Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Fuller’s race team stunned by crew chief’s defection

Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Las Vegas resident Rod Fuller on Wednesday lost crew chief Richard Hogan to Don Schumacher Racing, which announced the addition of a second NHRA Top Fuel team.

Whether Fuller is reunited with Hogan at DSR remains to be seen. Reached Wednesday afternoon, Fuller politely declined to confirm or deny whether he was talking to Schumacher about driving the NHRA's newest Top Fuel dragster.

Fuller did say that Hogan's decision to leave the David Powers Motorsports team caught him off guard.

"I was pretty shell-shocked when I heard that news," Fuller said.

In a prepared statement released by David Powers Motorsports, Fuller was quoted as saying he would stick with the team for which he has driven in eight national events this season.

"I'm naturally disappointed that Richard's decided to leave the team because we were obviously working well together," Fuller said in the release. "But I understand how these things go, so (team owner David Powers) and I will just move on."

Fuller and the David Powers Motorsports team have been the surprise story of the 2005 Top Fuel class. Hastily put together at the start of the season and running on a part-time basis, the team has qualified in the top half of the field at five of eight events and advanced to the final of two races. Fuller is 12th in points despite missing four events.

Powers indicated in the team's release that he already had begun talking with crew chiefs to replace Hogan. Among the top tuners available is Lee Beard, who left Don Schumacher Racing earlier this week after tuning Whit Bazemore's Funny Car for the past five seasons. The team is not scheduled to race again until mid-August in Memphis.

Fuller also said Wednesday that Chris Russell, co-crew chief and team manager, had left the team following last weekend's race at Gateway International Raceway. Russell is the brother of the late Darrell Russell, who was killed in a Top Fuel racing accident a year ago at Gateway. Chris Russell and his parents, Burnell and Gwen, had worked with the team since the beginning of the season.

"The Russells all left the team because it was just too hard on them (last) weekend with Darrell and the (Gateway) deal," Fuller said. "I respect that, but there are three (more) members of my team that are gone."

With the addition of a second Top Fuel dragster to team with Tony Schumacher, Don Schumacher Racing now fields nine NHRA pro teams: Three Funny Cars, two Pro Stock cars, two Pro Stock Bikes and the two Top Fuel dragsters.

A spokesperson for Schumacher said the team owner hoped to have a driver for the new dragster named in time for the team to compete July 15-17 in the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver.