NHRA News: The big business of professional drag racing (9/20/2004)

The big business of professional drag racing

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
9/20/2004

"It does boggle your mind to look across the room and see 150 people that survive off our race team."
– Don Schumacher

A quick look over the line-up of drag racing stars standing next to their shiny vehicles is daunting. There's four-time titleholder Don "the Snake" Prudhomme and three-time series winner Jeg Coughlin. Across the way, crew chief extraordinaire Alan Johnson kibitzes with mega-team owner Don Schumacher. Doug Herbert is there. So are Johnny Gray, the entire Kalitta Motorsports group, and Ken Black. There's a small group from U.S. Tobacco, country music superstar Clay Walker, and Oakley's Jim Jannard. Others have already launched.

No, it's not the starting line at the U.S. Nationals; it's the corporate hangar at a nearby airstrip, where drag racing's royalty lines up their private jets with the same pride and precision they show their hot rods.

From humble beginnings
"I never imagined I'd have all this," said Prudhomme, whose ever-growing empire includes 48 employees supporting three high-profile teams based out of pristine race shops in Indianapolis and Vista, Calif. "I went into business in 1968 with some help from Wynn's Oil Company. What they gave me back then wouldn't buy me a supercharger today.

Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert flies his Lear 36
to races to maximize time with his parts business.
Racers Edge Photography

"We had a front-engine dragster on a Don Long chassis with a Keith Black engine. I had a little enclosed trailer with a single axle that towed behind a Dodge station wagon. At the end of 1968 I got the deal from Wynn's and I decided to go on tour in 1969. Back then it was me, my wife, Lynn, and our dog Sudsy. A young kid came along with us and we'd pick up help along the way."

These days, Prudhomme has 32 crewmen alone – 10 on the Miller dragster and 11 on each of the Skoal Funny Cars, including the drivers. He also has five tractor trailers supporting the race teams, a hospitality bus, a merchandise trailer, a mobile marketing unit, three tow vans, a Lear 25 Jet, as well as the staff to handle each of these areas.

"I always hoped the sport would get to this level and even bigger," Prudhomme said, "and I think it will. I still can't believe a kid from California who painted cars for a living ended up having his own drag racing car with a spare engine and people paying me to race way back when. I would have done it for nothing. Now look at all this."

That was then, this is now
Since the NHRA endeavors to keep Sportsman-level racing a part of the show at each national event, fans can actually take a trip back through time at any race. If someone wants to see how Prudhomme and other superstars got their start 30 or 40 years ago, simply walk over to the Stock pits and observe grassroots, family-style drag racing at its best.

"That's how we did it," said Schumacher. "I actually drove my race car to the track when I first started. Then we'd race all day and drive home. I didn't even know how to change a spark plug back then."

Every move is watched by millions. Here, crew
chief Jim Oberhoffer is interviewed on ESPN2.
Racers Edge Photography

To go back to the future, stop by Schumacher Racing's current compound, which takes up more than 20,000 square feet of space in the Pro pits. Schumacher, whose early days as a match racer paint a similar picture to Prudhomme's humble beginnings, now lords over seven professional race teams including the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster of his son, Tony Schumacher, the Matco Tools Funny Car of Whit Bazemore, the Hemi Oakley Funny Car of Gary Scelzi, the Wonder Wagon R&D Funny Car of Johnny Gray, the Team Mopar Pro Stock car of Larry Morgan, and the U.S. Army-sponsored Pro Stock Bikes of Angelle Savoie and Antron Brown.

At any given time, Schumacher has 60 employees scurrying through his complex, with crew chefs sharing space with crew chiefs, Army recruiters, and four-star generals having gourmet lunches with various team sponsors, and hundreds of invited guests sharing stories with the drivers themselves.

"It does boggle your mind when you think about it," Schumacher admitted. "Last year's Christmas party we had just about the entire organization together and to look across the room and see 150 or so people – employees, spouses, and their kids – and realize that everyone is, in some form or fashion, surviving and living their lives off our race team and sponsors, it really brings it all home."

The business of racing
Since his full-time return to the sport in the late 1990s, Schumacher's operation has grown into the largest organization in drag racing. He recently broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot race shop in Brownsburg, Ind., to house his entire team, which he says will grow to eight or nine individual teams by next year.

Packed grandstands topped by corporate
suites are becoming the norm on tour.
Racers Edge Photography

"I'm paying some people on this team hundreds of thousands of dollars," Schumacher said. "I mean, a first-year guy learning the ropes here makes more than I made in an entire year when I started racing in the mid-1960s.

"I love the business world and the NHRA has become big business. What's unique is there is still a family atmosphere out here. We all try to beat each other up on the racetrack but we all live together and share our lives in the pits. It's not like that with my other business, Schumacher Electric, believe me.

"We have built this team the same way as Schumacher Electric. I have great people in management, great crew chiefs, great workers, I delegate just about all of the responsibilities of running this deal."

And like any successful business venture, Schumacher has specific plans for future growth, not just with his team but with the entire NHRA.

"We have to get bigger," he said. "We have to grow and prosper. There are still mountains to climb to get to the next level. We need live TV; to get that we need to figure out how to really shrink the times between rounds. We must change and push forward or we'll start sliding back down the hill."

Pro Stock players
The massive changes in the way things get done aren't the exclusive domain of the nitro teams. More and more Pro Stock drivers are stepping up to the big-time.

The big business of NHRA drag racing fills the
horizon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Racers Edge Photography

With the family business closing in on $500 million in annual sales, Jeg Coughlin and his three racing brothers have learned the value of their relationship with the NHRA and the importance of running Jeg's Mail Order, Inc., simultaneously. Therefore, the family has strategically positioned itself throughout the racing world with numerous sponsorship deals, all overseen by a full-time director, which allows them to chase their passion for drag racing at the same time. Additionally, they have secured fractional ownership in a private jet to get them back to the boardroom in time for Monday morning meetings.

"From day one, drag racing has played a big part in the success of our company," said founder Jeg Coughlin Sr. "Not just because of me or my sons, but because of all the people who race with our name on their cars. It's those racers who have made Jeg's what it is today.

"Thankfully, my four sons are all interested in working at the business. They all have different strengths and that allows them to grow into their roles with the company. John is a natural born salesman and he oversees all aspects of sales and purchasing. Troy is very organized and he supervises the upkeep and maintenance of our building and equipment. Mike is mechanically inclined and keeps up with new technology, while Jeg has great people skills and he handles everything non-sales related.

"Years ago, I thanked Wally Parks for creating NHRA because it gave me a tool to help me raise my kids. Racing is the one thing we've always had in common. I should thank him again because, nowadays, when the race team does well, it helps build the company."

Perhaps the same drive that helped the sport grow to the huge business it is today will carry it forward into the future.

"We survived in those early days because we were all possessed and driven to race," Schumacher said. "We barnstormed the country chasing our dream. Now we need to take whatever it was that motivated us to race back then and put it towards helping the NHRA reach it's potential, which can be limitless, both as a business and a sport."

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