Rajunz
Nitro Member
Phil drove John Force's car in 2007 when he was on the mend. I'm sure that they want someone younger in the car.
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It's official JFR and Prock part ways (15 Viewers)
- Thread starter CS
- Start date
Younger, like Beckman?
Rocket Man
Nitro Member
Wow, what are you guys gonna say if TJ gets a ride?
Why would that? Did I miss something over at team Scag ?
Chili
Nitro Member
I talked to Daniel Wilkerson in Vegas. They are back in 2026 with SCAG.
He did drive Jay Blake's alcohol funny car for years also. And Blake sold the alcohol car this year and bought a complete nitro funny car operation. The plan is to run 5 or 6 races next year more if funding is found with Phil driving.
Custom Body Fan
Nitro Member
Phil is a very friendly guy. I’ve chatted with him a few times and my brother has dropped into his shop - he is always open to talking. I’ve attached 2 gratuitous pix from Pomona in 2017 and Maple Grove in 2018. My guess is they want to go younger and Phil isn’t bringing a sponsor. It’s too bad.
No you didn’t miss anything just tossing names out that have had some association with JFR in the past
z28
Nitro Member
way younger than the guy he replaced. Maybe Tony P will go back so we don't have listen to him
Or to bring money to the team like Matt Hagen.
65 Goatboy
Nitro Member
Daniel driving Tim tuning and Scag bringing the $$$. It's a win win and John and Tim have always been good friends.
Rajunz
Nitro Member
No, younger like someone that will represent Cornwell Tools like Austin did. Jump out of the car screaming Cornwell Tools. Same thing with Carlyle and why they wanted Maddi.
Peak seams to be fine with Jack. He's speaking to Truckers....
Rajunz
Nitro Member
Too old.... He's over 60 now.
ch streetcars
Nitro Member
Hers's my dream team if I win the powerball: Tommy Johnson in my F/C, Larry Dixon drives the T/F. Mark Oswald primary Crew Chief, Mike Dunn , Team Manager.
Nah he's around 57
Rajunz
Nitro Member
Yeah you're right Nunzio, Tommy was born in '68. Still too old though. Right now NHRA has an amazing opportunity to capitalize on Motorsports (no matter what the naysayers say). NASCAR is crashing HEAVILY with their lawsuit. NHRA had 3 sell out crowds during the Playoffs, and they had better TV ratings than both NASCAR and Indy Car at the end of the season. Everyone needs to quit beating down the NHRA. JFR would do well to put the Cornwell Tools sponsorship on a TF car and add another full time car there for the benefit of the sport....... Just saying.
ironpony
Nitro Member
Well I also love the sport and agree with you in theory, 3 sell out crowds does not pay the bills. TV ratings were because NHRA followed a football game where people that were partying didn't change the channel after the game. And one team adding cars is not growing the sport. God forbid John passes are his kids really going to put in the work, I doubt it.
NHRA and the teams have to figure out how to lower the cost, we are literally down to a few teams that can afford to run a full season.
If we had companies that wanted to spend that kind of money we would have full fields and actually some one might get bumped.
NHRA, nitro, has become an entertainment stream like the circus once a year people come out and watch. They do not stay in the stands for the real racing. Then the downtime which is just a fact of the sport, especially in later rounds. Kids do not even want to get their licenses anymore, manufacturers do not build anything "racer car". I walk around the pits and the real racers are mostly old, not many young ones coming up. I am not trying to be a nay sayer but look at it factually, after I was retired for a while I had the opportunity to go to a company and run some CNC stuff. I took the offer and did it, there were about 500 people there. I met one "kid" that was interested in F1, none in drag racing a few in NASCAR, more like 3 hours of drinking beer.
Blue collar, machine shop, hands on and basically no one interested in cars, a few into trucks. Heck when I started out every car in the lot was a race car, every kid was counting the days till their license.
Phil is one hell of a driver. I'd love to see him back on the tour full time someday.
T.Smith
Nitro Member
I was thinking that the other day and I could very well be out of line on this, but all three of them just showed up with their helmets, but never took any interest in running the family business? Especially with all this female empowerment stuff. Why not be the next Claire Williams? Maybe they have a deeper roll in the family business, but we just don't know it. From someone I talked to the other day, it doesn't sound like they do. To be fair, they're not the only ones who have taken that route as well.
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