Lets discuss Charlotte, rain and Tony Schumacher (10 Viewers)

[CS]

As we are all aware during E1 of top fuel after the burnouts were made mother nature let a little rain fall. The cars were shut off and NHRA decided to do a refuel/restart after the rain. While backing down Tony's car the team realized they had a locked up blower and returned to the pits to change it. NHRA decided not to wait and sent the remaining three cars down track. In your opinion did NHRA do the right thing or should they have waited on Tony. Before anyone flames on me yes I have read all the reports and reasons on NHRA, Comp plus, et al. As a side note the rain saved them some money because no one knows at what point on the track it would have been a boomer perhaps on the starting line! OK what's your opinion?

 

[ironpony]

Well if he had a locked up blower would he have been able to make the pass ?? As you said at what point would it have went boom ?? He came out ahead IMO.

 

[Paul]

As someone who was in the stands on Sunday, I think the NHRA made made the right call. We sat there long enough while they debated it and it was well past time to get the show rolling at that point.

 

[Just Paul]

It was a weird set of circumstances all the way around. After a lot of thought, I think the correct call was made.

My initial thought was, it wasn't the teams fault, they were told to shut the car off, let them fix it....And it still might not be the teams fault, but..

After a warm up in the pits, they shut the cars off the exact same way. Turn the fuel off, and disconnect the fuel line on the back of the barrel valve. That's the way everybody does it. Some teams will hit the injector with the squirt bottle as it's shutting down, some do not. I reviewed a warm up video of Clay's car, they don't do it that way, so I'll assume Tony doesn't either.

So what changed? If you run the car the full year, you are going to warm the car up 100+ times minimum, and shut it off in the exact same manner with no problems. Yes, they did a burnout, but otherwise is it really that different? Yes, I know cars have damaged pistons on the burnout from being too lean and then causing issues on the run, but I'm not convinced there wasn't something else going on there. Maybe the Angry Hornet will elaborate on his YouTube video.

My next thought was, let's say there was 0% fault on the team, and the blower locked up this one time for no other reason. What has been a similar situation where a driver was/is penalized at no fault of their own? Kind of an I'm sorry, I get the issue, but the show must go on type of thing. Getting a good run thrown out if the car ahead of you clips the cones on top end. We've seen cars not qualify because of it. Now, the situation itself is not that close in resemblance, but the fact that you lose a run at no fault of your own, and you aren't going to get a re-run is.

Overall my opinion is that the correct call was made.

 

[Randy]

I guess you have to draw a line somewhere. What if it kicked the rods on the burnout? Should they be allowed to go back and do an engine swap? Typically, whenever we or anyone else has been shut off on the line, including for weather (Topeka one year for us), unless they sent us back to the pits, the only adjustments we were able to do, including adding fuel, had to be done before the call to refire was made.

 

[Litefoot]

I guess you have to draw a line somewhere. What if it kicked the rods on the burnout? Should they be allowed to go back and do an engine swap? Typically, whenever we or anyone else has been shut off on the line, including for weather (Topeka one year for us), unless they sent us back to the pits, the only adjustments we were able to do, including adding fuel, had to be done before the call to refire was made.

I personally never got up to your level of competition Randy, but my bother, big bill did with Shields, I’m sure he would fell the same way, right unfortunate call,

 

[65 Goatboy]

Nhra made the right call. Don't remember if it was Joe or Jason but one of them said on Nhra.tv that after they assessed the situation, Jim O said it will take too long to fix, let the other 3 cars refire which was also the right call. If you were on Nhra.tv Costello was in the middle of a sometimes very antimated and entertaining discussion among crew chiefs and officials. Sending the remaining 3 cars to the back of the line was not popular with the crew chiefs. Bobby Lagana also said it wasn't fair to the fans to make them wait. And then in next quad Antron's car caused another delay. Seems doubtful that the mandated shut down was the cause of the supercharger problem. Losing a round due to no fault of your own can happen any time if something breaks that was installed correctly. As Clay Millican say's That's Racing!

 

[Bruno]

Did I miss something or were there no burnouts on the re-fire up? They rolled in, staged and ran and, if I remember right, all made decent runs without the burnout?

 

[z28]

Did I miss something or were there no burnouts on the re-fire up? They rolled in, staged and ran and, if I remember right, all made decent runs without the burnout?

They don't want to put any more heat in the clutch so that is not unusual if the delay is pretty short.

 

[CrewGuy]

What caused the blower to seize?

 

[Fueler1]

If you were watching on NHRA.TV an Announcer said they asked Tony’s crew if they could made the call and the said No. That they were broke and to run without them. NHRA didn’t chose to run without them. Tony’s team made the call that they were gonna make it in time.

 

[CS]

If you were watching on NHRA.TV an Announcer said they asked Tony’s crew if they could made the call and the said No. That they were broke and to run without them. NHRA didn’t chose to run without them. Tony’s team made the call that they were gonna make it in time.

So what was the controversy and all the huddling going on with David Grubnic; Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana; and Mike Green? Was it about refueling/refire? Keep in mind from the time the four dragsters first fired until the quad was complete, one hour and fifteen minutes elapsed.

 

[NitroLuver]

So what was the controversy and all the huddling going on with David Grubnic; Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana; and Mike Green? Was it about refueling/refire? Keep in mind from the time the four dragsters first fired until the quad was complete, one hour and fifteen minutes elapsed.

It was my understanding the huddle was about back of the line/refuel/refire. But I thought just as much of the delay was related to the small sprinkling that occurred further up the track.

Just a cluster of variables happening all at once. I could be mistaken, but that's how I thought it played out listing to .TV in the background while doing other stuff. The "controversy may have been at the very beginning, but at the end of the day, as already mentioned, ultimately Tony Schu's crew made the decision they couldn't fix it in time.

 

[Rich D]

It was my understanding the huddle was about back of the line/refuel/refire. But I thought just as much of the delay was related to the small sprinkling that occurred further up the track.

Just a cluster of variables happening all at once. I could be mistaken, but that's how I thought it played out listing to .TV in the background while doing other stuff. The "controversy may have been at the very beginning, but at the end of the day, as already mentioned, ultimately Tony Schu's crew made the decision they couldn't fix it in time.

My take, is that the debate was whether a team gets time to fix a mechanical issue or not. If it is just backing down the motor and re-fueling, that's one thing. I suspect that the remark about the Jim O telling the NHRA official "no we can't make it" went down a little differently than described during the broadcast. These are all fierce competitors with sponsors to please. I would bet that NHRA walked over to the pit to see if it was a mechanical repair instead of just turnaround tasks, and then gave them an ultimatum of "can you be ready to run in the next XX minutes?" That is probably when Jim O responded with "we can't make the call".

 

[NitroLuver]

My take, is that the debate was whether a team gets time to fix a mechanical issue or not. If it is just backing down the motor and re-fueling, that's one thing. I suspect that the remark about the Jim O telling the NHRA official "no we can't make it" went down a little differently than described during the broadcast. These are all fierce competitors with sponsors to please. I would bet that NHRA walked over to the pit to see if it was a mechanical repair instead of just turnaround tasks, and then gave them an ultimatum of "can you be ready to run in the next XX minutes?" That is probably when Jim O responded with "we can't make the call".

I'm certainly not trying to be an armchair CC. But if his blower locked up, it would seem it had unforeseen issues and he wasn't going to make it down the track anyway. But yeah, i can't argue that Jim O begrudgingly conceded.

 

[z28]

according to Reinhart he said all four crew chiefs involved had agreed to refuel and restart. It was only shortly after they discovered the blower issue. Having already agreed to run they lost their chance as the other three were ready to go. Had they (4 chiefs) said we want to return to pit and run after last pair RWR could have had additional time to try to fix it. Really no different than having a car that won't start at the call to. Eventually the starter will call them up and too bad for the guy that won't start.

 

[65 Goatboy]

So what was the controversy and all the huddling going on with David Grubnic; Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana; and Mike Green? Was it about refueling/refire? Keep in mind from the time the four dragsters first fired until the quad was complete, one hour and fifteen minutes elapsed.

Post #7, I related what I remember hearing on Nhra.tv live and what was quoted in the CP article. Nhra along with the crew chiefs were debating whether to refire where they were when the track was safe or send them to the back of the line.

 

[LoPony]

Did I hear twice today that Schumacher’s team was fired and they have new people now? Angry hornet is still there I think. Just checking my hearing

Edit, this was mentioned just prior to his Q1 on Friday, and something was also mentioned before Q2…if you play it, see if you agree. For the record, I think switching out an entire crew in a week would be a little bit hard.

 

[Rich D]

Did I hear twice today that Schumacher’s team was fired and they have new people now? Angry hornet is still there I think. Just checking my hearing

Edit, this was mentioned just prior to his Q1 on Friday, and something was also mentioned before Q2…if you play it, see if you agree. For the record, I think switching out an entire crew in a week would be a little bit hard.

I heard that as well, but I think they were describing how the crew was hastily pieced together near the end of last year when the team was formed.

 

[J. S.]

Did I hear twice today that Schumacher’s team was fired and they have new people now? Angry hornet is still there I think. Just checking my hearing

Edit, this was mentioned just prior to his Q1 on Friday, and something was also mentioned before Q2…if you play it, see if you agree. For the record, I think switching out an entire crew in a week would be a little bit hard.

If this is true, could the crew issue have been a factor with the rear end failures they have had? I know we have read here that supposedly those were related to chassis set-up, and not necessarily a failure of the rear end due to design or manufacturing defects.

I agree that if they did let go even several of the crew, where do you find such guys on short notice? I can't imagine there are good, experienced NHRA fuel crew guys sitting at home on the couch unemployed. This is a niche expertise to have on your resume.