Transcript of Don Schumacher Racing teleconference 6/15/05

DON SCHUMACHER RACING TELECONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES

JUNE 15, 2005

Participants:

Don Schumacher, owner of Don Schumacher Racing
Whit Bazemore, driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car
Gary Scelzi, driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car
Mike Neff, crew chief on the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car

TELECONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

Q: To Don Schumacher: With the departure of Lee Beard from Whit's team
momentarily, or whatever the time frame is, can you clarify what Beard's
relationship is going to be with Don Schumacher Racing through the remainder
of his contract and is he being moved into your engine shop?

A: DON SCHUMACHER: He is not being moved into the engine shop. Lee and I
have spoken many times and have gotten together. We haven't determined what
his role will be today, tomorrow and the foreseeable future, but he is going
to stay with Don Schumacher Racing and he will be an integral part to my
operation going forward.

Lee certainly didn't get stupid overnight or the last couple of months.
Things just start to happen with a team and a car and you kind of get caught
up with what you're trying to work on and at times you can't see the trees
for the forest, so I just felt that it was best to have him kind of step
back and take some time off and see where things were; let another fresh set
of eyes step in and take over the car from the front to the back like it's a
brand-new team, a brand-new car and look at every little area and re-set
everything up and all of the teams pulled together.

The Oakley team pulled together, the Brut team pulled together, the Army
team pulled together and everybody kind of worked on the operation to make
some changes and I'm confident we will have a successful, good outing in
Englishtown. Again, Lee Beard ultimately is staying with my operation and
will continue his employment with me.

Q: To Whit Bazemore: Does this break your confidence or help your confidence
with the race car that there's this kind of mid-season change?

A: BAZEMORE: It's not going to affect my confidence. I mean, there's no
question that we've been struggling as of late. Racing is a very big
business and our team is very results-driven and our sponsors - Matco Tools,
Dodge and Oakley on our car, to be specific - are very results-oriented. We
haven't had the results lately and the pressure was on to get those results.

It's never good to have a situation like this. Don did what ultimately he
had to do. And it's very unfortunate. Lee and I...this is our fifth season
as a driver-crew chief combination and I had a tremendous amount of
confidence in him. We had a lot of success together (won two races this
year) and we had some hard times together as well. You have ups and downs.
As Don said, Lee is going to stay within the organization and that's
extremely pleasing to me, because we have a big history together and we had
a lot of success. He is a very, very smart individual and a valuable player
to the team and I feel a lot better about the future of our team with him
staying involved.

Q: To Mike Neff: I'd like to know how similar are the Funny Cars and how
much information is shared amongst the team crew chiefs and does the driver
play a big part in how you tune the car.

A: NEFF: The cars, as far as the components that are on them, they're pretty
similar for the most things. The blowers, the clutches in all the Funny Cars
are the same. The difference is just what happens when you get off track or
a car starts to get different than the others. It's pretty much the way that
you're setting the thing up, whether it's the way you're figuring your
compression, how much compression it has, how much timing, your fuel system.
Even though it's all the same parts it's how they're adjusted....

It's not that it has different parts; it's just the way that they're set up.
As far as setting the car up for the driver, no, we don't really do anything
different from one driver to the next.

Q: To Neff: Does the tune-up in one car that makes a successful pass work in
another car?

A: NEFF: Not necessarily. It should be close, but each car seems to require
a little bit different setup. One may require a little more clutch weight,
one may require a little more compression to get the cars to run the same ET
or to get similar. It's not that easy to just set them up exactly the same
and have them do the same thing.

Q: To Neff: How much information is shared among the crew chiefs on the
Schumacher team?

A: NEFF: We communicate pretty well and we share all the information. We
don't keep anything from one another. What happens is there are so many
little variables that over a length of time can start getting off that you
don't catch while it's happening. There are so many different things to look
at: the fuel pressure, the fuel flow, the return and so that's what happens.
And, plus, when you're racing and you're busy you don't have time to
communicate as much as you would like to at some times.

Q: To Schumacher: I'm wondering if you can comment on the rumored
million-dollar raise coming to the professional purses in 2006 for NHRA drag
racing and do you have any comments on whether this is enough to make a
difference to pro competitors or spread across the four different
categories, if that really means much?

A: SCHUMACHER: This is the first purported raise that professional
categories will receive in five years and I don't think anybody ever
considers a raise they get in their paycheck may be adequate. Everybody is
always looking for more money and such, as I would think the whole sport is
looking for more funding and more dollars to come into it. All of this is
really an unknown amount and there's really no details disclosed about it as
of yet and I'm certainly not at liberty to disclose any. That will happen
I'm sure by Indianapolis this year, but I don't think we'll have any details
released and really know where those dollars come from and are going until
that time.

Q: To Schumacher: Say it's a million dollars. Is that a significant raise
since we're dealing with something from 1988, (which) was the last raise?

A: SCHUMACHER: No. There's been raises since 1988, to say the least. Maybe
1998 is what you're meaning. I'm not even sure of back then. I actually only
got back involved in the sport in September of 1998. You guys speak with
more authority in that area. Is a million dollars adequate or substantial?
Like I said, everybody is always looking for more money than what ends up
being put on the table and ends up taking place. It's the best that could be
put together at this point and hopefully 2007, 08 and 09 will see more
increases and bring the sport of NHRA drag racing to the level that it needs
to go to.

Q: To Schumacher: Are you going to be the new president of PRO in 2006 and
beyond?

A: SCHUMACHER: I am currently Vice President and I would think that I will
be taking over as president when Kenny Bernstein fulfills his term. His term
actually runs for two more years. It runs through 2008 and if I need to step
in before then I certainly will. And once Kenny fulfills his term if they
want me to step in as president I will certainly take that over.

Q: To Schumacher: The rumor from Englishtown today is that a couple of the
Okahara boys are coming over to your team, Don, to work on that. Is that
fact or fiction?

A: SCHUMACHER: That is fact. Both Todd and Scott Okahara have joined my
team. Todd will be involved on the Matco Tools cars, co-crew chief along
with Dan Olson. Scott has joined the Brut team as a very key tuning
assistant to Ed McCulloch over there to kind of fill the void by taking Dan
Olson from that team and moving him over to the Matco Tools team for the
time being.

Q: To Schumacher: Is there a general dearth of A-list crew chiefs out there
do you think? There are a lot of great young kids like the Okaharas that
have a chance to move up. You have a lot of great top-of-the-line crew
chiefs on your team. Do you think the next guys that become crew chiefs on
teams like yours will be promoted from within or taken from other teams?

A: SCHUMACHER: I think you have to look both ways. You have to look to
promote from within. And I would certainly love to have done that with a
couple of very capable people that I have over on the Army team, but to
disrupt that team in the middle of a season like this in a championship
points race or to disrupt the Oakley team taking somebody off that team to
move them into another position really is problematic in my eyes. And I
believe it would be problematic in the sponsors' eyes, the drivers' eyes and
the crew chiefs' eyes. I really chose to look to people that wanted to move
on to other areas and I was fortunate enough to find both Todd and Scott
wanting to make a change and certainly was willing to work with them.

Q: To Schumacher:  It looked like an interesting conversation or discussion
or statement between Alan Johnson and you after Tony's loss in Chicago. He
came up and looked at you and grabbed you by the shoulders. It was pretty
brief. Would you like to tell us what he said to you?

A: SCHUMACHER: It was a pretty frustrating happening that Tony made a
mistake in the car and every member of the team was disappointed, but not
nearly disappointed as Tony is. Alan expressed his feelings to me on a
personal basis about some personal matters in reference to Tony and that's
what it was in regards to. He certainly has apologized since and I didn't
even take it as anything offending or offensive at all. When you're in the
heat of the moment people catch a lot of things that really shouldn't be
displayed as such, but it didn't bother either Alan or I in that vein and
I'm not concerned at all about it.

Q: To Schuimacher: Tony at the (top) end was just beating himself up about
that. How do you tell your driver to get over that? Everybody wins as a
team, loses as a team. He was just crushed by that.

A: SCHUMACHER: That'S one of the things with this sport. There's instant
euphoria and gratification or instant depression and loss. You have to be
able to pick yourself up again the next race or the next weekend and go on
from there. If you can't, you'd better get out of the competitive world and
go do something else.

Q: To Schumacher: There's been a lot of talk about team orders with
multi-car teams. You obviously have a multi-car team. What is your concept
on the multi-car team and what is the ultimate goal that you're trying to
achieve?

A: SCHUMACHER: I will start with the last question you asked. What is the
ultimate goal we're trying to achieve? It's to win the world championship
with the team that is sponsored by any one of the three major sponsors that
I have on the Funny Car side of my operation. We don't choose which team is
going to win the world championship; they all fight for it equally. As far
as team orders, I know that I learned a lesson in 2004. It will never happen
again in my camp. There will not be such a thing as a team order. And I even
expressed that to the NHRA that it will not happen at the last race in
Pomona because it doesn't fit for the driver of that race car, it doesn't
fit for the crew, the crew chief, and it really doesn't fit for the sponsor
of the race car. And if that costs that team the world championship because
they got beat by one of my other teams, it is their own fault and I will
certainly accept it, I think the sponsor will accept it and the team has to
accept it. We have to reach to the highest goal and that's to win the
championship in the fairest manner and take care of the sponsor, the fans
and the sport.

Q: To Schumacher: You were pretty vocal in trying to land Dave Connolly
earlier this season. And now that he's hooked up with Evan Knoll and you're
in business with Evan Knoll with Torco Race Fuels and Pro Nitro, I'm
wondering if this is just a holding pattern for you to bring Dave Connolly
into your fold for 2006 in the Mopars? You've said you wanted to have a
third Mopar Pro Stock and I'm just wondering if this is a gateway to that?

A: SCHUMACHER: I'm not really not sure what will happen in 2006. My
operation has changed so drastically from September of '98 when I came into
the sport to where it is today in 2005. I don't really kind of guess or try
to preclude what could take place or what may take place. As far as Dave
Connolly or any other teams, I do have to say that Dave Connolly is a great
driver. Torco is a great sponsor and a great group of people that are
heavily involved in the sport of NHRA and IHRA  drag racing. Their move to
buying that team and keeping it together was a fantastic step on their
party. Who knows what next year will bring, or what next month will bring,
or next week will bring. I think that everybody who works for me there in my
racing operation kind of has to shake their head and say, Yup, you just
never know what's going to happen next week, because change is inevitable.
Fortunately, it has always been uphill, and I look to continue that.

Q: To Schumacher: Do you have any involvement in that car with your business
relationship with Evan Knoll and being the nitro supplier for Torco Race
Fuels?

A: SCHUMACHER: No business involvement, no involvement with that car, team
or anything at all. We've talked about it and all I can express to them is
that they made a great choice and it was wonderful for Dave Connolly and for
the whole sport for that team to stay together and continue on.

Q: To Gary Scelzi: You've had a lot of big wins in your career, but the guys
on the starting line in Chicago certainly seemed to share the response of a
lot of people that that might have been one of the biggest. How did you feel
after that and how do you feel now coming into Englishtown?

A: SCELZI: My confidence level is extremely high, because we've had, I feel,
the car to beat all year long. If it hasn't been myself getting beat on a
holeshot or something stupid happening with a part failure or a miscue with
a part, I think we would actually be ahead of John Force. I feel so good
that this team has made it through all those things with Mike Neff being a
great leader and actually my boss Don who everyone seems to think is a tough
guy. I mean, he demands performance, he demands respect and he gets it.
Through all this trouble that I've had as a driver here going through and
getting the finger pointed in interview after interview with ESPN - gee,
what's wrong? - he's been very supportive, and I've complimented him on his
support of me, because when you've won three world championships and you've
been fortunate enough to have a career like I've had, sometimes you're not
as tough as you seem on the outside. It's been very good for me. My
confidence level is high, my crew chief knows when to beat on the hood and
get me jacked and Don knows when I'm beating myself up enough that he
doesn't need to push a button. Jim Jannard (Oakley's Mad Scientist), the
Mopar folks, and the Dodge folks now have been coming to quite a few races
which is a lot more than we've seen as of last year. Everybody is really
getting behind this effort. I think it's a great thing and I feel really,
really good about going into Englishtown.

Q: To Scelzi: When we talk about crew chiefs and everything, you guys have
such a great relationship. Do you think that Mike Neff gets the credit that
he deserves, because he's just done a tremendous job with that?

A: SCELZI: No, I don't. And I said it in the press room in Chicago. I said,
Do you guys remember? Go check your notes (from) three years ago, when I
first started with this team and I said, Remember this name, Mike Neff. But
I can tell you, the biggest compliment for Mike Neff (comes) from people
like Austin Coil and John Force and (Don) Prudhomme (who) offered him (a
job): 'Hey, why don't you come over to our place?' Mike takes it with a
grain of salt and giggles. Just because you have all the tools and you have
everything that we have at our disposal doesn't mean it's going to work or
it doesn't mean you're going to get along or it doesn't mean that when you
start to struggle that everything is going to be wonderful. It would have
been really easy for Mike to say, 'Hey, Don, this guy is a loser, we got to
get him out of there. My car's hauling ass and he keeps blowing it.' And
that wasn't the case. I don't know if he took psychology or whatever he's
done, but he kept telling me that there was no one else he wanted in his car
but me.

If I find out two years later that it's a lie I'm still going to thank him
because he made me believe it. One other thing too. On the issue of Lee
Beard. Lee Beard is very instrumental in all of these teams. He is a
brilliant man and he's great with aero, he's great with a lot of innovative
parts that are in these cars right now that work extremely well. For
whatever reason, these cars do things that no one has a clue at. And I think
what you're going to see... That Don has again set the standard by not
firing someone but letting him take a step back and letting everybody kind
of jump in here and see if we can find what the problem is. Because
certainly Bazemore deserves a car that wins and so does Lee. There are only
a handful of people out here who can really tune these cars well and i
believe that Lee Beard is one of those. And if you look at his record I
think it shows it. He'll be fine. We'll come out of this OK and I think Lee
will come back to do a lot more instrumental things to help this team to the
next level. And there's no reason to let him go somewhere else and help them
get to our level. I think it was a brilliant move by not firing someone, to
let him take a step back, and all of us join in. I think it will make this
whole team better.

Was that long-winded or what?

Q: To Scelzi: You've sort of hinted at possible retirement. Do you have a
timetable in your head of when you want to do this? Is it winning a Funny
Car championship, is it winning three Funny Car championships? Do you have
some time frame?

A: SCELZI: Three would be good. I'd be OK with that. Don and I have talked
about it. Mike Neff has assured me that he'll let me know when it's time I'm
going to retire. But I would say it's probably going to be in the next
couple of years. Don and I have a contract through next year with all our
sponsors and it really depends on what happens at Scelzi Enterprises with
the company and because it's grown to over 180 employees and I'm really kind
of needed to come back there. It'll be something that Don and I will discuss
and Mike and our sponsors and if our contracts continue on and we can make
this thing work I'll do it for a little bit while longer, but I don't see
myself going for more than three or four more, at max. We'll re-evaluate it
at the end of next year, towards the end of next year.

Q: To Scelzi: When you see new drivers coming in Like Mike Ashley into Funny
Cars, out of Pro Mod into Funny Cars, do those well-funded kind of teams get
your attention?

A: SCELZI: No, not really. I've been very fortunate to be with good cars and
good teams - with Alan Johnson in the Winston program and now with Don and
Mopar and Oakley and Dodge and Matco. It doesn't really bother me. Just like
it didn't bother me to race John Force in the beginning when I went Funny
Car racing, because, hey, they're great. John was no better than racing
Kenny Bernstein or Cory Mac when he was with the Joe Gibbs team, or Larry
Dixon. They're great. It's like the Giants playing the Padres or whoever.
Well, jeez, do the Padres suck or the Cubs? They're professionals and
they're all bad ass. No, the water's fine. This is not an easy game and
Funny Car is even worse than Top Fuel. So, I welcome them aboard. And I've
helped Robert Hight, Eric Medlen. Bazemore has helped me. On and on. All of
us try to keep everybody from running into each other and if we can help a
younger driver or whatever it takes that's fine, but we don't tell them
everything.

Q: To Neff: In regard to your tune-ups. people say like Dick LaHaie has a
really good hot-weather tune-up. Do you have a preference to the type of
weather that you feel your car runs the best and how you tune your motors?

A: NEFF: I feel that I don't really have a favorite. I think we can run good
in the bad weather and I think we can run in the good weather conditions. I
don't think we're great in either one, but I think we're pretty even in both
of those in any conditions.

Q: To Neff: How much information is exchanged between crew chiefs from your
team and other Fuel operations? Do you guys share information at all?

A: NEFF: No, we dEn't share any kind of information like that. It's pretty
much small talk. No, I certaInly wouldn't be telling anybody what I'm doing
and I'm sure they wouldn't be telling me either.

Q: To Schumacher and Bazemore: How did Lee react when you gave him this
news?

A: SCHUMACHER: Whit wasn't there. I'm sure he has talked to Lee. Certainly
disappointed. Certainly he wanted to just continue on and work as hard as
necessary to turn the program around and be successful. But also accepting
in my decision that this is the way we needed to go and the step that we
needed to take. Lee is a very competitive individual. The last thing he
wanted to do was to walk away from competition of getting the car back going
and getting the car performing again. He's worked very very hard at it. And
that was the reason that I made the decision that Lee's worked really hard
it for months and months and months and it was time to get a new set of eyes
to take a look at it and have Lee step away from it so it's looked at like a
new team, a new operation from top to bottom, inside and out.

Q: To Schumacher: Will he be at the track this weekend?

A: SCHUMACHER: I don't think so. I haven't made that final decision. I
talked to him yesterday and said that I might just have him come on out with
me and he had already made some plans to spend the weekend with his son at
his son's races, but he would certainly join me if that's what I wanted to
have happen. And I haven't made that real decision. I kind of go back and
forth, yes and no. Lee is very valuable and to have a valuable individual
that's got insight and can see things not at the race track when he could be
at the race track may be a detriment to us. But on the other side he needs
to kind of refresh his batteries and maybe him being away from the races for
the weekend and just thinking about things will be better for Lee.

ADDITIONAL REMARKS:

DON SCHUMACHER: It's been a tough week, at least for me, on a personal basis
and I think for my whole operation. On a personal basis, it's been tough
when you have to take the type of steps that I have taken this week. It
affects everybody in my operation and I have to say thank you to everyone of
them for keeping their heads up and working hard at it and accepting what I
had to do and going on forward. It's just going to make our organization
better. I think John Torok is on the phone. I haven't heard a question get
asked of him. But I have to thank John and Matco Tools for supporting my
operation and understanding that I had to make these steps and we'll be a
better race team because of it.

WHIT BAZEMORE: How important is this event for the rest of the season? WB:
It's very important that as a team that we rebound and we continue to try to
get our Matco Tools Dodge going down the race track competitively again.
Don's taken the steps necessary to do that, to give me a competitive car.
I'm very very confident in Dan Olson and Todd Okahara, who I don't really
know that well, but I'm looking forward to working with him. When he stepped
in last year with Prudhomme's car it turned around. They ran pretty well at
the end of last year. I'm excited by the challenge. It's certainly going to
be a lot different for me not working with Lee. We have a job to do and for
me at the end of the day it's the same. My job is to drive the car as
perfectly as I can and not make any mistakes. That's always the challenge
and then to work with the team the best I can to get the car as competitive
as we can get it. That's it for me.

GARY SCELZI: How important is this race for you? GS: Well, it's very
important. I just have in my mind that we need to sweep this three-race
swing. But I feel that way every event we go to. I feel that every event we
go to we can win. Englishtown is a lot like the Winternationals, or the
Gatornationals or even the U.S. Nationals. It's an old race, it has a lot of
tradition. I've only been to the final round there once and I want to keep
this roll that we're on right now and hopefully we can pick up 5 points, 50
points, 60 points, 100 points on Force. That's our goal right now and I've
never been more determined in my life and I don't think Mike Neff has, or
this whole Mopar team. I'm ready to go. In fact, I'm leaving here in a
couple of hours to start heading that way. I'm excited and I'm ready and I
just feel like I won my first race a week ago.

MIKE NEFF: Is this going to be a challenge this weekend? MN: Yeah. It'll be
just like any other race, I'm sure, You've just got to go start over and try
to make the right adjustments to get off on the right foot on Friday and get
yourself ready to qualify for race day. I'm excited to go there. The one
thing about it: I know a lot of people think that, boy, you've got a
three-car team, you've got one good running car, how come the other cars
don't run good or why can't they? It looks easy, but there's so many things
that could change at any time and I'm very humble about it. I know there's a
possibility that we could roll into Englishtown  and hit a slump and not do
anything for three or four races just as easy as the next guy. That;'s the
one thing I don't think people understand. All it takes is one little demon
in there to go wrong that you can't put a finger on and it can sideline you
for a while. Just like Don said, Lee didn't get stupid. There's just a
couple of things going wrong that he couldn't see and that's what happens
with teams when they start to struggle.

DON SCHUMACHER: Everybody understand that I have a deposition on Friday. You
probably won't see me out there on Friday evening. It isn't because of the
changes or anything that's happened with the teams. It's a business thing
that I have to take care of and it doesn't involve the racing operation. I
will see you on Saturday.