The National Hot Rod Association has a lot of positive momentum rolling in its favor at present, but the one thing that it’s desperately been in need of is a certifiable on and off-track rivalry. And just one race into the 2017 season, it might have its storyline.

It’s no secret that the NHRA’s nitro ranks are dominated by three primary employers — John Force Racing, Don Schumacher Racing, and Kalitta Motorsports — and with only so many teams and talent to go around and tuning secrets and data being the well-protected property that they are, it’s only a given that hard feelings are going to ensue as personnel shift from one team to another; particularly, the high-profile talent. And that’s precisely what set Force and Schumacher off into a war of words on the starting line at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona over the weekend.

FOX Sports spoke with both of the team principles regarding the situation, and while neither would explicitly state the particulars of their conversation nor the source of their differences, the answer is obvious to anyone who closely follows the sports.

In late 2014, when Force was searching for new primary sponsorship after losing his lucrative partnerships with Castrol and Ford, longtime JFR crew chief Jimmy Prock bolted for Schumachers’ operation, creating some animosity between the two rival mega-teams. There, Prock turned the Funny Car class on its ear by tuning Jack Beckman to unheard-of national record elapsed times in his first season calling the shots, and a second and fifth place finish in the championship standings in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Prock made headlines again, however, during the 2016-17 offseason when Force lured his back to his camp, and that is what has Schumacher so salty, alluding to Force’s “overpaying” of tuning talent (presumably to entice Prock back to JFR) and driving up the cost of nitro racing competitively. Regardless of which party is right and wrong is up to the court of public opinion, but in the end, the drama is a win-win for NHRA drag racing.