DRO: Do
you get a sense that because Goodyear came
out with a new tire, that NHRA added the driver
shields, changed the wing angle, cut back
to 85%, that there's an air of complacency
that has come back? Yet the tires are still
chunking.
Schumacher:
Oh, there is no complacency, at all. We are
all working very hard to try to resolve the
issue. Goodyear is working very hard at it.
NHRA is working very hard at it. The teams
are making many major adjustments in the way
they run their racecars in the middle of a
season; in the middle of a championship fight
which really throws everybody a
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lot
of curve balls. We are not complacent about
this. We continue to try to make changes to
make it better.
Goodyear is working hard at it all the time.
They were chunking tires up in Seattle. We
didn't have any of that issue in Denver, at
all. Denver's a unique place because of the
lack of down-force because of the lack of
air that's up there. Is it down-force? That's
one of the reasons we changed the angle of
the wing here. To say, okay it's down- force.
Well, Friday night, there were a few cars
off that chunked some tires and you know,
the racetrack is colder. It is stickier out
there- everything hangs together harder. Is
that the reason? Or, is it because we can
tune the cars up at night and put more horsepower
on 'em? If we had the answer -- what is causing
the problem -- it would be fixed today. We
don't have that answer. Undoubtedly, as of
yet, we continue to work, investigate, look
at it and continue to make changes. Goodyear
has made changes that they believe solve the
problem. They're working very, very hard at
it. We all have some other little unique ideas
of changes that could possibly be made but
we really have to continue to get together
and meet and try to decide what is the best
avenue to go down.
DRO: Do
you think ground effects are a natural progression
for Top Fuel?
Schumacher:
Boy, that's a difficult one. Ground effects
would cause such a financial impact out here.
For teams that are fully funded and in very
good shape that's not an issue. But for teams
that are under funded -- that's a real issue.
So we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater,
per se, and say let's all go to ground effects
and make these changes. It would be a very
costly step for everybody and some teams just
wouldn't be able to survive. So, we have to
look at what's best for everybody and everything.
DRO: What
do you think of Steve Plueger's idea with
Dale Pulde driving and actually qualifying
a Funny Car with a single mag and single fuel
pump?
Schumacher:
They've run that type of technology for a
while. It's a unique piece of equipment out
there. It's hard to say how that would perform
on a real good racetrack, if they ran the
whole season and such. But those are some
of the things that we've even talked about
at some of these group get-togethers with
NHRA. Single mag, single pumps, and restrictor
plates like they have in NASCAR. There's a
lot of ideas, thoughts that come up in these
meetings and some of them you take to the
next level and consider more and other ones
you throw to the side and say, "No, we can't
do that."
DRO: Thank
you very much for your time.
Schumacher:
You're welcome. 
