{"id":46974,"date":"2017-11-29T10:11:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T18:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=46974"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:32:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:32:54","slug":"nhra-crew-chief-shuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nhra-crew-chief-shuffle\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA Crew Chief Shuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Race teams always look for the \u201cunfair advantage,\u201d a term coined long, long ago by Mark Donohue, who helped put Team Penske on the racing map. It\u2019s no different in NHRA drag racing, where the crew chief shuffle is in high gear this fall.<\/p>\n

After watching his son, eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, earn an eighth-place result in NHRA\u2019s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 2017 standings, team owner Don Schumacher knew he needed to shake up the troops a bit. That he did by re-hiring Mike \u201cZippy\u201d Neff, leader of 2005 Funny Car champ Gary Scelzi\u2019s title with Don Schumacher Racing (DSR).<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Don Schumacher and John Force (photo courtesy azcentral.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neff, who moved to John Force Racing (JFR), was instrumental (over a period of 10 years) in securing the 2010 title for team patriarch John Force and coordinating JFR\u2019s four teams (for John, Courtney and 2017 Top Fuel champ Brittany Force, along with 2017 Funny Car champ Robert Hight) and their attendant personnel choices, which ultimately resulted in this year\u2019s sweep of nitro titles for Hight and Brittany Force.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Mike Neff (photo courtesy dragracecentral.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neff takes over crew chief duties for Tony Schumacher, while former crew chief Mike Green, who developed the enclosed Top Fuel dragster cockpit, remains with the team in a developmental role, working to find new ways of making the DSR cars quicker and faster on the 1,000-foot racetrack.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Tony Schumacher (photo courtesy dailyherald.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Schumacher has also shifted duties at three-time Top Fuel champ Antron Brown\u2019s team. Brown, who earned dragster titles for DSR in 2012, 2015 and 2016, finished fourth in the standings this year with the help of co-crew chiefs Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi, assisted by car chief Brad Mason. Four victories weren\u2019t enough to retain the title, so Schumacher secured the talents of 1984 NHRA Funny Car champ Oswald for next year and elevated Mason to assistant crew chief duties.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Mark Oswald, Antron Brown and Brian Corradi (photo courtesy dragracecentral.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Corradi is moving to the other end of the Brownsburg boomerang, going from DSR to JFR, where he will work with Dan \u201cDanimal\u201d Hood as co-crew chiefs for Courtney Force, John Force\u2019s youngest daughter and driver of the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS. Corradi returns to the flopper ranks, where he once worked as crew chief for Mike Ashley, Dean Skuza and Melanie Troxel. Courtney Force finished third in Funny Car this year, despite winning no races.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Dustin Heim (photo courtesy pinterest.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was another opening available at Don Schumacher Racing, this time with 2016 Funny Car titleholder Ron Capps\u2019 NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R\/T. With assistant crew chief Eric Lane moving to work with Bob Tasca III, Schumacher appointed Dustin Heim, formerly Capps\u2019 car chief, to assist crew chief Rahn Tobler. The NAPA team won eight races in 2017, but first round losses in both the penultimate race in Las Vegas and at the Pomona season finale left the team in second place behind Hight.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Ron Capps and Rahn Tobler (photo courtesy nhra.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lane\u2019s move to work with Bob Tasca\u2019s Ford Performance Shelby Mustang marks a marque return for the California native. He came to DSR from JFR earlier this decade when Ford left the sport. In its return for long-time Ford supporter Bob Tasca III, the blue oval manufacturer needed an experienced hand; Lane\u2019s prior Ford experience made him an ideal candidate.<\/p>\n

\"NHRA
Eric Lane (photo courtesy johnforceracing.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is only the first salvo in what could be an interesting off-season. With changes to nitro rules, particularly with Funny Car\u2019s new 40-degree exhaust header rules and 7,900-rpm rev limit, this crew chief shuffle is likely only beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Race teams always look for the \u201cunfair advantage.\u201d It\u2019s no different in NHRA drag racing, where the crew chief shuffle is in high gear this fall.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":46979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[5614,574,423,41,7,1632],"class_list":["post-46974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-anne-proffit","tag-don-schumacher-racing","tag-john-force-racing","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/mo-ab-and-bc.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-cdE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46986,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46974\/revisions\/46986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}