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Almost a Fairy Tale Ending for U.S. Army Era

Schumacher Comes Up Just Short in Final-Round Showdown at Pomona;  Pritchett, Brown Help Bring 18 Full Seasons of Army Racing to a Close

Pomona, CA – It was almost a miracle finish for the U.S. Army’s 18 full seasons in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Sunday when Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher came up just short in a final-round showdown with newly crowned Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence to close this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.

The Army’s partnership with Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) started with a victory at the 2000 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and, on Veterans Day 2018, it came just half of a car length within closing on a winning note.

After racing past Scott Palmer, Bill Litton and Clay Millican in today’s opening three elimination rounds, Schumacher had a chance to not only finish the season and the Army era with an event title, but bring an end to Torrence’s unblemished record through this season’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Torrence had swept the first five playoff events, clinching his first career world title at the penultimate event two weekends ago in Las Vegas, and had added another three round wins today to make it a record 23 consecutive round wins in playoff competition. The Texan kept his record perfect with a stellar .029-of-a-second reaction time off the starting line to Schumacher’s solid .053 of a second, and he beat the eight-time-champion Schumacher to the finish line despite The Sarge’s better run of 3.700 seconds at 331.61 mph to Torrence’s 3.702 seconds at 330.07 mph.

“It was a fantastic race,” said Schumacher, who leapfrogged Millican in the final standings to take the No. 2 spot behind Torrence for the season. “Honestly, a .053 (of a second) light, a 70 (3.70-second) run wins holeshot races. For someone who had a .029, he either rolled it in or took a solid guess. He did a great job. Just such a big round for both of us – it was miraculous. We both ran 330 (mph). The winner of that round was the fans. It was close, just outstanding. I’ve been on both sides of those many, many times, and I plan on being on both sides of them many, many more. Obviously, we won the first race the Army was ever here with us. We won 80 along the way. We wanted to win this one today for them. We gave it everything we had and came up a few inches short. At the end of the day, once you’re part of the Army life that we’ve been blessed to be a part of, you’re always a part of it. People will always say ‘Sarge,’ there won’t be any new nicknames. It’s just what it is. We’ve done a great job for each other. We’ve done miraculous things. We did everything we set out to do together 19 years ago. It’s been a privilege and an honor to represent the greatest men and women in the world.”

Fellow U.S. Army driver and three-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR had a frustrating end to a frustrating season with their second-round defeat at the hands of defending champion Brittany Force. His tire-smoking run of 4.159 seconds at 200.62 mph was no match for Force’s 3.687 seconds at 333.00 mph. That came after Brown’s opening-round win in a close race against Doug Kalitta. Brown’s run of 3.720 seconds at 331.12 mph bested Kalitta’s 3.727 seconds at 325.85 mph to send him to the second round.

“We actually hurt the engine in E2 when we were out front, and that’s the bummer about it,” said Brown, who finished sixth in the final point standings. “We’d just been having that type of year where we’d been giving it all we’ve got and just coming up a little short with little mishaps happening. Our main focus is that we learned a lot this year and next year we just need to do it better. We know qualifying is key, getting into those top-three spots, and we’re going to work on that in the offseason. We’re just going to make our whole program better as a group and get ready for 2019. I know one thing, and that is we like racing for championships and we want to make sure we come into this last race with a shot to win the championship. That’s going to be our focus all year, to run better, run stronger. If you win rounds, you win races.”

Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR were the class of the field by a hefty margin this weekend, laying down breathtaking qualifying runs both Friday and Saturday to lock down the No. 1 spot for the fourth time this season. But disaster struck when a mechanical issue caused her to lose control of her 11,000-horsepower racecar at halftrack and she had to get out of the gas as No. 16 qualifier Litton pulled away to victory in 3.979 seconds at 309.56 mph.

“Our 2018 was something to be very proud of,” said Pritchett, who finished fourth in the final point standings. “We learned more this year than we did the previous year. Ultimately, we finished better than we did the previous year. We feel really good about the offseason even though we didn’t go rounds here this weekend. We know why and it wasn’t a tune-up failure or driver failure – it was a mechanical failure. That’s not going to stop the momentum for 2019 and that’s not just the words behind it. What we’ve proven to ourselves and the world in the last two-and-a-half races shows that the last four-and-a-half months are coming together. It took that long to get our last two races to be in the ZIP code that we want, which happens to be in a different ZIP code than everybody else when it comes to power. I think we’ve been able to return to what this team has stood for for a long time with big power and big numbers. Finally we have that back and we’re just missing one small variable that we’ll pick up during the offseason. When we take a step back after what happened today, yeah, we had a phenomenal season with nothing to hang our heads about at all. And what’s exciting about it is what happens next. The attitude among everyone on this team is so positive and uplifting and progressive, you can’t help but think we had a great season and we’re going to have an even more incredible one next season because of that attitude.”

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