Before the 2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season got underway in February, Scotty Cannon, the brash and flamboyant driver of the Oakley Funny Car, announced he was moving back to the drag racing class in which he had won six championships -- Pro Modified. But after meeting with his two collaborating team owners, Don Schumacher and Jim Jannard, Cannon reconsidered and returned to the nitro wars with renewed enthusiasm.

Now, he's working twice as hard to reach the kind of success which has eluded him since debuting in the F/C class in 1999. He's now the driver and crew chief of his 8000 horsepower machine -- a workload that most drivers in the category are worlds away from. Phil Shuler, an alumnus of John Force's Team Castrol, had assumed the top tuning position to begin the year but has made tentative plans to leave the Cannon operation as early as Monday.

"This isn't exactly like being a typical crew chief," Cannon said during qualifying on Saturday at the 16th Fram-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

"Phil and I have been working together on our combination all year and it's really more of a team setup than just one person in charge. I make the final tuneup calls as a rule and we discuss everything that leads up to that. He's a real good friend and we're still talking about him staying with us and I hope he stays forever. In the meantime, we're still out here to race and do the best job we know how to do."

Cannon's 2003 season has been a disappointment so far, with only three round wins and 11 first-round losses on the books. He's 14th in the POWERade points and to add insult to injury, will face his Oakley teammate, Gary Scelzi, in Sunday's opening round of eliminations.

	Cannon

"If I had the choice, I'd really like to just worry about the driving," Cannon said. "If Phil leaves the team, it's not like there's a lot of qualified tuners available who can just come in and do the job. But I've tuned before and if I need to tune again, I'll get through it."

With Cannon attempting to rally in the year's final nine events, the recent uproar caused by the Whit Bazemore-Gary Scelzi lane choice controversy last week in Seattle has been a potential distraction to the team. In fact, Schumacher Racing has been the epicenter of a string of major developments over the past several weeks as Wes Cerny was replaced by Alan Johnson as crew chief of Tony Schumacher's Top Fuel dragster, Pro Stock Bike teammates Angelle Savoie and Antron Brown joined the Schumacher/U.S. Army racing effort, and Bazemore narrowly avoided disaster in Indianapolis during testing last month when his throttle stuck -- followed by Friday night's near calamity when his left rear tire came apart during a 4.84/290 mph qualifying pass heavily damaging his Dodge Stratus bodywork.

"It's racing," said Cannon. "You learn to deal with it or you don't. I've been around a long time and I think I have."

Bill Stephens covers the NHRA for ESPN and ESPN.com.