That’s why I told Compton it had been a good day for his sport – and his business. NHRA saw an opportunity to make something happen and ran with it. Drag racing made some new friends. Congratulations and well-done to Jerry Archambeault, Anthony Vestal, and the NHRA staff, plus Dave Densmore and Elon Werner at JFR.

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I asked Force privately how he’s funding Mike Neff’s Mustang since Old Spice has departed to focus resources on Tony Stewart.

“I’ve got money from Ford and all the sponsors pay into each team,” he explained. “I’m going to have to pay part of it, and it’s going to hurt. My endorsements are $3-4 million a year. Now that money’s going to go into the (Neff) car.”

Despite the economy, John said he didn’t lay off any crew.

“I’m not going to do that. I went in to my people and said, ‘You have an option. We can cut a team, or we can talk about no raises, or we can talk about cuts in wages. How bad do you want to save the team? They all voted, 70 people, don’t lose the fourth team. Those are their friends. They said, ‘We’ll take a cut in wages.’

“Well, I’m not going to give them a cut. What I’m going to do is continue my technology and safety but I’m going to quit building. My real estate company makes a lot of money. I’m selling a lot of property. People don’t even know I’m in that business. It sells and buys continually. This year we stopped.

“My endorsements, I’ve had $5 million years. Last year I think I was just short of $4 million. My endorsements will pay for that other car.”

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I was among a cluster of journalists gathered around Force when he explained why he backs Compton, NHRA’s president.

“A lot of people don’t go with Compton on a lot of decisions, but they don’t see the whole picture,” said Force. “I ain’t saying anybody’s perfect. I think the man does a helluva job. I’m going to follow him. The other night, we talked to two in the morning. He landed in Chicago and we got on the phone for 2 ½ hours.

“If you don’t follow your president, well then, all you’re doing is screwing up anything that could be good. He’s the guy that runs it and I’m going to support him, because he listens to me, to (Kenny) Bernstein, to the PRO organization. But he likes to read because he’s an educated college man. He wants to see documentation.

“We have guys who argue things that have no education. I don’t have an education. It don’t mean if you don’t, you’re not smart. He understands documentation. I bring him papers from Ford and say, ‘Read this.’ And he sits down with his generals and they read it and they understand why it makes sense.

“NHRA wants the best for everybody. They want to make a good living and grow and they want to keep us alive because, without us, they don’t have a sport.”