Drag Illustrated Issue 113, September 2016 | Page 91
PHOTOS: NATE VAN WAGNEN
BRIAN CORRADI
in Strongsville, Ohio. Over the course of about
an hour he answers a call for a takeout order,
prepares an order of cherrywood barbecue wings,
confirms a last-minute decision with a contractor,
and looks over price increases on the blocks of
mozzarella cheese that his stores buy by the thousands. Corradi will switch back to full-time racing
mode the next day when he heads to Cleveland
Hopkins International Airport to catch a flight to
Minneapolis for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Running five pizza shops might seem like more
of a real job than tuning a race car, but Corradi
is quick to assert that his main responsibility is
tuning Brown’s Matco Tools dragster, even if he
isn’t at the massive DSR shop every week.
“Racing got me here. So I think about racing a
lot, but pizza is a back seat to that. My job takes
precedence. If I have to be at the shop in Brownsburg, (IN), I’ll be there. Right now, I have such a
good team of Brad (Mason, assistant crew chief )
and Mark (Oswald) and all the guys on the team.
They handle everything. This week they replaced
the front half and back half on the car. It’s done.
I didn’t have to worry about it. I go to the race, I
tune the car, I concentrate on how to make the
car as fast as I possibly can and win rounds. That’s
it. And I think there’s a lot to be said about that,
not having to worry about all the other aspects.”
Corradi found himself at the helm of the Matco
Tools Top Fuel team in 2009 after a decade in
the nitro ranks beginning as a crew member for
fellow Ohioan and former high school classmate
Dean Skuza. Serving as an apprentice to Lance
Larsen, Corradi worked his way to the tuner position in 2003 before Skuza ultimately sold the
Funny Car operation. He tuned Frank Pedregon
to a couple late-season final rounds in 2005, then
entered a whirlwind period of his career that led
to his current position. Don Schumacher hired
Corradi to tune the Matco Tools Funny Car in
2006, then switched him over to a fuel flopper
driven by Mike Ashley, who then formed his own
“If there’s something
wrong with that car—
it ain’t performing
right—I’m sick. I get
a stomachache and
I don’t feel right.”
D r a g Il l u s t r a t e d . c o m
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Dr ag Illustr ated
team with Oswald as the co-crew chief. The trio
won three races together.
After tuning Melanie Troxel to her first win in
the Roger Burgess-owned Pro Care Rx Funny Car,
Corradi began his Top Fuel tuning career when
Ashley purchased David Powers’ Matco Tools
dragster team with former Pro Stock Motorcycle star Antron Brown behind the wheel. The
group was immediately successful, but their true
potential was unleashed when Schumacher took
over ownership of the team. The nitro kingpin
realized the powerful combination of Brown, Oswald and Corradi, and has kept the trio together
since they joined the DSR fold near the end of
the 2009 season.
“I needed a three-year contract when I first
came back with Don. I needed stability. I don’t
have a contract with Don anymore; we go year to
year. I’ve proven myself in his eyes, I think. We’re
here to win and he doesn’t worry about us. He’ll
tell you that and I’ve heard that before. The one
team you don’t worry about is ours. If we don’t
have any luck in qualifying, he’s like, “It doesn’t
matter; they’ll probably win the race tomorrow.”
That’s his thought with us. That’s what we want.
That makes us perform better as a team. Having
the confidence of the owner, having the confidence of the crew chief makes my guys better,