Force Team to sit out 2020

I don't know why it took them so long to announce this but...

https://www.nhra.com/news/2020/john-force-racing-issues-statement

“When I first got into racing, I always had a love for cars, I loved the comradery of the team, I loved the competition. As I evolved, I realized what it took to become a winner. It took money and that’s when I started chasing corporate America. I had no personal wealth, I had to find sponsors to get me the crew chiefs I needed to win,” said Force, owner and CEO of John Force Racing. “As the winning happened, I found a new love. The fans. The fans are what kept me motivated and made me never ever think anything would come to an end. Even in the hardest of times, I call them crossroads, I got through it with the help of the fans and my sponsors. I went from a one car team to a multi-car team, to having machine shops, chassis shops and paint shops and the technology to win.

“Suddenly, the virus hit, and it changed the world. Robert Hight, President of the company, and I got back from Gainesville and we started working on a plan, we had to reset John Force Racing. Everyone was having to adapt. We had to make cuts everywhere. We ran numbers over and over. In our contracts with sponsors we have guarantees. They get social media, certain number of races, certain number of race days, activation at races and other commitments. No matter how I looked at it I couldn’t deliver on those commitments. It just wasn’t fair to them,” continued Force. “The impact of not being able to deliver on these commitments makes sitting out the rest of the 2020 season the right thing to do. No matter how I looked at it, no matter how much I personally invested, I couldn’t make it.

“At that point, I made the decision to ‘live to fight another day.’ We can’t fight now, we can’t race right now, but with what I have, with the help of my sponsors and my own personal money, I can maintain. I have to protect my family, my employees, my teams and my sponsors. What I built was a team that could win. All I have to do is get to next year. It will look different, but I have all my department leads and my sponsors, Auto Club, Chevrolet, PEAK, Monster, Frank Tiegs owner of Flav-R-Pac and Montana Brand, Cornwell Tools, Parker Store, Baldwin Filters, they’re all supportive,” said Force.

“What I’m saying is that I’m going to prepare to come back next year stronger than ever. Watching all the people that went racing, NHRA, the track, Safety Safari, TV, the media, all the winners, all the teams, thank you for racing and keeping the sport alive. I am really heartbroken I’m not out there. If I had stayed and raced, I couldn’t come back. If I step back now, I can. I want to be with all of you again and I want to be competitive. We will continue to support all our sponsors, doing their promotions as planned and stay relevant on social media for the fans; we are going to continue to build race cars, as we always have, build engines, mount bodies, parts and do everything we can because we are open for business in Indy and California,” concluded Force.

Wow. That's just bizarre.
Somehow DSR and the smaller teams & other sponsors are showing up, what the heck is up with JFR ?

Force has a huge organization and shops as well as crew and cars transport trucks and motorhomes. His costs are tremendous compared to the smaller teams.

I wish him nothing but the best!

Yeah. I know he gets a bit wordy when interviewed, but even at his age, he has twice the energy and passion of any of his competitors. He can't do this forever, and (IMO) it'll be a sad, sad day when he passes the torch.

His personal values and depth of his resources differ?

OBVIOUSLY a very successful racer and a sharp businessman ... but ...

When most every other nitro team is out there ...THEIR DECISION is questionable????

I think some of the other team owners may be supporting their operations with their own money. I understand Force is not able/willing to do that. I wouldn't do it either.

I didn't even know he wasn't running Fords. Got fed up with eh NHRA years ago.

Yes, Force's overhead is huge.
The Don (DSR) is on record that he doesn't use his own wallet to fund his teams - witness Tony's absence for example.
Force is likely to have the same philosophy, he's a savvy guy.
Seems fairly amazing all of the JFR sponsors are OK with the cars sitting out the year.
Seems either all that sponsorship funding is contingent on a full schedule, meaning expenses would have exceeded funding...
Or he's the best salesman ever, and is funded enough to park for a year, and retain all those sponsors for next season.

The rumor I read a couple months ago was that sponsors were withdrawing money because of no racing and appearances that couldn't be made.

Its called law suits if one person comes down with it they point fingers and sue because he didn't keep them safe!!!!

imagine if he or team contracted it and got out that the sponsors pushed them to race. bet he threw that at sponsors or sponsors threw that at them that the sponsors or his racing would get a black eye potentially so best to park

The last event I went to at Heartland Park he had 10 trucks there. 2 per team, 4 teams, a hospitality truck and a merchandise truck.

I admire Force and he has done a lot for the sport but it will be nice to open National Dragster and not find yet another article on Force or his team ,theres more to racing than John Force. I don't understand if theres racing going on at least that is some exposure for him and his sponsors why they wouldn't be participating.

His explanation still seems odd. Why don't all the other teams have this same issue. They all don't have deep bottomless pockets either.

I would agree.

As mentioned, Schumacher refuses to race out of his own pocket even for his son.

I think it could have something to do with John being in his seventies. No telling what other heath issues he might have after all the fires and clutch dust he has been around over the years.

However even without any other health issues he is in a high risk COVID group.

However no reason to sideline the younger guns on his team.

It probably has to do with the large difference in size of the operation. He has a lot more equipment to deal with then most teams.

JFRs operation is that much HUGEer than DSR and Kalittas ??!!

Another factor that might be true is that by sitting out 2020 he can enter 2021 in better financial shape than if he limped through 2020 with the rest.

That always cracks me up " won't race out of their own pocket "…..I understand they have bigger expenses and are " Pros " But most of us race out of our own pocket!

To force this a business and from that standpoint I don't blame him, he has more responsibility than just racing. I'm not a fan of the "Force circus" but would hate to see them completely leave drag racing.

Difference between pro and amateur.