U.S. Army Duo Digging In for Playoff Run

Schumacher, Brown Square Off for Fifth Time This Season in Brainerd Semifinal

The U.S. Army Top Fuel driver duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown solidified their positions for this year’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship playoffs during this weekend’s 35th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.

The powerhouse duo squared off in Sunday’s Top Fuel semifinals with Brown gaining the upper hand for the first time in their last four meetings. And the reigning and two-time world champion nearly scored his second event title on consecutive days, a feat achieved just once in NHRA history when Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) did it en route to the 2014 Top Fuel world championship.

Schumacher, this weekend’s Friday provisional No. 1 qualifier with his second career sub-3.7-second run, ended up the No. 4 qualifier and was machine-like in beating first-round opponent Scott Palmer today with a run of 3.748 seconds at 316.67 mph, then first-round upset winner Terry McMillen in the second round with a run of 3.753 seconds at 322.34 mph.

That set up the semifinal matchup against Brown, who Schumacher beat the last three times they faced this season, including the final round at the Mile-High NHRA Nationals outside Denver last month. But Brown, who last beat Schumacher in the semifinals at the New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire en route to his second event title of the season, laid down a solid run of 3.717 seconds at 324.36 mph to beat Schumacher’s 3.754 seconds at 326.26 mph to reach his eighth Top Fuel final in the season’s first 17 events.

Despite the semifinal loss, Schumacher and the U.S. Army team all but clinched a top-five position when the driver points are reset to start this year’s Countdown next month at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Regardless of the outcome here this weekend, we leave her knowing the U.S. Army car is a great racecar – a great racecar,” said Schumacher, who was vying for his fourth career Brainerd event title. “We just got outrun there in that semi. And the thing about it is, even though we have a great racecar, there are a lot of other great racecars out there right now, so what it now comes down to is to keep from getting outrun by the one or two cars that got us in qualifying this week that put us in a tough spot in the brackets come semifinal time. So, we’ll get it. After this weekend, as angry as I might be about what happened here, I’m comfortable with what we’re doing heading to Indy and into the Countdown. We’re really stepping it up. I’m 10 times more comfortable than I was eight races ago. Eight races ago, I wanted a new car, and now I think we have a great car. You know, people tell me that the path we’ve taken this season is the ultimate exercise in patience. People might think it’s tough, but it’s my strength. I get the adversity, I understand it. I’ve lived through this process enough times where it’s worked out well by being patient, that it’s helped me this year in a big way. This has the potential to have a really happy ending. We just need to go out and make it happen.”

Before the Top Fuel field was even set for Sunday’s elimination rounds, Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR had already enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime turn of events Saturday. First, he completed his march to this year’s NHRA Northwest Nationals event title during Saturday’s third round of weekend qualifying here, beating Steve Torrence in a Top Fuel final matchup that was rained out two weeks ago at Pacific Raceway in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington. Then, in the final round of Brainerd qualifying, Brown made a quantum leap from No. 8 to No. 1 in the qualifying order with a career-best run of 3.679 seconds at 328.30 mph.

He opened Sunday with a first-round victory over Chris Karamesines with a run of 3.730 seconds at 325.06 mph, then beat second-round opponent Clay Millican with a run of 3.735 seconds at 315.19 mph to set up his semifinal meeting with Schumacher. Brown’s final-round meeting with Brittany Force turned into a tire-smoking pedalfest with Force limping to the finish line in 4.169 seconds at 180.21 mph to while Brown crossed the line in 6.566 seconds at 103.47 mph. A rare broken part turned out to be the culprit for Brown.

“It was a great weekend for our Matco Tools/U.S. Army team,” said Brown, who with this weekend’s victory and runner-up finish widened his lead over second-place Doug Kalitta to 167 points with one event to go in the regular season. “That’s the way things go. We won one on Saturday and we made it to the final today. It was still an awesome, incredible weekend for us. I’m just so proud of Brian (Corradi, co-crew chief), Mark (Oswald, co-crew chief), Brad (Mason, assistant crew chief) and all of our guys. They’ve done a phenomenal job this weekend and we have an incredible team. In the final, they were going for it and they tore their car up. We had a part that never fails, fail. Our clutch locked up about 40 feet out. It started off well, .40 (of a second) to a .80 (of a second reaction time), so we had an advantage. When you make it to the final round, you always want to win, but we will take this momentum back to Indy. There’s the Traxxas all-star race that we’re in, there’s the U.S. Nationals, the biggest race heading into the Countdown. Our game plan is to go in there with our heads up and try to bring home both wins there. We have the team, the car that is very capable and competitive, and I’m just excited.”