challenged, also. What do you expect most to see them having difficulty with all the changes?
ERICA ENDERS: Well, being that we’re all dealt the same rule changes, I think everybody this off season has been just trying to figure out how to work with the new power band being at a lower RPM, and then of course implementing the fuel injection, where we used to pray to find three to five horsepower on the dyno, if you make a change with the fuel map on this new fuel injection stuff, you could stumble upon 10, 15, 20 horsepower at a time, so that’s pretty significant in Pro Stock. I think the team that gets the quickest handle on what’s going on will be the one that starts the season the quickest, I guess, but at the same time, I mean, the learning curve is huge. Everybody, I’m sure, on separate teams feels that they have done everything in their power to do the best that they could in the off season. I know Richard Freeman and everybody at Elite Motorsports, we took the initiative to hire some fuel injection experts. Of course it costs a very pretty penny to switch everything over from carburetors to fuel injection, and let alone all the computer programming and all the guys that have the knowledge to do that.
We were fortunate enough to have Jake Harrison on board who is a pretty successful fuel injection guy. We feel that things are going to be okay, but given time we are going to get better. Everybody is going to get better out there, and again, without just the burst of confidence from me, from my guys, I feel like I have the best, smartest guys in the business, and we fully expect to be on top. Having said that, it will be a challenge. There are a lot of really smart, talented racers in Pro Stock, so we’re just going to have to see what happens. I think right now the KB guys (KB Racing) have run the quickest with fuel injection, but there have only been three teams that I know have tested: KB, Allen Johnson and the Gray bunch, so we’ll hopefully add some numbers to that this coming weekend and see where we stand.
Q. It sounds like the switching to a new car or to a new manufacturer really isn’t much of a in the play works at this time when you’ve got ultimately other things to deal with.
ERICA ENDERS: Yeah, there’s definitely a lot to deal with, but we are super excited to be on board with Mopar and Dodge and it’s a really exciting time for everyone at Elite Motorsports, to bring on a new teammate in Jeg Coughlin, obviously probably the best driver that the pro class has ever seen in the history of the sport, in my opinion, of course, but we have a lot of exciting things happening in our camp, and we’re honored to be a part of the Mopar family now, and I think it’s going to be a fun, successful season.
Q. Does the style of driving change because of this, and does that make it more exciting?
ERICA ENDERS: I think the style will definitely change significantly, just based upon what the people have tested the new fuel injection package have said. I personally have not experienced it yet. My first time in the car with fuel injection will be this coming Saturday, so I can let you know more when I do it, but as far as what people have said, it’s changed significantly, so it’ll be a whole new narrow program, a whole new procedure in the cockpit, but again, we pride ourselves on that, so I’m excited for the challenge.
Q. In what ways does that make it exciting for you? Obviously it’s something totally different.
ERICA ENDERS: Well, changes is always tough, and I’m not a huge advocate for it, but having said that, if you’re not changing, you’re not moving forward. So I think these changes that have been implemented through Pro Stock and into NHRA, our sport as a whole, we’re definitely moving in the right direction, and the challenge at hand are what make it exciting for me. That’s why I chose Pro Stock. I mean, not taking away from any of the other classes, but we’re the only class that uses a clutch and we have to shift the car manually, and there’s a lot going on and a lot of the weight is on the driver’s shoulders, and I absolutely expect there to be a lot more weight on my shoulders this coming year with the changes that have been made, and I’m hopeful that our team comes out on top and learns how to handle those changes and challenges first.
Q. I know a lot of changes going on, everyone is talking about them, you’re changing even car manufacturer and everything, but one thing not changes is you’re going into the season as the champion again. Does your mindset change now that you’re a two time champion? The first time you know, okay, now I’ve got a target on my back. Do you feel at all different knowing that you’ve been the dominant driver last year, and just talk about where your mind is at going into this season.
ERICA ENDERS: Sure. My mindset, I try to always keep it the same. I feel like that’s why we do so well as a team, that our first objective out there is to have fun, and our team owner Richard Freeman tells us all the time, it just doesn’t matter, let’s just go out there and have fun and we’ll do our best and let God do the rest and we’ll see what happens. That’s the mindset that we carry week in and week out. It doesn’t change being that we have the No. 1 on our car again. It’s obviously a huge honor, and I’m so proud that we have accomplished it twice in a row. There’s not a lot of people that can say they’ve done that. I’m excited. You know, the target definitely is on our back. It has been since I joined Elite Motorsports, and we like that aspect of it. It makes it more exciting and more fun for us. You know, going into this season, our goal is always the same, to go out there and have fun and to win races for our great sponsors, and of course our new manufacturer Mopar. I’m looking forward to the year. We’ve talked about the changes and the challenges ahead, and I don’t want to beat those into the ground, but it’s definitely going to be a different kind of racing this year, but I fully expect to do our best again and to win a lot of events this year. You know, the learning curve, again, is going to be huge and going to be hard, but we’re up for the challenge. The way that we run our program at Elite Motorsports is very unique. I’ve driven for a lot of different teams, and I’ve never had what I have there. I feel like that translates to our on track success, so I’m excited. We’re optimistic.
Q. I was just going to ask you about the new TV package, too. I know they’ve said they’re going to change it up a little, do a little more background on the drivers and stuff. Has anyone reached out to you yet? Have they filmed anything on you yet or arranged to do any background stuff with you so far?
ERICA ENDERS: I actually got an email from one of the FOX people yesterday trying to set up an interview for the Monday following this weekend, so hopefully they’ll be able to come down to our shop. We just made a 6,000 square foot addition to house two more rigs, mine and Jeg’s, along with Drew’s, as well. There’s been a lot going on at Elite Motorsports, and I think it’ll be really cool when everybody gets to see where our home base is what’s going on behind the scenes. I think that makes it definitely more interesting for the fan. I know I enjoy that aspect of it, watching NASCAR on TV, that they go and show you the technical side of things and explain things as to what’s going on. I enjoy that aspect of it, so hopefully we’re able to teach the fans more and show them more about where we come from and what we’re made of.
Q. With all the changes with the fuel injection and basically the aero package on the car, have you gotten any feedback from your engine builders and dyno operators as to what kind of power the new power plants make compared to the carbureted engine?
ERICA ENDERS: Yeah, across the board, dynos are kind of like bathroom scales. Every one you get on gives you a different readout. Based upon the data that we had with the carbureted stuff in comparison to what we have with the fuel injection stuff across the board, and that’s just if other teams are telling the truth, everybody seems to be down between 40 and 60 horsepower. Maybe about a tenth to a tenth and a half, three mile per hour ish. But that’s on the dyno, not on the racetrack. Everything translates differently. We’ll have to see how that data that we’ve collected on the dyno translates to the racetrack this coming weekend, but it’ll definitely be slower to start with, I believe, but if you give all of these really smart guys a chance to catch up, I think that the sky is the limit with this new fuel injection stuff and being able to tune these race cars with the fuel map and the computers, it’s definitely going to be different.
The longer we have with the new program as time goes on in the season, I definitely think that you’ll see horsepower pick up significantly as well as increase in miles per hour.
Q. You’ve talked to Allen Johnson. Does he say the car handle differently without the scoop on it?
ERICA ENDERS: Well, yeah, it does handle differently, and I have the optimum opportunity to go to Detroit and visit the engineers at Mopar and spend some time in the wind tunnel and learning what they have learned from the data with comparing with the hood scoop and without the hood scoop, so downforce is definitely going to change significantly on the back of the car. It’s creating a more loose feel, so I’m sure that everyone will compensate either with more wicker or running the cars differently completely. We’ll have to see what happens. AJ definitely said that they handle differently, but that’s every driver has a different way of handling things, so I’m hopeful that I know what to expect, but at the same time I’m not going to know until I get in the car myself. Again, I’ll just go in there with a clean head and try to figure it out as quickly as I can. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.
MODERATOR: Next up we have Leah Pritchett, new driver of the C&J Energy Services dragster. She enters the season in her first full season of competition and her fifth year on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Tour. She’ll team up with Dave Connolly at the aforementioned Bob Vandergriff Motorsports, and last year she raced to one runner up finish along with one semifinal appearance. Leah, how fulfilling is it coming into this year having it set, having it in place, and being with Vandergriff this season?
LEAH PRITCHETT: Well, thank you I want to say for having me on this teleconference, to everybody that has tuned in. To answer that question, I wish I could say that it means the world, but I think it really just means the universe, to finally be at the same level competitively and run a full season for my first year finally in Top Fuel. It is a dream come true professionally, personally, and beyond just the race car itself, which has been proven to be a very competitive car, the crew that I have and I’m able to work with, and Bob as the team owner that I’ve known him to be, as crewman, to be the boss and the leader that I enjoy and am growing to learn under. Everything has definitely come all together, and you know, it took me a while, even though I was a very critical and crucial part of having this deal come together, when it finally became real, really when the press release came out Thursday of PRI I have to say I’m above and beyond the moon for sure, and I can’t wait to finally get some nitro, because this has been not only the longest off season for me but I think for the entire NHRA Mello Yello series, specifically nitro, it’s our longest off season because of when our testing happens, not going to West Palm and pushing testing to Phoenix closer to Pomona elongates your off season, which makes your own season more crucial. You’re going out for eventually what you would call a two race swing with a full week of testing, so essentially a three race swing, instead of going to West Palm, testing out some new things, coming back home, finish branding your items and seeing if your things worked or not. Really when we go out west, you bring it all.
Q. Over the past couple of years, you have been expending a lot of your personal energy on seeking out marketing partners, doing things with a team that was a part time team, which were doing a great job for what they had, but now it would seem that you, with a great primary sponsor and a great team like Bob Vandergriff, are going to have more time and energy. How are you going to reallocate that to make your team better, make yourself better, now that you will not be knocking on doors and sending out proposals and doing all the things behind the scenes to try to get this position? Now that you have it, what are you going to do with the extra time and energy?
LEAH PRITCHETT: That is a wonderful question, and I thought the same thing, too, that there would be more time. But it is just in my inherent nature, and because I don’t know anything else but to continue furthering myself, so just because I finally do get to be with a top notch team and run all the races, just from an ambition standpoint, in my mind it’s always what’s next, and so we do have Quaker State and Shell, and I couldn’t be more proud to represent those brands throughout this season, but at the same time I want to rejuvenate and vitalize Bob Vandergriff racing as a brand, myself as a brand, see what more cool content I can now create for the fans to get them more engaged with our team at the races, see what more I can do with FOX. I guess that’s what I’m doing with my time. At this point I’m focusing on what more new partners that align with myself and our team can we bring on for the season. As everybody knows, our cars run on nitromethane and we joke all the time they run on dollars, and it’s important for me that whatever we give back that our value is for our partners that we created to be so exponential and blow it out of the water that we have partners for life. For me it’s always it seems like when you’re climbing a mountain, for instance, right; I don’t know if you guys go on hikes and you climb a mountain and you think you see the top of the mountain, and you get there and you hike up it, and you’re like, oh, this feels great, just to see there’s another mountain behind it just because you were so far back, that’s kind of how I see it. I’m a hiker, I’m a climber, and in an all positive way. I enjoy challenges. I enjoy moving forward, so definitely more than content isn’t even the word to explain what I feel right now. But I think I thrive on pressure. I thrive on performance, and so with my team, with Joe Barlam and Mike Guger they’ve got that down. They are professionals and they are going to give me the car that has been proven to be a top 5 finishing car. I still do burden myself with making sure that I continue to create the fun stress to do what we know and love, in addition to Bob and I, we’ve had a good friendship for a number of years, and he was actually the first one to ever teach me what B to B means, I don’t know, maybe eight years ago, business to business, and I enjoy working with him because we share the same mental attitude, right? We know that the crew members and the team are good at that, and we know what we need to work on to maintain. We actually I’m so fortunate, I get to go in the shop every day. I live in Avon, Indiana. The shop is in Brownsburg. My former shop with Dote Racing was about two and a half, three hours away one way, so I get to be there every day. So in the mornings we joke, Mike Guger is like, all right, Leah, I’m spending this money, you keep finding it. So it’s a nice circle that we have, and I’m always happy and I’m always going to be a part of it.
Q. Something similar asked to Erica, for the casual channel flippers that we are all hoping tune into NHRA Mello Yello drag racing on FOX Sports in these live broadcasts here in the 2016 season, what do you think off the top of your head may be the least understood or appreciated aspect of the sport of NHRA drag racing that maybe those people as they come on board and flip by and watch the sport need to understand?
LEAH PRITCHETT: What is it that they need to understand? Well, first, when they flip through and they see NHRA Mello Yello Series on this channel that has never been there before, it is my hope that from the production side of things that we create the content that’s going to keep them on that channel within, what, we’ll have five seconds for them to grasp it? And for me, it’s the cars. It doesn’t get any more just real than the competition of the race cars and showing from a dynamic technical aspect how difficult it is for us to do what we do. When you see two dragsters go side by side 330 miles an hour and you have a tenth of a thousandth of a second splitting the win light, that is what I hope for them to see and appreciate and understand, and that does fall on FOX and NHRA’s new production, which I’m very confident that they’re going to be able to relate that, but that’s what I hope that they see. And of course in addition to the dramatics that we have at the races. There’s so much that the fans don’t get to see of what happens. Yes, we all pride ourselves on making it to the line and doing our 55 minute turnarounds when we have to when it comes in the clutch of our live TV, but that’s not the prettiest thing all the time. Not everything goes perfect, and we shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to show it, that we might have had a problem or a little bit of a setback or something might not have gone the way that it’s going to because that’s real, that’s life, and that’s what I think fans want to see is that it’s the struggles and the challenges that it takes, and not everything is perfect all the time. That’s what I hope, and I think if we gave a first quarter to be realistic, if we give the first quarter of the year, there’s a lot of wrinkles to bubble out, for teams, for getting fans to understand it and find the channel and if they need to change their programming from DirecTV to DISH TV to AT&T or whatever it is, that they find it, and then from there I think we’ll be able to better analyze what the health situation is from our TV standpoint.
Q. Leah, as far as you’ve really kind of touched on this, but as far as adjusting I think probably what race car drivers do best is adjusting, and you’re adjusting to new cars, new classes, everything. You’re adjusting. Talk a little bit about the adjusting you’re going to be doing here, and then to be working with Dave Connolly, who also has done some adjustment in the past at a good rate.
LEAH PRITCHETT: I’m definitely looking forward to the adjustment of adding races. The maximum number of races that I’ve done in any series was 16 in last year. Having a teammate is the coolest thing in the world. The last time I had one was at R2B2 in Pro Mod where we only ran we 10 races a year, and then the year before that with Melanie. Having Dave, I don’t think I could ask for a better one, and yes, he doesn’t have the most experience in Top Fuel, but that doesn’t matter. He is the most hard core hearted drag racer, and at the end of the day, that’s what it takes to put on the win lights, and he’s already shown that. So I’m looking forward to the conversations that he and I are going to have from a driving standpoint on the daily, just even if it’s small little talks to really big things of what works for you, this is what I find works for me, well, what about you. You know what was cool is a couple weeks ago I got in his car just because we were seeing how different our cars are, and he has an MLR chassis, I have a Hadman chassis, and we’re in the works of a backup car, and we need to make sure that potentially both of us fit in it, so it’s small details. I got in his car, and I fell in love with the way that he had his pedals set up, and I said, that’s what I’ve been searching for the past three years was the angle he had, the mounting location, his spring setup. Everything I loved, and so right then and there, we talked about it with Jake and my crew chiefs Joe and Mike Guger, and I said, you know, I really feel like this is what’s going to work for me. We turned it around, and I never would have been able to do that if I didn’t have a team car to sit in and see what I really want. Now, I have yet to hit the throttle with the motor turning yet, but I felt like that’s what I’m going to need, and it’s very cool to be able to have a teammate again and to root for somebody and to have a whole other team, as well, not just one other driver, but the nine, ten crew members that he has work collaboratively together, that really brings home the whole team atmosphere.
Q. You were just talking a second ago about the pedals and everything, and I think it’s interesting that something as seemingly minute as that you feel is going to give you a better chance on the racetrack and everything. Is that part of what you guys need to convey, too, in the new TV package is just drag racing looks so simple on its face, but there’s so many nuances to it that aren’t being brought out all the time, don’t you think?
LEAH PRITCHETT: I definitely would think so, but I think where that challenge lies is given no matter what team it is, DSR, JFR, BVR, there are some things maybe they are hesitant to show because they don’t want the other team to find out when it comes out on TV. But when it comes, let’s just talk about pedals real quick. When it comes to that, I could look at Antron Brown’s pedal right now and be like, that won’t work for me. It obviously works very, very well for him. So it’s about comfort levels, and our driving compartment is very small and there’s not a lot you can do. You need to make sure that you’re not messing with the throttle cable linkage in movement. We now have Bimba cylinders because of our pan pressure shutoffs, which is new this year. So there’s a lot of changes. The way I had my heel cup, probably nobody else runs it in the series, which would be cool to see and highlight. I don’t have a problem with it, and that’s probably because my number one priority is making sure that the fans can see and appreciate and are involved in our sport as much as possible because I’m a fan, too, of the sport. I’d want to see that stuff. I definitely think that there’s a lot more detail oriented things with the race car as well as a drama aspect between racers, and team relations that can be highlighted this year, and I know that FOX and NHRA has already started to do that as they have done a couple different shop visits, including our own.
Q. Does your preparation now focus change this year because you’re racing a full season?
LEAH PRITCHETT: You know, I have to say that it’s a little uncharted territory, so my preparation has changed a little bit. I am more in tune, more in focus with just my physical ability and mental ability, and something that I’ve really paid attention to is Compartmentalization, so from the aspect of when we’re at the races, we’re still not just racing. There’s a lot going on with media and sponsors and fans, and that’s something that I enjoy, and so I guess I’m practicing that as much as possible. Turning your light switch on and getting in business mode and trying to make deals happen and provide value and plan out marketing campaigns and turning that light switch off to turn on your race car light switch and walk out and start working on the race car with a team and start having race car conversations, which is the absolute funnest part of the day. So from a mental focus standpoint, I guess that’s what I’m working on. And at the end of the day, the thing that really gets me going and gets my blood pumping is just knowing that finally a real shot at the Countdown, a real shot at getting into the Traxxas Shootout, and yes, we have high expectations of our team, but I’m very humble to be in a race car that a former three time champion was in, but I’m realistic that I’m going to be showing my capabilities this year, and we hope for the best results, and we do expect to have a couple W’s and have Wally’s at the end of some of the weekends. But I don’t really know how to explain it except for I’m giving it my all. This team has got my back. They’re giving me their all, and that’s something I couldn’t ask anything more from.
Q. Does that put more or less pressure on you?
LEAH PRITCHETT: Oh, I’m sure more. I put a whole bunch of pressure on my own self.
No, nobody is putting any more pressure on me, and I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself to make the most of the limited number of races that I’ve done before, knowing that I would be looked at or working with partners that were trying to get us to that full time schedule. So I think mentally I’ve always put my pressure on myself. When I was racing Nostalgia Funny Cars before I ever got into a Fuel car, I would pretend at that time when I was talking with Don Schumacher, I would pretend in my mind when I would do my burnout and back up and stage with the car that Don Schumacher was right behind me looking at me to be a potential driver, and then eventually I did get to get my license with him and I am forever grateful for that, but I always try and up my pressure for this day, so this day has now come, so I guess we’ll all just see, including myself, how this season is going to go. I feel very confident, and that’s in large part to what Bob has been able to do from a team owner standpoint, from our sponsors, and of course what Joe Barlam and Mike Guger have proven in the past. They bring a lot of confidence to us, and my plan is to bring my skill set and composure and at the end of the day, like I said, putting on those win lights is number one.
MODERATOR: Next up we have Tony Pedregon. How excited are you to get this new second chapter of your career going?
TONY PEDREGON: Oh, very excited. You know, one of the things that I’ve found interesting, I’ve been doing this as a profession for so many years, it would have been 20 years this year, that, you know, as we prepare for racing season, I think especially in the month of January, you’re really in full swing, and you start to feel some of the pressures and really the excitement in a different capacity. I’ve been losing weight. I’ve been just nonstop trying to pay attention to previous shows, to the dos and don’ts, how to improve moving forward, what we’re going to be doing on the new FOX Sports show. But in a different way, I’m excited.
In fact, I was never able to lose really anything beyond five pounds, and I’ve lost 12 pounds, and then I learned that you don’t even have to lose weight because the TV doesn’t add 10 pounds anymore with the flat screen and HD, it was with the radius screen. But anyway, I’m excited I’ve lost weight and I’m in good fight shape.
Q. Tony, it was amazing to watch you just last week up there at zMax Dragway with Antron Brown there, with John Force there, and you were absolutely incredible in what you were doing in dealing with them. Did you feel any challenge at all in what you were doing?
TONY PEDREGON: No. No, I didn’t, but I can tell you that it is hard work. It’s completely different than I thought. I just thought it would be a natural transition because I’ve had numerous interviews, but I did learn in a short amount of time that being on the other side of the camera is completely different. You just have to take a different approach. But being around John and Antron and even the media folks that we had yesterday, it’s funny because I still feel like one of the guys in terms of I’ve been around them, I’ve done so many functions with them, I almost felt like one of the drivers. But I kind of keep having to remind myself I’m not but that’s okay, because really my position with the new show is and I think it creates a good balance, bringing Dave Rieff and John Kernan, Jamie Howe, everyone has experience specifically in our sport with the exception of me. So my approach is I’m going to heavily rely on them, Ken Adelson and Peter the producer and the executive producer, they’ve provided good direction, but I just need to better understand my role and ask them to point out if I can bring our audience into the car and onto the track. That’s really my goal, and I think across the board it’s going to be the great product is still on the track. People are going to tune in to see quick and fast and explosive race cars. We just need to be able to try to put them there somehow.
Q. That’s an interesting comment that you just made about the premier part of the sport is out on the track. For the fans who currently attend NHRA events, they are closer to the athletes, to the competitors than any other sport than I can even think of throughout the entire spectrum. What’s it going to be like to show people who have never been there how much they’ve missed an opportunity to just reach out and touch an athlete?
TONY PEDREGON: You know, I think the challenge, and even being a former team owner, the biggest challenge with any business is marketing and putting the product in the consumer’s hand one time, and if you think about our sport, it’s the same. It’s a great product, which is where it starts. Our challenge is marketing, and I’ve always felt, even in my previous role as a team owner and as a driver, it was important to if we could put it in their hand, if we could give them the experience one time, so that continues to be the challenge of the sport. Live TV is going to improve that. It’s going to do wonders for the sport, the consistency and the programming and the scheduling, but I think that the new approach and something that I feel is important that the initiatives for FOX is we have a great fan base. We have the viewers, some of them like Top Fuel cars, some of them like Funny Cars, Pro Stock, so we’ve got a lot of diversity. The goal across the board is to appeal to a new audience, so in that regard, we want to be we’re selling entertainment. We’re selling cars that are quick and fast, and there’s so many different personalities, male and female, there’s Hispanic, there’s African American, so there’s all this diversity that really no other level of motorsports has to offer, and it’s our job, it’s FOX Sports’ responsibility to bring that to life, and I’m a small part of that, and in my position if I can somehow appeal to the person that’s flipping through, they’re going to see something that they’ve never seen before, and again, the challenge for me is somehow putting them in that seat, and I think I can do that. I’ve just been involved in Funny Cars and Top Fuel cars. I’m going to get in a Pro Stock car. At some point I’m going to get on a Pro Stock bike. I’m very familiar with them, but I want to be able to speak to specifically what I’m going to be talking about and covering better so that the viewer can have that same experience.
Q. You were absolutely awesome with the recent media tour that we had there, and it was great to see that you have a brand new wonderful friend.
TONY PEDREGON: Well, you know, you throw Force and Antron, and there are a lot of personalities, and the job is for the drivers, they have to cooperate. They have to be interesting. I think Terry, the new PR Terry, he had to pull him off the stage because they weren’t going to stop. But that’s just a part, a small part of what you’re going to get. So the media’s interest really should be that it’s not just the same old thing going down the racetrack. We were putting a lot of effort behind what we’re doing to make the show more efficient, to lessen the oil downs, to improve the quality of racing, but I know as a fan, as a fanatic of the sport, if I had a choice to go to NASCAR, and I love all forms I grew up around the corner from NASCAR, I would still be going to drag races. It starts with a great product, and myself and the whole team is putting a lot of effort into making it a lot better.
Q. Tony, you actually just touched on what I was going to ask you about, so you’re transitioning to a new role right as the NHRA is sort of putting a new emphasis on live TV coverage. I think ESPN did five hours of coverage that is live and this year FOX is doing something like 17 live events. I was hoping you could expand upon what you think of as the NHRA as a live TV sport, and as a color commentator does that new emphasis on live coverage make your job any harder or easier than it would have been had you taken this route a few years ago perhaps?
TONY PEDREGON: You know, the timing for me was good. I think the experience that I had, and even some of the challenges that I had as a small business owner and a team owner, it just it expanded my résumé I guess I would say. When I came into the sport, I drove a car not a lot of people know, they just think I fell out of the sky and drove for John Force, but there was a lot of years of hard work that led up to me earning that position for John, so I drove for him for eight years, and then making that transition to a team owner, it really helped me understand the sport in so many different perspectives. But the timing for me is good because I think I can speak better to really a diverse audience. A lot of them are interested just in the fact that these cars accelerate the way that they do, and they run at these outrageous speeds and they have this ungodly amount of horsepower. But the live aspect for me is it’s a challenge it’s really scary when you think about it because I think that what FOX Sports is going to do, especially in the summer when they have the four events that will not only be on live but they will be on FOX, not FOX sports, so that really is going to give us access to probably another million fans, so when you think of it in those terms, that we’re going to be live and there’s so much pressure that’s going to be on all of us, it’s a little intimidating, but that’s not my focus. My focus is being able to do a good job for the people that hired me but really for the audience, and for me that is going to mean that I need to break the technical side of our sport down really in layman’s terms, because the fans that we have, they understand it, they get it. They’re going to be tuning in whether they like me or Warren Johnson or John Force. They’re tuning in to watch racing.
So my job is to be objective, to be unbiased, whether it’s John or my brother or anyone else. I specifically want to do a good job in pointing out the things that the common viewer really doesn’t know that would find interesting. When cars we use the term drop cylinders, if I use that term, I’m going to explain what a dropped cylinder is. So I’m really going to shy away from some of the terms that were being used previously because as a viewer, I want to know what is that thing you just called pedaling. If you say pedaling, I’m looking for somebody on a bicycle. I may use the term or explain it differently that the driver has to get in and out of the throttle to allow the car to regain traction. So I think those are the things that are going to be interesting. When I say the drivers are going to play an important role, I’d like to see less redundancy in the way of being the first 10 seconds, that the content is the sponsors that the viewer can see. They’re staring at an eight foot logo on the side of the car, so really everyone has a stake in this. The drivers have to be interesting if they want airtime. I have to do a good job. I’m confident in the team around me, but really the direction that the production is going is completely different. I’ve seen some of the graphics that the group from FOX Sports has done, and it’s really amazing. I almost think that I’m getting out of the seat at the wrong time, but for me the timing is right. I’ve had some close calls in my career. It’s never enough for a driver, so I’m excited about my new position.
Q. Tony, I have a question expanding on some points that you just made, the first regarding the lingo of the sport. Every baseball fan knows what going yard means. They know that, and in NASCAR they know what a slide job is. They know what it is. You referenced pedaling. Have you thought or have you sat with a sheet of paper and tried to conceive what the jargon can and will be? You’ve suggested that you might go in a different direction. You in a strange way control that, and cool names stick. You could come up with something. I agree with you, the words “pedal fest” didn’t really do it for me, but I also couldn’t come up with anything better. I have to admit that, otherwise I would have and thrown it out. Have you done that? Are you spending time trying to come up with a jargon, a lingo that you want to use to spread out to new fans?
TONY PEDREGON: I have, believe it or not, and I’ve put a lot of thought into it. I can’t say that I’m not completely there, but I’ve got about two and a half weeks to be there. But I agree with you. Some of the terms we understood because we’ve grown up around it, we’re fans. But again, the direction is and the objective is for this sport to grow, I was listening to Leah and even to Erica, and I know guys like Larry Dixon and Tommy Johnson and Antron, and not a lot of them have really had the opportunity that I had. I was a hired driver. I started at the bottom of our sport. I worked my way up, and I really had the opportunity it was luck, it was timing, it was a lot of things that played a role into becoming a team owner. So really until for this sport to continue to grow, we need to grow the popularity, because the TV racing is one thing that can change the game. So I want to do a good job. I know that FOX Sports has their A team behind us, not their B team or C team. I’ve met them. I’ve seen them. They were in California. A couple days later I saw them in Charlotte. So I know that they are behind building this sport. They want to produce not a good show, a great show. I’ve seen what NHRA has done and what they’ve achieved by putting the production in house. They can see it. It’s all the time hands on, and you know, I’ve run a business, and that’s the only way to do it. I can see all these good things happening, and if everybody does their job, it may take a little while. I don’t want it to take too long, but I think the current fans we have are going to like it. They may be critical. Nobody likes a transition or change, but the goal should be where is this sport going to be in one year or in three years from now, and so my goal is to see some of those drivers evolve like I did and have the same opportunity, and if that rating can improve, you’ll see the sponsors come a lot of good things will become of everybody doing a good job, but live TV is something that it’s hard to not get excited about that because I think what we’ve all done in the sport, even myself, I’m guilty of it, I think we’ve lowered our standards so much that we’ve almost gotten used to chasing the show on Sunday or chasing qualifying. So I think it’s time to expect more, and I’m putting the work in, and I can see all of my teammates that I’m going to be working with, they’re nonstop around the clock. I’ve got John Kernan out waiting for me in the shop, and I know he’s been working around the clock. So these are good things that this group is doing.
Q. And my follow up regards what I would call the unapologetic, tell it like it is call out, much like Charles Barkley brought to the analyst’s position. When and in what other sport do you see an analyst have such popularity and the ability to drive ratings? People know that they’re going to get the real deal from Chuck. The challenge is he’s calling out someone who is hundreds of thousands of miles away in another arena. You are on the property with these guys. Same with NASCAR, we see it, and there is a lack of willingness to say straightforward that someone didn’t do their job when 10 minutes from now you could see them or they could see you, and it’s like, oh, hey, what’s going on. It’s easier for Charles Barkley to call out an athlete in an arena 1,500 miles away that he may not see. Are you prepared to do that? Are you ready to do that? And do you think that’s vital to the success of your job and your broadcast?
TONY PEDREGON: Well, to answer your last question, I think that’s very vital, and I think that’s very observant for you to bring that up, and just ironically, Charles Barkley, one of his quotes was when they hired him, he wasn’t hired to protect one of his buddies like Michael Jordan, because he had a relationship with a lot of the players. Not all of them. But I think my record speaks for itself, at least in the previous capacity as a driver. I’ve always been vocal. That’s never really been an issue with me. And I think that my position hey, if they want to pull me back, I’m going to have somebody in my ear if they want to say, Tony, tune it down or give me instructions, then they’ll do that. However, I’ve put some thought into exactly what your question is, and I think that I want to have a mutual understanding with most of the drivers regardless of what category or what class they’re in. I’m going to call what I see on the track. I’m going to point out things that most of the viewers don’t know or may find interesting, but I think that I’d rather have a mutual understanding that they are going to need me and I’m going to need them, and as long as we have that understanding, they may or may not like it. If they do a good job, I’m going to point it out. If they don’t do a good job, I may point out my thoughts and give me opinions. The one thing that I can say is what you see is what you get, and I think the fans, if nothing else, will at least appreciate that authenticity, and I think that’s important with any product or any TV show that people know that they’re getting the real thing, and they’ll get that with me.
Q. Tony, in your new capacity, your new role as a TV analyst, have you accepted the fact that you might not ever race in competition again, and if so, how are you handling that?
TONY PEDREGON: I have, and you know, I’m still in the same shop that Cruz is in. I have offices here in this facility, and I can see what they’re going through, and some of it I miss and some of it I don’t. It’s really a high pressure business, and you know, what most people don’t realize is I think the perception is that the off season is team owners go to Florida and they go fishing. But if you spent a little time around these race shops, it’s really the busiest time of the year for all of them. So there are some things that I miss and then some things that I don’t, only because I’m just going a different direction. I’ve conceded to the fact that if I never get in a race car again, I’m actually okay with that. I mentioned I’ve been doing this for so long, I’ve had some good times, I’ve had some not so good times that I really thought that I wouldn’t pull out of it, and I’ve had some friends that unfortunately didn’t walk away. I was very close with Eric Medlen. I respected Scott Kalitta, and myself, we were close to the same age, we had kids, so there were so many things that we had in common, and Darrell Russell, and so many others that, hey, they really gave their lives to the sport. I respect that and what they’ve done and everything that’s lost their lives in this sport. I remember when I was a kid, my dad used to tell me about friends of his that had some accidents, so as exciting and entertaining as it is, it’s not the safest occupation, but I have a feeling that when I’m up in the tower, I’m probably going to miss it more than any other time. So it really hasn’t hit me, but I’m having my moments.
Q. As a follow up to that question, would you say that the last few years, the struggle being real just to at times I saw the heartbreak in your eyes of having to sit out a session or sit out a race, the struggle just to make ends meet on the racetrack? Would you say that that made your decision more easy than if you were right in the mix, mixing it up with John Force and Don Schumacher?
TONY PEDREGON: It was tough to go through that, but you know, one thing that I always kept in mind, even going through tough times, Bobby, if you knew and if most people knew where I came from and where Cruz came from and a lot like us, we grew up in a very modest upbringing, and I tell people, hey, we all come from the same dirt, and really in a way I mean that. It’s funny, my wife even pointed out to me, hey, what are you doing, and it’s as if I were pulling a lever on a slot machine, but hey, I’m no different or was no different than any other team owner. Small business owners sometimes will take some risks, will stick with it sometimes longer than we have to, but in the back of my mind I always knew that your character shows not when things are going good, because I’ve been there, too, when I was in the points lead, winning races, the guy to beat, on the top, but the times that you really need to show your true colors are when things are tough. To answer your question, as hard as it was, I knew financially it was almost like getting in a fight with one hand behind your back, so I knew I wasn’t able to compete on the level that I wanted to, but there was a lot of us. There was a lot of us that couldn’t. I would have continued.
I think that some better things were on the horizon for the sport, but it was a decision that felt right to me, and at least up to this point, I’m good with it. It may change when I see a couple cars turning the win light on, but still, I think I’m still going to have to make the transition. But the exciting thing is the audience that tunes in, they’re going to get to see it, and they’ll see it live.
Q. When you were going to square off with John Force you didn’t have a hand tied behind your back, you had them both out there.
TONY PEDREGON: I had them right to my side, though, out of respect.
Q. You touched a little bit earlier saying you got a lot of support and guidance from your
producers and everything already. I was wondering if in the off season did you get any kind of media training or did you talk to any consultants or anything like that to prepare you for this change?
TONY PEDREGON: I did, and I’m still in the process of them providing some coaching, and that was one of my requests. I accepted the position, but I was smart enough to understand that being on one side of the camera and simply talking about what you just went through in a car, I did know and really mostly because of my conversations with Cruz and his experience in the booth for the year, so that was one of the things that I wanted, I knew I would need. I knew that it would only help me transition. So I have been myself putting a lot of time in, but they’ve also provided some expert coaching and training, and it’s still taking place, and I think one of the things that’s going to be important for us is to really work together as a team, and we’re going to do a rehearsal and a walk through at the Phoenix test, so I think we’ll get a lot accomplished just to gear up for that first event.
Q. And also you talked a little bit about getting into a different way of presenting and everything, but I’m sure you’ve heard the criticism that NHRA drivers are too nice to each other and everything. Is there any way to bring that out without trying to foster a WWE kind of a wrestling kind of a thing? Is there a way to bring out a little bit more personality, and is that something that you would like to see between the drivers so that they’re not just congratulating each other all the time?
TONY PEDREGON: I’d love to see it. I think everyone would love to see it, as long as it’s authentic. Yes, there is a way for myself and for any pit reporter, for anyone at the end of the track, and that is going to be our job and our responsibility, to help the driver when they get out of the car. We want the real story. Okay, we’ll help them mentioning the sponsor names and we’ll point those things out, but we just want a real genuine interview, and there are going to be some times that we get some good stuff, and I think the job for FOX Sports is to capture that. We need to complement that. But I think to your point, not everybody loves one another, even though they may say it on TV, and those are some of the things that I’d like to point out, and they or may not like it. But again, this is entertainment. As long as we have a mutual understanding that we want a good show, I think the end result should show on TV.
Q. Tony, as far as the changes that you’re going to be going through and you’re going to have a guy, producer barking in your ear and you have to ask questions and your commentary has got to be concise, what do you think is going to be your biggest hurdle going from track to the booth?
TONY PEDREGON: Building chemistry with my team, with Dave Rieff, Jamie Howe and John Kernan. I’ve worked with them. I know them all. I think they do a very good job, but I think the challenge for all of us, including the production team, is to have time together, to build a chemistry. I knew how vital that was for a racing team, and that’s something that’s really underestimated that people don’t realize is that from what we call a bottom end guy that’s responsible for torqueing the rods all the way to your crew chief, there’s a lot of good ones, and there’s some good talent with this team, and I think the chemistry and working together and being smooth and being able to work off of one another, I’ve been watching a lot of NFL, and I’ve seen how well John Gruden and Mike Tirico and Phil Simms, these guys just build that chemistry and you can only get that in time, and our goal is to be able to achieve that in short amount of time.
MODERATOR: John Force will enter this season as obviously the winningest Funny Car racer in history, and that’ll be pretty exciting for job as the NHRA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Funny Car category. We’ll have season long activities with fan favorite cars. We’ll talk about the category during the course of the year, look back at rivalries, and put the spotlights on the legends of the sport. John, you have been involved in many different battles on the track with (Don) Prudhomme and Tony Pedregon and his brother Cruz through the years. In your experience what is the draw for Funny Car? Why do some people love this sport, the category, so much?
JOHN FORCE: Well, first let me say, I enjoyed the wait. I got to listen, and I want to say to Leah Pritchett, congratulations on bringing a new sponsor, a brand into our sport. The growth, we need it at this time, and I want to wish Tony Pedregon good luck. He won’t need any. He’ll do fine. He’ll say what he wants to say, what he’s feeling, and I think that’s exciting. To the Funny Car category, it was always unique to me. It was these high speed street cars, even though they’ve evolved to where they are today, the excitement of the plastic fantastic car they called it, and just something about it. It’s what you drive on the street and everybody can relate to it, not taking anything away from Pro Stock or Top Fuel, just a little bit different, but it always did it for me. The (Don) Prudhommes in the early days, (Tom) McEwen, (Raymond) Beadle, (Kenny) Bernstein, that’s where I came from. Still love it, always will.
Q. The relationship with Alan Johnson in Top Fuel, the idea that you’ll be using AJ parts and you guys are really doing everything you have to do to try to put that Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster in the winner’s circle, can you take us through that process, that procedure and how it came together and your initial impressions to working with Alan and what it’s been like so far?
JOHN FORCE: Well, first of all, I’m excited about it. Austin Coil mentioned to me in a luncheon that Funny Cars are where you came from, Force, and Mike Neff and you and this brain trust, you ought to focus, focus on the Funny Cars, and Mike Neff made a call to AJ and said, hey, you know, getting someone that’s run dragsters, that’s lived it, and that’s delivered in the Top Fuel category, and AJ has. So in the process, so far me and AJ has got a relationship like me and my wife. She don’t talk to me very much and he doesn’t talk to me at all. I really kind of leave it with Robert Hight. They’ve been putting it together, and Mike Neff, and it’s working really well. They’re set up in house over here, and I’m excited about it. But understand, I guess Brian Husen explained it the best. He says, I run this Top Fuel car for you, and he said, it kind of makes me the quarterback, if you look at Alan Johnson, it makes him the coach, and that’s kind of I’m a football buff, so that works for me, so we’re going to go down this road and see what happens.
Q. Also regarding your Funny Car program, I know you’ve got new bodies coming at some point. Can you give us an idea of the time horizon when we might see new bodies on the JFR Chevrolets?
JOHN FORCE: They started almost a year ago working with Chevrolet, working with our people, to build the new 2016 Camaro SS. Excited about it. We were able to shed some weight. We were able to have a little bit narrower car, a few changes. It’s going to be better. You always want to take it to the next level. I’m excited about it. I want to get out there in front of the fans with it. But we’re talking, we were trying Gainesville, we may unveil it at Las Vegas, which that’s a town that could be a big unveiling there for Chevrolet.
Q. Last week as you all appeared at the media tour in Charlotte, North Carolina, you seemed more enthusiastic than you have in four or five years. Is that an accurate assessment of how you feel right now?
JOHN FORCE: Well, first of all, I was I love racing. The paperwork, the boardrooms, it kills me. I love the displays, I love being with the fans. But we’ve had so much work going on over here. You know, Mike Neff leads the charge in Funny Car. My son in law, Ashley’s husband, Daniel Hood, will be running Courtney’s Traxxas car. John Schaffer, great season last year running the PEAK car. He’ll be running it. Of course they bought the complete race car along with Auto Club as a secondary and other sponsors like Lucas and Mac Tools. Alan Johnson coming in with Brian Husen, that’s going to lead that charge on the car. So we’re really, really excited about that.
Financially, I finally got that monkey off my back and I’m back in business with Monster coming in with the Top Fuel car. We expanded our hospitality. It’s going to be bigger this year, adding another trailer to it. So there was a lot on my plate, and just to get there with Antron, get back on the stage with Tony and get in front of a crowd, it was good for me. I’ve been in Indy ever since I left y’all, and now I’m heading with Chevrolet to Barrett Jackson. They’re going to pitch that COPO Camaro to raise money. I think it’s for the United Way. I’ll be there with Courtney. I’m excited about it. Steve Cole come back to work with us to get back in our marketing team. I’ve just got a lot of new stuff, cleaned up a lot of old stuff. It was great to be back with Tony Pedregon, even though we fight and we’ll be fighting this year. I don’t know who’s the good or bad, but in the end we always say what we feel, and I’m just excited to get back in business. I’m no I’m not new at this, but I’m excited to get moving ahead. Love the changes that Peter Clifford has made. That’s exciting stuff.
Q. I asked Tony about this, and I’m curious because I know you care about the success of the NHRA. What do you think about the new emphasis on live TV coverage events this year? They’re going up to 17 live events. Is this in your opinion the next step for the NHRA to become more popular?
JOHN FORCE: I’ve been with Robert Hight for a few days here in Indy, and he’s back in Charlotte with Auto Club. I go by what sponsors like. They pay the bills. Auto Club, they’re really excited about this, and so is Robert. That Peter has stepped up to the plate, he’s making change, he’s bringing in some new people to work with the others. Live TV is what it’s all about. We always had a great product. I’ve said it before. But if that product can’t be found at set times on TV, it ain’t going to happen. Now, the racers have to take some responsibility that we have to stop the oil downs. We’ve got to make the show move ahead, and they’re putting time levels on it, but we’re working on the race cars to stop the things that we’re doing in the chassis to maintain the oil if you have a motor explosion. But it’s where we’ve got to do. We’ve got to put this live TV, our product into a time frame, and that makes sense. No matter how great you are, if you’ve got to wait up until midnight to see you, you lose a big chunk of your crowd right there. Our loyal fans might stay but the average American would go to sleep. Peter has made change. I met with a lot of the people from FOX, and Eric Shanks walked in, I was impressed right out of the box, here’s a man, suit and tie, one of the number one guys at FOX and he’s standing there in tennis shoes, and I asked him why, and he said, I move continually, and this is how I get my work done, and I’ve seen a lot of that in Hollywood TV producers and stuff. He loves what we have and he’s going to take it to the next level. Some of the stuff that I’ve seen and the things that Tony Pedregon has told me he’s seen, I think Peter has made the right call. Proof is in the pudding, but we had to do something, and I think we’ve gone the right direction.
I understand it all pretty good.
Q. So do you think racers like yourself are prepared to take steps to move a little bit more quickly or do what they have to do to make this live TV stuff a success for you guys?
JOHN FORCE: We don’t like it. We need the time. But it’s not our choice what to like. We want the opportunity to tie into new sponsorships. You know what I mean? And like Pritchett did, and it’s hard to do with a TV package like we had. Like I say, the product was great, the people putting it on was great, it was just the time frame. I don’t understand that, but I know change was needed, and it’s done, and we’ll see where it goes. But you bet, the racers are all talking about it, look at what they can do. They understand this 100 percent.
Q. Tony Pedregon mentioned earlier, someone asked him about calling out people. How are you going to handle it with the past history that you and Tony have if he just happens to call you out on TV?
JOHN FORCE: Well, I imagine he will, but the real truth is the truth is the truth, and sometimes you get in trouble. I was fined $10,000 when me and Tony got into it. You know, that’s really what it’s about. Like Tony, I heard his deal a while ago talking with you, and that he said, if it’s real, it’s real. We’re not the WWF. We’re not out there, well, I shouldn’t speak for the WWF. I know wrestling in the old days wasn’t real. I used to watch it with my grandma. But what I’m saying is the truth is really the best. If you kind of orchestrate a deal to say certain things, it just don’t work. The best thing I wrote a whole bunch of notes here of what I wanted to say to make this all perfect, and I haven’t used none of it, and maybe I don’t always say the right thing, but I always speak from the heart. I think Tony is a good kid. He’s honest. He’s talented. He knows a race car just like Mike Dunn knew a race car. And Tony, you ain’t going to put a plug in Tony. Tony is going to say what he wants to say, and if you don’t like it, well, then get off the air. Nobody tells you you’ve got to be there.
Q. What if it you don’t agree with what he says, and what if you don’t see it as fact, what he says? How will you deal with it then?
JOHN FORCE: Well, if you’re trying to get an argument out of me
Q. I’m not.
JOHN FORCE: I’m getting ready to get on an airplane. I don’t have a real answer for that. What I’m saying is I’m going to say what I feel, and if Tony says what he feels and I don’t agree, maybe we’ll argue about it and maybe we won’t. At the end of the day we’ve all got kids to raise, and yeah, things get heated up. I’ve gotten into it over the years with Lee Beard. I’ve got into it with Bazemore, and Al Hoffman used to ride my back continually, and it was a full blown aggravation that I lived with, and yet I had a lot of respect for the man, for all of them, what they do. But the real world is best. You know what I’m saying? And Tony is no one is going to put Tony in his place. No one put Mike Dunn in his place. So I think it’s going to be fine. But I always say what I feel. Sometimes I tone it down. Sometimes I try to be politically correct. It don’t work for me.
Q. With the announcement that just came down about the NHRA deciding not to have backup runs for records and then also not to pay any points for ET records now, do you think that’s going to change the way you and your teams or any other team races this year when you’re not going for those extra points, and will that lead to maybe running the cars maybe not quite as hard sometimes?
JOHN FORCE: Well, no. Drag racers first of all, you try to run a car easy, you just hurt it. It doesn’t know how to it is what it is. What I’m saying is when they had points for low ET and they had money sometimes for low ET, like the shootouts and all that, and then for top speed they never had it, we still ran top speed. I used to have to take Courtney and set her down, stop driving it out the back door. You know, there’s no money in it, there’s no points in it. What are you proving except you’re going to set yourself on fire. What are you nuts? And she’d tell me, because it’s the thrill of it, Dad, it’s awesome, because kids are fearless, and after you set them a fire a few times, they straighten up. So to make the change, I could go either way. I don’t make the decisions with NHRA. I’ll leave that to NHRA working with the PRO organization, whatever they come up with. Whatever they tell me to do at my age, I just go do. I don’t have time to argue or fight about what’s right or wrong. When they say that’s the direction we’re going, I’m going after it. But I guarantee you, we’ll still be running those big speeds because that’s what turns you on. It even does it to me, and I try to hold these girls back. Robert Hight, we all love the thrill of it, and the sponsors and the fans love to see it. I wish there was a way we could do longer burnouts. It just isn’t feasible. You know what I’m saying? There’s so many things going to change that have changed the sport. I’ve been with weld wheel over 30 years, and we look at things that we can do, but there’s only so much change that you can make. Change is good, and sometimes it’s not, but they make the rules and I follow them.
Q. Good luck to you and your whole team this year.
JOHN FORCE: We’re going to be okay. I’m ready for testing in Phoenix, and I’ve got some new sponsors that I’m testing. I’m running all of the PEAK brands, the Old World Industries signs hung everywhere. I’m back in business. Got a lot of people that believed in me, and that’s where I’m heading.
Q. John, in the media tour in Charlotte, you mentioned that your grandson wants to race, which is kind of interesting, but I would like one question about that, what’s going to be your advice about drag racing for your grandson, and what advice would you give your grandson about talking to the public and media?
JOHN FORCE: First of all, my granddaughter is in a junior dragster, Autumn. Jacob is out back right now learning how to run an air gun. He’s only four years old, with his dad, Danny Hood, and working with the team. I went out there and I said, Honey, I promise to take you to the movies and we can go see “Norm of the North.” He goes, Grandpa, I’m working on my race car. This comes from a four year old. I’ll never tell him what to do. He may end up playing hockey. You know what I’m saying? They love that Chicago team up there, the Blackhawks. He might play baseball. You can’t tell them what they’re going to do. I never thought my girls would ever race. Never even imagined it, and so, you know, I’m excited about it, whatever he wants to do, but we’re all just watching him grow up, and that’s the best part of life. No real answer there where he’s going, we just give him the opportunities if he wants it. That’s why I’ve got to stick around in this game. I just signed E3 Spark Plugs, another deal. And we just talked about how can we get life out of stuff so we can do long burnouts. You run out of fuel but the fans love the long burnouts. It’s the worst question I have to answer to the fans why we can’t do that anymore, and I tried talking to Austin, how can we bring that back. Maybe we’ll come up with something, but in the process got to keep the parts alive and got to win races, and that wins championships. We didn’t get the job done last year, so I’m going to quit worrying about money and I’m going drag racing, NHRA drag racing.
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