Laughs generally come easy for dan scheid. That's what Dale Smith will tell you. Owner of one of the country's fastest diesel trucks, Smith values his friendship with Dan Scheid-owner of Scheid Diesel Service, one of the nation's preeminent builders of competitive diesel engines-in part because of those easy laughs.
Of course, there's also the fact that Scheid's engines make Smith's trucks go fast. Very fast. And there's his generosity. And the loyalty. there's also Scheid's reputation, which has grown dramatically during the last half decade with the simultaneous ascension of diesel competition and his engines' success.
But there are those laughs, too.
Smith describes his friend Dan as laid back, quick with a joke, and easygoing, with one exception: "When it comes to his products, this guy takes offense," Smith recalled recently. "He's going to see that he's got the best product. If something breaks, he takes it personally. It bothers him. He doesn't find anything funny if he has a part fail. It doesn't matter how minor it is."
THE MAN BEHIND THE NAME the story of Scheid Diesel is very much the story of Dan Scheid, who is not only the owner of Scheid Diesel, but the man who may be as responsible as any engine-builder for the recent rapid ascension of diesel engines and competition.
Since the early 1970s, Dan Scheid has overseen the development of Scheid Diesel from an idea and a dream to a three-shop operation that serves as a starting point for many of the nation's fastest and most powerful diesel-powered sled pullers and drag racers. As wary of self-praise as he is serious about diesel innovation, Scheid offers little in the way of broad-brush quotes describing the reasons for his success.