U.S. Army NHRA Racing Circle K NHRA Winternationals Friday Qualifying Report

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) opened defense of their 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship Friday by laying down a pair of impressive laps in the opening two rounds of qualifying for this weekend’s season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.

Schumacher started the day with a run of 3.818 seconds at 323.35 mph that was fourth-best in the opening session, then closed with a head-turning run of 3.757 seconds at 320.20 mph that was fastest in the Top Fuel ranks until Doug Kalitta followed by stealing the top spot with a stout run of 3.733 seconds at 327.59 mph.

“When you get down to the Countdown (to the Mello Yello Championship), that’s when you’ve really got to go out and you’ve got to win races,” said Schumacher, who upped his record total of career Top Fuel world championships to eight here last November. “In reality, it all starts with the first run of the season. You want to show your strength and you want that (champion’s) No. 1 on the side of the car to portray to the rest of the guys and the fans that you are the champ for a reason. I think (crew chief) Mike Green and Neal Strausbaugh (assistant crew chief) and the rest of the guys really have this Army car thumping. Our aim to start this season is not only to win the championship, as is the case every year, but to instill the feeling that the Army is America’s Team and exists to defend the Nation and uphold the American way of life.”

DSR teammate and fellow U.S. Army driver Antron Brown had a slightly more conservative start to his season, closing the day with a run of 3.803 seconds at 313.73 mph in his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR. It placed him 10th in the qualifying order after his opening-round run of 4.351 seconds 188.52 mph left him 11th.

“Of course, it’s not exactly the start we wanted, but the important thing is we made a solid lap on that second one,” said Brown, the 2012 Top Fuel world champion who finished last season seventh in the standings. “We wanted that second run to be our first run, but we were just a little ginger on that first one. The track was way better than we anticipated. With that being said, we made a solid lap to close the day, so we’re really looking forward to tomorrow. We’re in the show and now we can go play and have some fun and hopefully shake up the field a little bit.”

Top Fuel qualifying continues Saturday with third- and fourth-round sessions set for 4 and 7 p.m. EST. ESPN2’s delayed qualifying broadcast is set for 10 p.m. Saturday. Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. Sunday with ESPN2’s three hours of delayed coverage set for 7:30 p.m.