Don Schumacher Doing It Again
Written by David Lamm · September 27, 2004
The ever expanding Don Schumacher Racing empire has added another team to his growing kingdom. The latest team to join Schumacher Racing is the Pro Stock team of Steve Schmidt. It makes sense because the team is based in Indianapolis, but is Schumacher’s ego bigger than his wallet?
In 1998 Don Schumacher had one hot rod in the NHRA and it was a Top Fuel dragster driven by his son, Tony. Now he has eight vehicles in all four professional categories. Some thought John Force was crazy for expanding to three Funny Cars but Schumacher has surpassed that ideal faster than his championship winning son drives on the drag strip. Bob Frey of Summit’s Dragracecentral.com broke that Schumacher bought the Steve Schmidt Pro Stock operation and ESPN’s NHRA 2 Day spoke to Schumacher about it on Sept. 26. This all might be cause for concern because Schumacher bought Larry Morgan’s operation in June. There has been some confusion surrounding that deal and its current status. All Schumacher’s camp is saying is that there is a dispute between Morgan and Schumacher and it is in litigation. So if Schumacher is going to go to court over the Larry Morgan Pro Stock operation, would it make good sense to take a step back and evaluate your expansion plans?
Don Schumacher is good for drag racing, don’t get me wrong. Schumacher has a lot of money and it is good he is investing it back into the NHRA and trying to grow and expand the sport. Expanding your business is good, but we all know the phrase “everything in moderation.” Adding vehicles just to have the biggest and most impressive pit area on the planet might not be the best idea. Smart growth might be what is needed rather than trying to take over the drag racing world. Schumacher might want to heed that advice if he just wants to keep one court case going at a time.
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