An Interview With:
EDDIE KRAWIEC
ALLEN JOHNSON
JACK BECKMAN
ANTRON BROWN
THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome all of the media and our world champion drivers who are joining us today on the teleconference as we feature the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series world champions. On the call today we'll be joined by Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, Funny Car champ Jack Beckman, Pro Stock champ Allen Johnson and Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Eddie Krawiec. First up today we'll begin with our NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Eddie Krawiec. This is Eddie's second consecutive world championship and his third title overall aboard the Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley Davidson. He raced to nine victories and 11 final round appearances and pretty much dominated the competition in 2012. Eddie, what have you done so far to celebrate your accomplishment?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Well, went to the banquet, and obviously after I gave my speech and moved forward, had sort of a good night, nice, relaxing night, got to hang out with all the friends and got to spend it with all the fellow racers and competitors of the NHRA series. That's been about it. I got home actually late last night and just getting the opportunity. I'm back at work today already. The work never stops. We're moving forward. Obviously focusing on 2013, and just getting ready to get going again.
Q: This is your third championship. How does this one rate? Winning nine races in a season has got to be kind of cool.
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Yeah, this has been the dream season for sure. Looking back, as you said, 11 finals and nine wins, for me that's pretty much the most dominant season I've ever had in my career. To have the opportunity obviously to stand at the end with the Full Throttle trophy being the last one of our four year association with the Full Throttle brand, and next year we're going to have the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, and I'm looking forward to contending for a championship for one of those. I was lucky enough to be the final POWERade champion. Obviously I'm the final Full Throttle champion, and boy, hopefully it doesn't take that long to become a Mello Yello champion. It's exciting, and for me they're all great championships. This one is better in different ways, obviously being the dominance all season long. Our Harley Davidson bikes won 15 out of 16 races this year. It definitely is exciting, and to be able to say at the end that I was the champion was great for me.
Q: When you look back at a season like this, when you and Andrew Hines, your teammate, were kind of winning every race, was that kind of a good distraction in terms of winning a championship; were you not really thinking about that, or were you guys kind of focused on trying to win every race in the season? And are you a little disappointed you didn't pull it off because Michael Ray won in Dallas?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Yeah, as I said in my speech, they say you can't win them all, and well, Michael Ray was the guy that made it happen and he was the guy that stood there and said that quote. Hats off to those guys for getting it done.For us, it was a little nerve wracking. Obviously we went through the whole preseason sort of as you'd like to call it for the Countdown to the Championship, and we won every single race, and Andrew and I are like, well, coming out of Indy, we're at the point where we're hopefully the wheel doesn't fall off the wagon, because if we dominated like this in the preseason and something happens that we don't win the championship, it's going to look really bad. Although you still have an awesome season and it was great, you know, I'm sure we would have got our fair share of hecklers or pressure on us. We had some adversity this year with getting 20 pounds put on us right after Gainesville, and then another 10 pounds after our win in Charlotte where we had to go to Dallas with an extra 10 pounds. But you know, you have to push that aside and just continue to move forward and not lose focus on what your common goal is, and the common goal all season long is obviously to win a championship. For us we expect to go out there and do well, and if we don't, it's our own fault, it's nobody else's. It takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication from your team being out on the road all year long, and it's nice to be rewarded in the end.
Q. I was wondering with this being your third championship, does it have any more meaning because you were able to pull off a win at your home track this season?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: That's an awesome question, because yes, I've quoted myself many times after that saying, no matter what, if I didn't win the championship, my home track win is my championship. To do it in front of all my friends, family, just fans, everybody that supports me at Englishtown meant the world to me. That's the track that I grew up at. I started watching drag racing at the age of three, four years old. I started there, and my very first run on a Pro Stock Motorcycle was down that dragstrip. My earliest memories of everything is down that dragstrip. For me to finally get a win at the track that sort of set up my whole career was just, it was unbelievable. I mean, to be totally honest, if I was to quit riding the day after that event, I would feel content in that my career was fulfilled.
Q. You actually showed a lot more emotion after that win, and not that you didn't show a lot of emotion on Saturday when you got the big trophy, but you could tell that there was a lot of emotion tied into that win, and congratulations on your season again.
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Yeah, it sure was. I appreciate it, and I had the emotion there on the Saturday one, but man, the Englishtown win for me, it's unbelievable.
Q. Harley-Davidson, there isn't a brand that's more synonymous with the United States of America than that one. The Japanese brands are fine and there's a lot of inroads in the market with those, but to do this on the back of a Harley has got to mean a lot to you.
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Yeah, it sure does. Even one step further, we had Willie G at the race with us, and to go out there and, number one, wrap up the championship and, number two, win the event with Willie G standing there on the starting line is something special. He is an American icon as well as the Harley Davidson branding, and to be associated with that on an awesome weekend being veterans' weekend and all the stuff that was going on really just electrifies it that much more. Harley Davidson is an icon. They're, as you say, synonymous with the U.S. branding, and not just U.S. branding but world branding. Everybody knows it. And to be associated with those guys and have my name in the record books and etched in there and part of the Harley Davidson racing history is just something that's unbelievable.
Q. Eddie, I'm wondering what was the conversation between you and Matt Hines when you failed to win that 10th race and tie his record?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: You know, I wanted to beat it. I wanted to tie him and I wanted to get there with him. Matt has done an awesome job, and as a crew chief this year, he made me step up to a level that I feel I should be at. And reason being is Matt is prepared and gave me an awesome prepared motorcycle all year long, could win almost pretty much any race. He wants us to win. That's his job is to make sure he supplies us with great motorcycles. You know, he struggled a little bit as well as I did this past weekend. It doesn't look like we struggled, made it to the final, ran well, but Andrew's bike hasn't been running as well as mine has, so we made a lot of changes to Drew's and paid some attention to that just to make sure we could get all the kinks worked out of it. And with that being said, we struggled with getting mine off the starting line. We really couldn't figure out the key. I put a new tire on the bike this weekend, and I raced pretty much the whole entire middle half of the year and end of the year on one tire. So when we changed the tire, it sort of threw our clutch setup and our chassis setup off a little bit. We were just struggling to find it. We were going some 1.06 and Andrew was going 1.04 60-foot, so the ET gain that Andrew had was all made up in the first 300 feet of track. If I could have got mine right in its sweet spot like Andrew's I think it would have really gave me a good chance. But I'm very happy with the way my season went. To record nine final rounds and win them in a total out of 11 is definitely something special. I think it was the most out of any pro category. I guess I have no room to complain.
Q. As a follow up, I know you've spoken about this before, the switch from four valve to two valve. How much of an off season thrash is that going to be for you guys, and do you almost see it as another penalty against Harley Davidson?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Yeah, our Harleys are going from the four valve dual overhead cam engine, which is the basic exact duplicate of what comes in the factory motorcycle, the factory V Rod is a four valve dual overhead cam engine. NHRA saw fit to change the rules to make it where all the motors sort of reflect the same the Suzuki is a two valve dual overhead cam engine; the Buell is going to be a two valve pushrod engine, as well as to make our bikes the exact same to try and equal performance and make the playing field a little more level they feel, they're taking our engine and converting it, making us convert it from a four valve dual overhead cam to a pushrod engine. For us we're not exactly happy with the way it went because now it has zero resemblance to the way the American side of things were for our engine. They're just trying to make it more of the American pushrod engine. It's going to be a lot of work with three and a half months. We're going to have to do some reengineering and designing of the top half of the engine, and to be honest with you, right now we're hoping to have motorcycles for Gainesville because we have nothing that we can currently throw on our bike that is NHRA legal, and that's going to be a tough task. If we can make it to Gainesville right now, we're going to be happy.
Q. Would you kind of tell everybody what it's like to be a three time champion and then maybe what would be your best recommendation to somebody out there, any racer wanting to be a champion?
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Well, obviously regardless of whether you're a one time, three time, 10 time champion, I think the key there is be proud of what you achieved, whether it's once or 10 times or three times, because you can be a champion one year, and the following year you can be in 10th place or not even qualify for it. It really is something to be grateful for. Race wins are to be grateful for. Any round win is to be grateful for. It's a tough task out here. There are no gimmes. There's no easy racing. Every round is tough. I think you need to hang your head high and be proud of it because there's definitely more lows than there are highs in drag racing. For me this season, like I say, has been a dream season, to be able to go to all those final rounds, win those races, I think I had 47 round wins total, I think if I'm correct, Allen Johnson was the only guy to have more round wins than me, and those guys go to (seven) more races than we do. To look at that statistically just shows you how good my year was, and to reflect back on it, really it makes it very exciting. But looking forward you know, most people have to look at it and take it as a goal achieving, let's just say, program. That's the way I started. You've got to look at race wins first or round wins, and round wins equal race wins and race wins equal championships. That's the way I went about it, and I think the key thing is not to lose focus and look at the small picture rather than the big picture because if you look at the small picture, the big picture will grow.
THE MODERATOR: Eddie, congratulations once again, and thanks so much for joining us here today on the call.
EDDIE KRAWIEC: Thanks for having me, and I just would like to congratulate the other three, Allen Johnson, Jack Beckman and Antron Brown for their great seasons. Obviously it shows you that NHRA Full Throttle drag racing is at the top of its game when you can see some finals in Pomona the way it happened, and I just want to thank everybody for that and have a happy holidays, and I look forward to racing in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
THE MODERATOR: Next up we're joined by our Pro Stock world champion Allen Johnson. This is Allen's first championship title after competing in the category for 17 years. It's the first Pro Stock championship for Dodge since 1994 and the fifth Pro Stock title overall for the auto manufacturer. Allen raced to seven victories and 10 No. 1 qualifying positions in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger. Do you still feel like you're in a dream right now?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Yeah, guys, this has been such a satisfying season for me and my family, and to be able to do it with your dad and have this success is just a dream come true.
THE MODERATOR: Today the Bristol Dragway folks held a press conference for you in Bristol, which is close to your hometown in Greeneville, Tennessee. How did that go?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Yeah, we just came from that, and I'm sitting in a TV station lot right now. Got to go in and do this next. It's been a media frenzy, and I'm going to enjoy the highs because the lows far outweigh them. Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway is a really good friend of mine, and we do a lot of stuff together for charity and the media around this area. They had a huge media press conference luncheon turnout, presented me with some plaques and a picture, and I think we had 30 media members from around the area there. Great turnout.
Q: You said earlier in your year that your team needed to learn to win consistently to make a championship happen. It looks like you guys figured that out.
ALLEN JOHNSON: Yeah, that was the key to our deal and it is what we've lacked in the past was consistency. We brought on some really talented people in the off season or toward the end of last season that really we tried to treat it like an engineering effort, a scientific effort this year instead of from the gut, and it really paid dividends.
Q. My question for you is after your early season struggles, you just kind of powered through the rest of the season and really making it count in the Countdown this year and making the championship just that much sweeter?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Yes, sir. This team now is operating more like a business than it was before. Each mistake you make, each problem you have, you go test and learn how to overcome that problem and eliminate it. And that's what this team has done. Through the first part of the season we made some of those, and we just tested our butts off and really worked on problems, and when it got about mid year, we were just so consistent and we eliminated all those mistakes, and Countdown time we were really on the points and just really learned from what you do wrong and don't do it again.
Q. Back in '94 when Darrell Alderman won the championship, the Pro Stock championship, I'm assuming you were a Sportsman racer back then with your dad. I'm wondering what was your situation like, what kind of car were you racing, and did it seem like Darrell Alderman and NHRA Pro Stock were like on a different planet?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Oh, you know, we weren't racing from '80 to '95. We took a step back and got in business and da, da, da. But we did start in '95, and went and got us a Super Comp dragster, and actually Darrell and Scott and that team was the team we was following around trying to see if we wanted to go Pro Stock racing. We even talked with them about maybe getting an engine to start with. Yeah, Warren and Darrell and everybody in Pro Stock, when you're just a Sportsman racer, they did, they seemed like they were untouchables.
Q. How much of a budget did you have back then?
ALLEN JOHNSON: You know, I was fortunate in business and able to get dad and I a start. He was the crew chief and the engine builder, I was the driver and the clutch guy, and we had one truck driver, I think. We had no money. Amoco, my supplier and my business at that time was able to throw me a few crumbs, but for the most part we was on our own nickel, and I don't know how much we spent that first year, but we tested a lot and we qualified one time. So it wasn't very good.
Q. I saw where Greg Anderson paid you a lot of compliments after the race, and I'm just wondering what it feels like to get those kind of compliments from a four-time champion, one of your toughest competitors.
ALLEN JOHNSON: Well, it's very appreciative, and Greg and Jason, they certainly, Greg especially, knows the tough times. He started way back, had a lot of success with Warren (Johnson), but when he first started his own program, I think he was five or six years before he won his first championship. He definitely knows the pains. And Jason grew up Sportsman racing. He definitely knows what it feels like to work your hind-end off to get where he's at. Those comments were well taken and appreciated.
Q. Those of us who have followed you all the way through the tour, we noticed right around Topeka time, you became like a nuisance to the KB Racing empire, and as the season went on you transformed from nuisance to nightmare. Was that your plan all along?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Well, it had to be if we were going to win the championship because those boys are the ones that are tough to beat, along with Erica (Enders) and others. But we set out on a plan personally, and we set out on a plan team wise that if we're going to win this thing, we've got to out perform and beat these guys. We've got to be No. 1 down the track every single time and get a lot of those little points, I think the total count was 180 or 190 little points we got, and that's two full race wins. We took personal satisfaction in outdoing them, but also we are very cautious because we might have awakened a sleeping giant. We'll work hard this winter to make sure we can stay ahead of them because I'll guarantee you they're working hard right now.
Q. As a follow up, one of the things about the KB Racing team is that they had three cars. Is there a chance we might see an expansion in the upcoming season?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Oh, you know, the upcoming season is going to be a great one, and we're working on a couple of things right now for that season. I don't know how many cars they're going to have, but I think there's a good chance you might see an addition to our deal. I'm not ready to announce anything yet, but we're going to be a little stronger.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the rule book. Pretty happy with the performance of these cars; is there any part of that rule book you wish they would open up a little bit more and give you more performance latitude?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Well, there's a couple of things that actually NHRA has in their grasp that we've all wanted for several years, and one of them is the addition of lasers that allow us to measure the right heights all over the car. You can put a laser on the rear end housing, you can put it on the frame, you can put it on the front end. You can do that, and it just tells you the attitude of the car a little bit. I feel pretty confident that that tuning tool is probably one of the most important ones to the crew chiefs, and I think NHRA is going to see fit to let us do that. The engines, we've got pretty strict rules there on weights and tolerances, but that keeps the cost down a little bit, and it's for a good reason, because one person goes out and spends a hundred grand to develop a super duper lightweight valve, we're all going to have it right down the road and then we're going to be right back to where we were at. So they put those rules in place to save costs, and I like those types of rules. But those are the two big areas.
Q. Are you content with the factory hotrods, or is there any fuel in your future?
ALLEN JOHNSON: No, I'm a natural aspirated guy and real car guy. Those fuel guys are crazy. But I enjoy watching them. They're a real show for the fans. But that's something Don Schumacher asked me a while back if I wanted to do a burnout or two in one, and I said one day maybe I might take you up on that. Right now I'm just going to try to stick to what I've got.
Q. As far as having a season like that, that just keeps getting better and better, was there any point where it was gloomy for you, and could you kind of share your feeling with the fans about what it's like when you keep performing so well? Did you shake your head along the way, or just kind of give a mood what it's like to have a great season like that?
ALLEN JOHNSON: Well, it's so satisfying when you test and work so hard and spend so much time and money trying to achieve a pinnacle, and when you finally feel confident with that car under you as a driver, you drive better. When you finally feel confident that the car is going to get off the starting line every time, you feel more confident in your decisions as a crew chief. When you make runs after runs as an engine guy and no breakage and the performance is awesome, you feel more confident. So all of that confidence breeds confidence, and we start learning as a team how to win, and that in itself is just such a satisfying feeling when everybody high fives and you know you've reached that spot to where you know you can win every single race.
THE MODERATOR: That wraps up our segment with our 2012 NHRA Pro Stock world champ, Allen Johnson. Congrautulations on your title Allen and thanks for joining us today.
THE MODERATOR: Now we're moving on, as we increase the speed here to more than 300 miles an hour, with our Funny Car world champion Jack Beckman. He beat his rival and teammate Ron Capps by two points to win the championship on Sunday in Pomona. It went down to the wire, to the semifinals. Capps lost to Courtney Force in front of Beckman, and Beckman was crowned the champion before he even had to race eventual race winner Cruz Pedregon. Jack during the season raced to three victories, had four No. 1 qualifying positions, and perhaps the biggest key to his season, setting the national performance record and giving him a 20 point bonus in Reading, Pennsylvania. Jack, you said on Sunday you needed a little time to kind of wrap your arms around this championship. Well, you've had two days to think about it. Has it all sunk in yet?
JACK BECKMAN: I don't think it's all sunk in yet, but I'm sitting out on my back patio, and I still own my Super Comp car, and I'm staring at the trailer, and on the side of it says Super Comp 2003 world champion, and I went, wow, and we can add a Funny Car one to that one now, too. After going to the banquet and talking and having the crew there in tuxedos, I think that kind of formalizes everything.
THE MODERATOR: Did being in the thick of the battle last year with Matt Hagan, did that kind of help your focus and concentration this time around?
JACK BECKMAN: That's a great question that's tough to answer with 100 percent certainty. Probably. It certainly didn't hurt being there with that pressure at the last race of the year and a great chance of winning the championship. I wish I could give you a more articulate answer to that, but I think the short answer is it didn't hurt.
Q. What have you done to celebrate your championship?
JACK BECKMAN: I fixed the sprinklers in the backyard and went and retrieved my motor home that had a dead battery stuck at Pomona. I've taken my son to school, he's got basketball practice. It's pretty much back to life as usual. I have such a list of stuff around the house that I've got to get done in a short amount of time, and it's interesting because after all that and walking back and forth and trying to get stuff in the house cleaned up and then I walk past the championship trophy, and then you just kind of remind yourself it all ended the way we hoped it would.
Q. I was talking to the guys like Force and guys like Fedderly and even Graham Light. It's a long time since we had a national event at Sanair, Quebec, and we haven't had one for a good number of years now, and most of the guys who remember that national event in Quebec in Canada really wish they would get another one back in this country. Would you like to see a national event north of the border?
JACK BECKMAN: I'd actually like to see one north and south of the border. I think to truly make it international, it would behoove us to spread out a little bit, and I think the potential audiences on both sides of the U.S. borders would take this sport to a higher level. Traveling overseas is a little bit more difficult to put all of our stuff in containers and go over there, and these crew guys are already away from home so many days a year, I think that's too high of a demand to put on them. Yeah, I would love going to new racetracks and bringing them on tour. I hate losing racetracks to the tour. We don't go to Memphis anymore, we don't go to Richmond, but next year we'll be in Epping, New Hampshire. I'd love to get Canada back on the schedule. I've never been there. And I'd also like to get something in Mexico on the schedule. I think the appeal would be tremendous both sides of the border.
Q. Is floppers where it's at for you right now? Is there any plan to move the engine in the back and go real long?
JACK BECKMAN: You know, I've always been a dragster guy since I was seven and went to my first drag race. I absolutely fell in love with the candy apple paint jobs on the Funny Cars and the way that they all had names, but when they push started the dragsters on the last beat of the National Anthem and you saw those long chassis flexing and the James Warrens, the Don Garlitses, that was it for me. The reason I'm in a Funny Car is there wasn't any dragster rides available in 2006, and I knew Don Schumacher would give me the best chance of having a winning car. I love Funny Cars now. I find them extremely challenging. I think the dragsters can get evil wicked on some runs, but on the dragsters it's kind of like being in a Ferrari on the Autobahn. You've just got to whisper on the steering wheel. The Funny Cars are like driving a motor home in a crosswind with a bad alignment job. They're very, very challenging and I enjoy that aspect of it. I would love to go back to Top Fuel one day. I'd love to be able to be in a Top Fuel car and have a chance to win a race in one of them, but right now I'm real comfortable in a Funny Car.
Q. You do have the story telling ability, and now that you're a Funny Car champion, if you're going to take another notch from John Force's legacy, you're going talk in a hoarse laryngitis type voice on a regular basis.
JACK BECKMAN: I've got a great story for you. You used to do the race report Sunday evenings, and I don't know, this is probably 19 or 20 years ago, I won a race at Palmdale in my bracket dragster, came home and I couldn't wait to get a cassette tape and put it in and record you, and you mentioned and it was a three second mention, that I had won that race that day, and I just thought, not from a narcissistic standpoint, but I just thought, man, that's so cool, I've made it, I got my name mentioned by Joe Benson on the radio, and since that day it just keeps getting more and more cool.
Q. What was it like in the car when you saw that Capps had lost?
JACK BECKMAN: A little bit surreal because, interesting story, I live 30 miles from Pomona so I commuted back and forth for the race. So Sunday morning on the way there, I called (crew chief) Todd Smith. We had qualified third, the NAPA team had qualified first, so that means NHRA goes to Rahn Tobler and lets him pick of the eight pairs first round where in the run order they want to be; then Cruz Pedregon will get to pick second and we'll get to pick third. And I thought we'll know where NAPA is going to run, let's run in front of them to put pressure on them. Well, Todd said they just came by, NAPA picked third pair, we picked fifth pair. I said you know what, I've got another idea, let's just run behind them and not worry about it. Well, then first round we win, and we're the quickest ET of all the first round winners, which means we now get first choice of which pair we want to be for second round. And Todd picked the last pair, which meant that, again, I've got to sit strapped in that car and listen to the PA and see if the NAPA team wins. And you don't ever want to root against them because we really, really, really like those people over there. That crew was my crew for three years, we just wanted to root for us. But it was an added dimension of pressure having to listen to them. They win, now it's squarely back on us, we have to win or we lose the championship. So when they lost to Courtney in the semifinals, some of our guys start pumping their fists, and I got on the radio and said we have to calm down, guys, we have to go out and win this round. And it was such a letdown to lose in the semifinals, and that just tells you how important every single run is in what we do. Second place means that you're a loser. And as I'm slowing down after Cruz beat us in the semifinals, I was really bummed out until I reminded myself as soon as I turned off the racetrack, they're going to guide me over to the podium and there's a big trophy waiting for this team.
Q. During the last few conference calls you really didn't speak much about the cancer and your battle with that. I'm just wondering, after you've fought cancer, beat cancer, does everything else become a game for you? Is that the way you've looked at your professional career?
JACK BECKMAN: No, that's an intriguing question. It puts things in a larger framework. You know, I've gotten some comments from some crew members over the years that it seems like I don't care that much when we lose or if I've got beat on a holeshot, and I said, no, I care a tremendous amount, but I've got 45 seconds of slowing that race car down and turning off the track to put it in perspective before I get out. And I don't kick the race car and I don't throw my helmet, no matter how bad I feel about losing. And trust me, losing is still like getting socked in the gut. But it doesn't compare to having a sick kid or having cancer. And somebody that's never been through that, there's no way you could expect them to put that perspective on things that happen out on the racetrack. No, I take my job very seriously. Our job is to win races, and we're supposed to represent Valvoline and Schumacher Electric and the sponsors in a positive way and in a winning sort of way. But I recognize that after getting past the cancer, no matter how this race goes, I'm going to get a chance to go to another race.
Q. Where do you have that trophy that you pass by all the time?
JACK BECKMAN: It was too damned heavy. I set it on the floor in the office, and my wife put it where she wanted. She's the organizer anyway. If I would have spent 20 minutes measuring, leveling, adjusting shelves, she would have moved it somewhere else anyway, so it's sitting by the pool table in the living room underneath a picture of the race car. It looks pretty cool.
Q. I have a little story for you. Years ago you were running the Blackbird in Super Comp. You and Rod Fuller were sitting on my brother's trailer watching the race. My brother also was running in Super Comp at Infineon at the time, and you made the comment, this is what I'm going to do. How does it feel to realize that dream and be the world champion?
JACK BECKMAN: God, you just brought back some memories. Wow. Let me see if I can articulate this. If a little kid watched a rocket being launched to the moon and said, this is what I want to do someday, there's probably 10,000 little kids that said that and one of them got to do it. But and that's the thing I love about this country, if you work hard enough and want something enough, you can make it happen. But my journey was pretty interesting. I always think it's the people around me far more than me that have made this happen. Roger and Karen Comstock with MTS, they helped get me into my first fuel car. They've been on the side of every fuel car I've ever driven down a racetrack; Don Schumacher giving me the right parts and people so that we could have a team that could win. I'm just a real small part of it. I was just a seven year old kid that just was in awe the first time I went and saw these cars run, and I couldn't believe it, and I still have these pinch me moments. I'm 46, I'm supposed to be grown up and completely mature, and I've got a wife and two kids, and there's days I wake up and I go, holy crap, I get paid to drive a Nitro Funny Car. I got messages and calls from Jess VanDeventer, who 50 years ago won the NHRA Hot Car world championship; from Gary Beck, two-time Top Fuel champion; from Bob Glidden, 10-time world champion; and I got a message yesterday from Art Chrisman, and the only reason Art Chrisman may not be a household name is because when he went to work for an aftermarket company they would not allow him to race a car. The guy won the first fuel and gas championships in 1959 at Bakersfield, the March Meet. He was an absolute rock star in this sport, and he still builds hotrods to this day. The fact that those people even know my name, much less acknowledge me with congratulations, I think that might even mean more than all the wins in the Funny Car because as a seven year old kid these are the people that I thought were the absolute giants of the sport.
THE MODERATOR: That wraps up the questioning for Jack Beckman. We appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule to be on the call today with us, and once again, congratulations on your championship, and we look forward to seeing you back out there next year in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
JACK BECKMAN: You notice I went far shorter on my answers than I did during my speech. Antron, now you've got more time, and congrats to Eddie and Allen. What those guys did in Pro Stock vehicles where they've got to shift them and red lights have prevailed, it's stunning. I just want to say something real quick: At the Phoenix test before the Winternationals, the first year Antron was in a Top Fuel car, a fan came by to my pits, and he said, can you believe this, they're putting a motorcycle guy in a Top Fuel car, he's never going to get this. And I told the guy, I said, you're completely wrong. He said, what are you talking about? I said, do you have any idea how tough it is to ride a Pro Stock Motorcycle and do it well. I said, Antron has got that athlete's mind, and he's going to be one of the best dragster drivers out here, and he just proved me right. Thanks, guys, and have a great day.
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined Antron Brown. Before we open it up for questions I have a few stats. Antron raced to six victories in 11 final rounds this year, claimed three No. 1 qualifying positions behind the wheel of his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster. He took the title when Tony Schumacher lost a close final round to Brandon Bernstein at Pomona. With the championship, Antron becomes the first African American to win an NHRA Full Throttle series championship as well as the first to win a major auto racing championship in the United States. Antron, we've all seen Schumacher in those situations where he brings the magic at Pomona, at the final race and wins the championship. What were you thinking as you were watching him win round after round?
ANTRON BROWN: Well, the thing about it is, it literally puts things in perspective for all of our team, that we did the best job we could. It was out of our control, and we know Tony and his U.S. Army team with (crew chief) Mike Green and all those guys, they're incredible guys. They're our teammates, and they're used to making those storybook endings, and I'm like, no, I do not want to be a part of this story. You know what I mean? I don't want to make another Cinderella story for Tony, especially after the hard work that all of our Matco Tools guys like Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) and all of our guys put in, and our car just ran phenomenal all year, and it was our championship to lose, especially after Reading. We had that big lead, over a 100 point lead, and we were like, all right, we've just go out there and race like we've been racing and we'll be fine. So watch Tony doing that, I just saw all those hard blood, sweat and tears just going away. It felt like we climbed Mount Everest and we got to the top and we were almost at the top, and then we're balancing on that peak, and we're like, we're going to make it, we're going to make it, and I was already ready just to fall all the way back down the mountain again and start over from scratch next year with my boys and try to do the feat again. And then when I saw Tony went out in the final, I was just like, I can't believe it, I can't believe it's all on my boys, I saw my crew chief crying, Brian, and Mark, my wife, everybody that was around our whole team jumping up and down for joy, and I saw racers from so many different teams and other crew guys and owners all over the place. It was just an incredible experience, and it was very heartfelt. I think the way it ended made it even more special for all of us.
THE MODERATOR: That scene at the starting line when you finally won the championship, you were just mobbed; it was incredible.
ANTRON BROWN: Yes, it was, and that's one of the things that you could take with you. I think that's the way it played out where the Countdown made it very, very interesting for the fans. You couldn't draw it out any better. Trust me, our team wanted to end it in Vegas. When we come to Pomona, we wanted to just go out and have fun and it doesn't make a difference what happens, and that wasn't in the cards. I mean, Tony and Spencer, Shawn Langdon and the rest of them, they put on a heck of a charge, and Tony, that shows you why he's a seven-time world champ and why his team is that kind of championship team and he won all those championships when Allen Johnson was his crew chief, also, is because he's on great teams, and Tony knows how to rise for those big moments. I'm just glad that the big moment was for our team. It was definitely heartfelt, and I'm still in awe. Our teammates are still in awe. We're still calling each other, and we don't even realize, like is this real? Is this real? We're just still living that dream.
Q. Can you put into words what this means to you personally?
ANTRON BROWN: What this championship means is it goes way back to when I started Pro Stock bikes. You talk about being in this sport for 15 years as a professional and just working hard, keeping your head down to the grind, and I was very fortunate and blessed to be with some great, great crew chiefs, started off in bikes from being out there with my crew chief Mark Peiser, who really helped me get to where I'm at today, and then I had Steve Tartaglia on the bikes, and I went to after I got out of the bike category, I went over with Lee Beard and had some fun with Lee and Rob Flynn and Mike Gruber and them guys over at David Powers. Then I got teamed up with Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald. It's just that whole deal where you look at where you're at right now and all the bumps and bruises and the deals where you didn't have sponsorship and you stayed out there and you fought through the struggle, then you come back out and you're competitive, then you lose the championship several times in bikes and then we lost the championship three times in Top Fuel when we were so close in the last race and we lost it. And then last year we're there at the end and we just lost it, and to come out now as the victor, you look at all those heartfelt moments, all the finger cuts, the grind that you see all your crew guys go through, all those test sessions, all the different things that you went through, and you look back and you hoist that championship trophy with all your guys, words cannot explain the feelings on how it feels. And it's one of the best feelings I've ever had in my life, and to share it with the guys on my team is incredible because they're like a family to me.
Q. What exactly happened to your car in the first round?
ANTRON BROWN: The thing that happened was it was a freak deal. We blew up Saturday night, right. We actually had a piston come apart, we blew up, and it tore up a whole bunch of stuff on the race car. So we came out there that morning with everything on it brand new, all brand new fuel lines and everything else, and when I'm mashing the gas, the car was hiked up, everything was working perfect, management fits were working perfect, and what it did was the pressure of the fuel line from the dash 12 line that goes from our fuel pump to our management deal, it actually, the fitting, the way it's crimped on the hose, didn't hold the hose and it blew the hose out. The hose just blew out. And when the hose blew out, you're talking about 600 pounds of pressure of fuel blowing out, and it leaned the engine out, then the engine backfired, then it caused the fuel line and the fuel on fire, it was blow torching underneath my car, going into my foot pan, and it was blowing back up in the cockpit at me on my feet, blow torching my feet and all the way up to near where my crotch is in the race car. So that's what really happened, the fuel line just blew off the car.
Q. And after losing first round like that going out that way, Mark Oswald being a former world champion, did he give you any encouragement to hang in there and you still had a shot?
ANTRON BROWN: Absolutely, me, Mark and Brian, we all got together. We just looked down and said, hey, you know what, we gave it everything that we had. We possibly couldn't give it any more, and we said what's meant to be is going to be. It was just like we were at the mercy of the race. You know what I mean? But we're all firm believers, if the good Lord made this to be, it will be, and he did make it to be. He showed us that hey, I'm going to put you here to the last run, and I'm going to see how you guys are going to handle this, and we handled it like great sports. I went up and gave Tony a fist tap before he went down the racetrack and said, hey, man, if it's meant to be it's going to be; good luck. And he said, hey, brother, likewise to you. And we watched him run, and then it was a bittersweet moment. It's bitter because you don't like to see your teammates lose, but it was sweet because we won the world championship.
Q. I went and watched the final round up in the bleachers, and I was actually sitting in front of your kids, and you might have a lot of fans, but you don't have any bigger fans than those two.
ANTRON BROWN: You are definitely, absolutely right. I mean, my kids are so heartfelt. My daughter Arianna is incredible; she always comes back and says, why did you let those guys beat you. She says, Dad, come on, Pop, you've got to get on your game. That's how she talks to me. And Adler and Anson are so emotional, and then sometimes even when I lose, Anson looks at me, and he's like, okay, it's going to be okay, Dad, just get back in that car and it's going to be all right. And my son Adler goes, Daddy... he doesn't know what's going on yet... Daddy, did you lose? I go, yeah, son. He goes, Daddy, don't let that happen again.
Q. After the race you said when you started out, even some of your family members doubted that you could pull this off, and there wasn't a lot of encouragement there. I'm wondering, is that because of money or was it because you are an African American in a basically white sport? What was the mindset there that you are taking on this huge challenge?
ANTRON BROWN: Well, the thing about it is that when you're looking at it, to get to be a professional and do certain things, a lot of people look at a lot of people in the industry of motorsports in general that it takes a lot of money, okay. So I don't think it makes a difference what color you are, you know what I mean, and with our NHRA sport, its heritage is very diverse, so it's never been a white sport, it's just been NHRA drag racing. You go to a drag race, you'll see all people from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds. So we never had that problem. But the deal of it is, it's just hard in general to make it happen. To go in Pro Stock bike and keep a deal out there, you've got guys sitting on the sidelines like Tommy Johnson, Jr., Hot Rod Fuller. You've got people out there that have been running for championships, ran for high dollar teams that do not have jobs. Larry Dixon, a three time world champion, is not out there. It's just hard to be out there. And when I'm growing up as a little kid, you have to have somebody give you a chance. Like my family comes from Sportsman racing, not from Top Fuel racing, not from Funny Car racing, not from Pro Stock car racing. But you kind of have to know people, and you have to be out there to know them to get that chance, and I think that's why it makes to hard to be a professional at anything that you do. But when I was growing up you have family members, all right, how are you going to make that happen, how is he going to give Antron a shot. People look at me as being Antron, and their little nephew or their little cousin growing up or some of my friends or whatever it is, because you don't see a lot of people make it that came from a normal background that hasn't been in the sport, if you get what I'm saying. You know what I mean? Like my dad's last name was not John Force. You understand, I didn't come from Prudhomme, or my last name wasn't Amato, someone who already paved the way for you back in the '60s because he worked so hard. I had to do that now and this time in this arena to actually make that happen. So I think that's what you call being so difficult. It's hard to get out there.
Q. I wanted to talk when you first got into the fuel car at length and what a change it was, that's where you used the analogy it was like being in "Star Wars" or taking off or something. Now that you've reached the championship after all of this, certainly in the music business as well as several others, the saying is it's rarely a failure of talent, it's a failure of character. And for you to have come through what you have the last few years and coming so close to the championship and then down to the last couple of thousandths of a second almost losing it again this year, certainly showing strength of character, and I would assume that comes from your family, from your parents. I would also assume that that's something that I know for a fact that's what people look forward to seeing in you and the influence you're going to have some kids down the road here in the next few years just by being the champion that you are, but I was wondering about where did the character come from, where did that strength come from?
ANTRON BROWN: I think the biggest thing if it is, it was instilled in me from a kid, from my grandpa to my dad, my uncle, from my grandma, my mom. It was just a simple deal where they said, you know, Son, and my great grandma, I'll never forget, she told me something before she passed away and different stuff, and she just looked at us and told us how many things she's seen and how many things she's been through. She was born in 1913. And she goes, you know, I've seen a lot of things, and our family struggled and we've made it to this point. America is so beautiful right now, and it's got so much opportunity, and she always told all of us from our family never walk around with a chip on your shoulder. Enjoy the people that surround you and treat people the way you want to be treated genuinely, and that's the way I always took life. I never look at somebody or looked back in history to see how bad things used to be. You've got to look how things are now, and that's what we focus on. And that's what got me here, and then when I first became a professional racing Pro Stock bikes, I think the one thing with Troy Vincent when I was with him, he used to play for the Philadelphia Eagles, defensive back, he owned my Pro Stock bike team for my first three years, and he showed me so many incredible things, incredible things, how to be a professional and how to carry yourself and how to have determination and how not to settle. It's okay to be defeated, but how do you come back from that defeat? You don't sit there and mope about it, you don't sit there and say what if or what about. You get back and you figure out and you go back to work and work harder so you don't let that happen again. And that's the motto that I took with me throughout my whole professional career is where I just keep the head down, no matter what the outtake is, is that when I get set back, it actually fuels my fire even more, actually burns my passion inside even deeper where I just put my claws down and I keep on climbing, I keep on grabbing. I think that's where it really got set into me. And I actually spent a lot of time with the U.S. Army soldiers and going through basic training for five days where I saw how a person gets transformed from thinking about what you can't do. You know what I mean? And when you go through that training, and what Troy has taught me, it's like, okay, you can do it, you've just got to figure out how to do it, and that's by surrounding yourself with the right people. And when I learned that kind of mindset, it helped turn me to the kind of person I am today, and it actually helped me get to the level I am at today.
Q. You're pretty young to have a bucket list, but I'm thinking that by the time you get to be an old man, you're not going to have anything to go on your bucket list; you'll really be reaching. Have you ever thought about that?
ANTRON BROWN: I can always count on you to be out of the box, Big Daddy. That's why I love you. You are absolutely, positively right. I would definitely be reaching, from skydiving to bungee jumping to racing motocross as a kid to drag racing Pro Stock bikes to racing in Top Fuel, and to eclipse and fulfill a dream like our whole team has, to win a world championship, I'm enjoying life and I'm very blessed because the most important thing, of course, first is God and then I'm very blessed with my family. My family is just incredible, from my wife to my kids. I mean, I'm a very fortunate and blessed man. I don't know what else that a man could ask for. I don't know what else I could reach for. I just don't know. Maybe if I sit on the couch and my wife feeds me grapes, that might be the next thing on the bucket list. Maybe if I sat on the couch and my wife could feed me some grapes while I watch a movie, that might be the final thing I could reach for on my bucket list.
Q. Is there anything that you probably thought about, hey, I'd like to give that a try, that nobody even thinks about? For instance, mine is to drive a railroad train. Is there anything like that that you've ever thought about?
ANTRON BROWN: It's crazy because I always wanted to fly a jet fighter plane, and I actually got to do that a couple years ago with the Thunderbirds in Vegas. They took me up and they actually let me have the stick for a little bit, so I got to do that. You know what, I think one thing on my bucket list I always would like to do is I always wanted to drive an F1 car, just to drive it, not to race in the series, but to drive an F1 car. I think that'll be pretty, pretty awesome. I don't know what else I would want to do. That's pretty much the last thing on my bucket list that I really would love to do.
Q. What have you done to celebrate so far, and do you have any plans for the off season to celebrate your championship?
ANTRON BROWN: The thing about it, I know that when we get back to Indy, first our plans on the off season is to get back to work. We have a brand new car that's getting finished up. We have an enclosed cockpit that we're bringing out, and we're going to be like Tony's car. So we've got that in the rack to get done, and then we've got to rebuild the car that we just burned up, of course, and put a new front half on that, also, the guys do. And then when we get back I think December 1st in Brownsburg, we're going to be in the parade, and we're actually going to have a float and we're going to put our Top Fuel dragster on the float and participate in the parade downtown. And then besides that it's just going to be enjoying staying home and trying to get back in the gym and hit it hard and be at the racetrack helping the boys out, and then actually going to spend Christmas at home, not going nowhere, and enjoy just being settled at home. I think that's going to be the most enjoyable thing is going to be that week, and then after that we're back into it because the second week in January we'll be down in West Palm testing, back hitting it hard, and then we'll have a week break when we come back from that and then we'll be at Pomona again. It's going to be a short lived off season so I want to try to take it as slow as possible just to try to let this NHRA championship sink in.
THE MODERATOR: We want to thank you Antron for calling in today, our 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel world champion. Best of luck to you during the off season. Hope you get a lot of rest, and we'll look forward to seeing you back out there next year with the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
ANTRON BROWN: Thank you so much. I can't wait to go out there for that Mello Yello drag racing deal so we can go on yellow, baby. I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun. Thank you so much for all your questions, and thank you again for a great year and for what you guys and girls do for us out there.
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