U.S. Army NHRA Racing 28th O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals Friday Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army Top Fuel driver duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown stand second and 
eighth, respectively, following the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s 28th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas.
The U.S. Army tandem arrived in Houston holding the top two positions in the championship standings through five events and both were looking to bounce back quickly from their results in Las Vegas two weeks ago. Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), maintained his consistency in qualifying by posting a pair of solid runs. The eight-time world champion opened the day with a pass of 3.826 seconds at 322.88 mph and came back Friday night with a spectacular lap of 3.754 seconds at 326.24 mph.
“This U.S. Army car is running extremely well,” said Schumacher, the 2005 and 2009 Houston winner. “Both runs were excellent and we went right down the track. More importantly with the weather being so unpredictable for tomorrow, we needed to do that. We don’t put a lot of emphasis on being number one (in qualifying), but instead just focus on having a good racecar. And that’s what we’ve got. This U.S. Army team led by (crew chief) Mike Green and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) keeps putting an incredible machine under me no matter what the conditions are. There’s a good chance it’s going to be hot and sticky Sunday, nothing like we had tonight. You have to have a team that is versatile and can adapt. That’s what makes the difference in winning and losing. I wouldn’t want to be surrounded by any other group of guys than the ones I have.”
Brown, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, began his quest of winning a third O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals with a pass of 4.536 seconds at 175.57 mph. His machine lost traction three-quarters of the way down the racing surface in the first run and lost a pair of cylinders at nearly the same place on the track in second session, but still posted a pass of 3.783 seconds at 325.37 mph to land in the top half of the ladder heading into Saturday’s final qualifying sessions.
“We are in the show and in the top half of field right now which is half the battle,” admitted Brown, the defending SpringNationals winner. “We’ll go to work tonight, come back tomorrow and keep picking at it. After looking at the run with (co-crew chiefs) Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald), we’re confident we had a car that could have run a 3.77 or better and that would have moved us up a little higher. A lot depends on the weather tomorrow as well. It might be hot. We might get some rain. We’ll see what we can do. No matter what, it’s going to take a total team effort and our mantra has been and will continue to be getting better each and every time we go down the track. Improve everything we can in order to keep getting better and better.”
Top Fuel qualifying continues Saturday with third- and fourth-round sessions set for 2 and 5 p.m. EDT. ESPN2’s delayed qualifying show is scheduled to be broadcast at 5 p.m. Elimination rounds begin at 11 a.m. Sunday with ESPN2’s live coverage set to begin at 2 p.m.
