The Men of the Year 2008
12/8/2008All racers, each in their own way, started the season with great expectations.
For some, the goal simply was to qualify. For others, it was to be a contender. A few had a good chance to win. A very few could be champions.
Applause to Jimmie Johnson, Sprint Cup champion three consecutive years. To Kyle Busch, winner of an amazing 21 NASCAR events. To Toyota, which visited victory lane in about 75 significant American races. To Johnny Benson, a nice guy who came out on top in the tough Truck tour. To Scott Dixon, Indianapolis 500 and Indy series champ. To Lewis Hamilton, Formula One's youngest titlist. To Scott Pruett, who again showed how to do it over 24 hours at Daytona and throughout the Grand-Am sports car schedule. To Donny Schatz, World of Outlaws king three years in-a-row.
In 2008, however, only two dominated.
They combined to set the performance bar so high, it was news when they won, and headlines when they didn't.
Tony Schumacher and Alan Johnson have earned this column's 2008 James P. Chapman Man of the Year Award. The honor is named in memory of Chapman, the legendary Detroit-area public relations pioneer and respected motorsports executive. Chapman, who was Babe Ruth's PR man and confidant, also orchestrated the Driver of the Year Award and was director of racing for CART series sponsor PPG Industries before his death in 1996.
In the 7,000 horsepower NHRA Powerade Series Top Fuel class, it wasn't just that Schumacher and Johnson won at the quarter-mile and 1,000 feet. The stats prove the driver-crew chief combo, and their Army-sponsored Don Schumacher Racing team, were light-years ahead of the competition in capturing a record fifth consecutive class championship.
I think I'll play some of these lucky numbers in Powerball: 15 (wins, in 18 final-round appearances, in 24 events); 7 (consecutive wins); 11 (consecutive final rounds); 31 (consecutive round wins). All Top Fuel records.
Or these: 76 (round wins, tying Greg Anderson's single-season mark); 9 (poles); 90 (elimination round winning percentage).
Schumacher, now with six titles total, won the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis for the sixth time. He surpassed another Valvoline racing legend, Joe Amato, with a record 56 TF wins.
"The records we broke this year, I'm sure years ago people thought were impossible to break," said Schumacher. "That's what records are meant for. In junior dragsters, there are people that are going to be setting their sights on these records.
"I have truly woken up every day and felt blessed. I've also woken up every day and thought there is so much pressure. When you got the team that everyone's watching, everyone's trying to beat, they're going to do everything they can to beat you, the pressure is just flat enormous. The more races you win, the more pressure is on you.
"Having a guy like A.J. tune your car and a group where you should win every race . . . (people think) as a driver, the only thing I can do is screw it up. If I push the pedal down at the right time, we're going to win, right? That's not the case, but . . . I hear it all the time. But I'm very comfortable in the car and what I need to do and that's from experience."
Johnson, who tuned Gary Scelzi's TF car to three championships before his five-peat with Schumacher, will field his own nitro team next season. Schumacher calls him "a great crew chief - the best there's ever been."
"We all have comparable equipment," said Johnson, "so I think it comes down to the backgrounds . . . When you start winning rounds you gain a lot of experience and that comes into play as the season goes by. We learn a lot when we run those rounds and that's valuable experience you cannot replace."
Schumacher's Army team will have to find a way to replace Johnson. For now, though, he wants everyone who was part of the championship effort to share the moment.
"The season's been so fantastic," Schumacher concluded. "We got into every minute of it. It's like the '80 Olympics, when those guys were done with the Olympics, beating the Russian team in hockey, they never saw each other again. They all went their own ways and did their own deals. But they always have that time. It was big for everybody.
"This was just a crazy, awesome year for our team. That's it. Those numbers aren't going to come up again."
Maybe not. But Tony Schumacher and Alan Johnson began 2008 with great expectations . . . and exceeded them. Congratulations.
Previous James P. Chapman Man of the Year Award Winners:
2000 -- Jacques Natz (news director, WTHR-TV, Indianapolis) and Terry Brookins (news director, Speedvision RaceWeek).
2001 -- Richard Childress
2002 -- Tony George
2003 -- NASCAR fans
2004 -- Brian France
2005 -- Carl Edwards
2006 - Jimmie Johnson
2007 - Rick Hendrick
[ Next column: February 9, 2009]
BackAbout I.N. Sider
I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.