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Countdown Heats Up at Dodge NHRA Nationals U.S. Army Tandem’s Winning Streak Snapped at Maple Grove

For the past seven years, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has contested one of its six playoff events in the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania at Maple Grove Speedway near Reading. Entering the weekend, U.S. Army Racing teammates Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown between them had earned three consecutive Dodge NHRA Nationals event wins and were looking to continue that streak Sunday in unseasonably warm conditions. Both came up short versus eventual Top Fuel winner Brittany Force, Schumacher lost to her in the second round, while Brown hazed his tires early in semifinal, to end the winning streak.

Schumacher, a five-time Maple Grove winner, resumed his run for a ninth Top Fuel world championship and liked his chances with the warmer temperatures. The all-time winningest driver in Top Fuel and his U.S. Army Racing team posted four solid runs in hot conditions last weekend in Charlotte and continued that Friday and Saturday at Maple Grove during qualifying. Schumacher began eliminations in the fifth position and was scheduled to take on Scott Palmer in the first round. Palmer had problems firing his Dragster at the starting line and Schumacher posted a lap of 3.754 seconds at 327.98 mph to advance. In the second round, Schumacher was quicker on the tree in the right lane to gain an early advantage on Force, but his lap of 3.873 seconds at 311.49 wasn’t fast enough to overtake Force, who put up a lap of 3.743 seconds at 330.47 mph. It was the 14th career meeting between the two with Force winning for the sixth time.


“First and foremost, we have a really good U.S. Army car,” said Schumacher, who ranks fifth in the Countdown standings trailing leader Steve Torrence by 85 markers. “And, unfortunately we’ve just had something happen at the wrong time in qualifying and it’s put us in positions on Sunday where we are facing cars in the second round that we should be racing in the semifinal or final. In Charlotte, Doug Kalitta narrowly beat us in the second round and went on to win the event. Today, we lost to Brittany Force in the second round and she went on to win. If we can qualify inside the top three, our chances of winning increase. Losing in the second round these first Countdown races is frustrating for everyone on this team, but if you look back over history the past couple of decades more often than not, the U.S. Army team has been right there until the end of the title hunt. We are two races into this deal and you hear people talking about a couple of drivers that are going to fight it out for the championship. I’m okay that we aren’t one of those names right now. We need to win a race or two to be in that discussion. Sure, we would have preferred a little different outcome both in Charlotte and here in Reading this weekend, but they still award the championship to the team with the most points over the course of six race weekends, not two. We’ve got a little tougher climb than most, but I’m surrounded by some incredibly smart people on the U.S. Army team led by (crew chief) Mike Green and we’ll show up in St. Louis on Friday ready to get after it.”

Brown was looking to continue his two-race Maple Grove winning streak and entered Sunday as the eighth qualifier. The three-time Top Fuel world champion raced the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR past Richie Crampton in the first round with his lap of 3.758 seconds at 290.94 mph to earn his ninth straight round win at the track. He followed that up by ousting No. 1 qualifier Clay Millican with a run of 3.778 seconds at 311.49 mph to advance to his fourth semifinal in the last five events at Maple Grove. His bid to move on to a third consecutive final at the facility went up in smoke quickly as his Dragster lost traction as soon as he hit the accelerator and Force scored the victory.

“It’s a little frustrating, but we have to look at where we started from,” Brown said. “We dug ourselves out of a hole this weekend by qualifying eighth. We ran good today, but had some blower belt issues where the belts were breaking on us. We should have run a 3.71 in the first round and then we ran a 3.77 in the second round and should have run a 3.75 in the semifinal. Our car was right there and we kept the car where it needed to be, but it got a little aggressive on us in the race with Brittany. We could have run anything and won that, because she ended up having a problem herself. That’s the disappointing part. But we did win two rounds today and we have three rounds in the Countdown. This isn’t where we want to be, but we are going to go into St. Louis with our main focus on qualifying good and hit it hard. Everyone’s still right there in front of us. We just have to work hard right now. It’s going to be a tough one to pull out. I like our chances with the way our team competes. We should have been in the final here and competing for a win. We’ll take our bumps and bruises right now and move forward.”

Force defeated Torrence in the final to score the victory. It was her third Reading final in the previous four years. She lost to Schumacher in 2014, when “The Sarge” scored his most recent Countdown win, and Brown last season. With the win, Force moved into third in the Countdown standings one spot ahead of Brown, who trails Torrence by 51 points.

With the two of six NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship events complete, the top-10 drivers in the Top Fuel standings are:

1.Steve Torrence (2,259 points)
2.Doug Kalitta (2,237 points, -22)
3. Brittany Force (2,236 points, -43)
4. Antron Brown (2,208 points, -51)
5. Tony Schumacher (2,174 Points, -85)
6. Clay Millican (2,171 points, -88)
7. Leah Pritchett (2,162 points, -97)
8. Terry McMillen (2,083 points, -176)
9. Scott Palmer (2,074 points, -185)
10. Shawn Langdon (2,060 points, -199)

The 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship resumes with the 6th annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. FS1 will broadcast elimination rounds Sunday, September Oct. 1, live staring at 2 p.m. EDT.

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