U.S. Army NHRA Racing 51st Annual Auto Club NHRA Finals Final Qualifying Report
Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher laid down a pair of consistent runs Saturday while his fellow U.S. Army Top Fuel 
driver and Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammate Antron Brown vaulted from No. 4 to the top spot in final qualifying for Sunday’s elimination rounds of the 51st annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.
Schumacher, who a year ago this weekend clinched his record eighth career Top Fuel world title in the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, could not improve upon his best run of 3.745 seconds at 324.59 mph today but did make it down the track in 3.778 seconds at 326.71 mph and 3.750 seconds at 326.63 mph in today’s third- and fourth-round qualifying sessions.
“The Sarge” ended up seventh on the elimination ladder based on his best effort Friday and will face No. 10 qualifier Doug Kalitta in Sunday’s first round of eliminations.
“Well, the good news is that we had four consistent runs these last two days, and when that happens on Friday and Saturday, that usually bodes well for Sunday,” said Schumacher, who’s vying for his seventh career Pomona event title to close out the 2015 season. “The down side today is that we’re running 75s (3.75 seconds) and there are a handful of other people out there throwing down 72s and 73s. That makes it a little frustrating because we’ve got such a good car but it’s just not doing all the things we want and need for it to do right now. But hey, this U.S. Army team has the best nine guys in the business on the job and we’re just going to cowboy up tomorrow and make something happen. It’s Sunday and it’s Pomona and that’s always been a very special combination, more often than not, when it comes to this U.S. Army team.”
Brown, who clinched his second career Top Fuel world title two weekends ago at Las Vegas, was the fourth-best qualifier Friday with a run of 3.758 seconds at 324.90 mph. He opened today with a better run of 3.755 seconds at 322.81 mph that was best for the weekend’s third qualifying session but still left him fourth in the overall order. Brown then laid down an impressive run of 3.721 seconds at 326.71 mph that vaulted him all the way to No. 1.
“We’re at the point with our Matco Tools/U.S. Army team that we come and we focus on every race and we treat them all the same,” said Brown, whose No. 1 qualifying effort was his seventh of the season and the 44th of his career and his third at Pomona. “We just want to go out there and compete. And the thing that does is that it usually puts you in a good position to do good things when then chips get down and the competition gets rough and it’s tough. I mean, I ran a 75 with a five (3.755 seconds) and I was bumped down to the bottom half of the field before our last run – that’s just incredible – and the No. 1 qualifier is a 72 (3.72 seconds). So we all agreed that we needed to go for it. We went up there actually thinking we were going to run better than a 72 but the track was so good that it took it all out of the racecar. Tomorrow’s going to be even better, so we just need to make sure we bring enough power and enough clutch and everything else we will need to get into the 60s.”
Brown will face No. 16 qualifier Cory McLenathan in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.
ESPN2’s two-hour qualifying show is set for delayed broadcast twice – at 2:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST Sunday. Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. Sunday with ESPN2 providing three hours of delayed coverage beginning at 9 p.m.
