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Nitromater

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Idle speculation on what JFR would look like "IF" JF retires.

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Better hope John gets funding for his own car. Can you imagine him being just a team owner. If you think he talks a lot now, just imagine what he would do with the extra idle time on his hands.
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Connie could buy and sell Force a thousand times over before he noticed a check missing from his book. Comparing the two is beyond apples and oranges. Connie does it for the love, and can afford to fund who ever and what ever he wants. Force does it to make his living

If Force doesn't secure a sponsor, he parks. No way he races out of his own pocket.
If you were broke at me point in your life, and then become rich, there is no way you gamble that comfort away, especially at his age.
 
Why harp on the difference between Force and Kalitta and their net worths? Anybody close to the sport knows that very few, if any, in drag racing can hang with Conrad financially. And we know who the few are. And that's really the problem, racing will always be a playground for the wealthy, but for those who try and make it their living, it's just really become a much tougher proposition.
 
I think that was the point of bringing up Conrad.
Kalitta is not a barometer for the sports health. He could and would fund his competition if he wanted/needed some to race against.
Force on the other hand, can not, and will make a different decision that Kalitta if/when his funding runs out.
 
Registered member said:
Connie could buy and sell Force a thousand times over before he noticed a check missing from his book. Comparing the two is beyond apples and oranges. Connie does it for the love, and can afford to fund who ever and what ever he wants. Force does it to make his living

If Force doesn't secure a sponsor, he parks. No way he races out of his own pocket.
If you were broke at me point in your life, and then become rich, there is no way you gamble that comfort away, especially at his age.
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I think John loves the sport about as much as Kalitta, but like has been said, is not even close financially like Kalitta. Look at his early years running with almost nothing , but kept on trying. If he didn't love the sport, would he have given non family members like Eric Medlin or Mike Neff a chance at driving? Even someone else with the wealth to do so, Don Schumacher, has not given a true rookie to the class a chance.
 
All these guys love the sport. I mean, that's their common denominator. Drag racing is fueled by passion. From Stock to Top Fuel, this has never made financial sense. While we've had people be successful in making it a profession, we've never enjoyed the boom that NASCAR has seen, although now they have similar issues to a degree. I'm thinking too that NASCAR would also be in trouble if a few key, uber-wealthy owners decided to call it a day.
 
Registered member said:
If he didn't love the sport, would he have given non family members like Eric Medlin or Mike Neff a chance at driving? Even someone else with the wealth to do so, Don Schumacher, has not given a true rookie to the class a chance.
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Medlen was basically family, long time crew member, crew chief John Medlen's son. It wasn't like he plucked him out of the ether. He wanted Neff to come over from Schumacher and the carrot he could dangle was a seat in a race car, so Neff made the move. It as was much about competitive advantage as it was getting Neff a drive.

Schumacher does his business a bit differently (not rightly or wrongly IMO, just different). He knows he is going to have some of the best cars on the property, so it may be better to get experience in the seat instead of trying to bring along a rookie driver. Besides, it all comes down to money doesn't it? I am sure Shoe would take a rookie (within reason) if the check was big enough. It's not like Antron or Fast Jack had a lot of experience when they slid into their seats at DSR.
 
Force seemed to have the luxury of being able to put whoever he wanted in the seat because his sponsorship agreements never were predicated on a sponsor having "their' guy, or a guy who buys one of Forces seats..

DSR on the other hand sells his seats, or honors the sponsors "guy' to drive the car..
Business is business and I understand what DSR has to do to compete financially
 
What Connie Kalitta has built is nothing short of mind boggling. Think about his reach and what this man has built from a single engine Cessna. Both he and John started somewhere around the same time, give a few years apart.
Here is a guy who is as self made as it gets, worth God knows how much, owns a fleet of world traveling 747s, and still gets into drag racing with both hands. For all of Forces blabbering, he could be outside looking in with a complete stoppage in cash flow. That's gotta suck at 65.
 
George, Kalitta was racing with Big & the Greek in the '50s. They are both amazing stories, but much different. Force started at zero and found a way to build some wealth while doing what he loves. Kalitta, I believe, left for a bit to start his airline. He may have even had a suspenion from the NHRA way back when, if I remember right (I may be way off, but I remember as a kid some falling out that caused him to stop for a bit). So he built a business apart from racing that is just huge, and allows him to play at the highest level. Really a phenomenal story.
 
Hey even if he parks 2 cars, he's far from out of business. Being out of the seat may free him up to really focus on the future of his program.
 
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