U.S. Army NHRA Racing Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk Friday Qualifying Report 

The U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett are second, fifth and ninth on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening round of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 12th Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Friday’s second qualifying session was canceled due to inclement weather.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) carried the momentum of last weekend’s triumph at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway into the event and made a very “comfortable” run. “The Sarge” ran an impressive lap of 3.792 seconds and posted Friday’s top speed at 330.63 mph. The 2007 Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals winner will look to improve his position by one during a pair of qualifying sessions Saturday and earn his first No. 1 qualifier at the track.

“You really can’t ask for more than that,” said Schumacher. “It was a really good run. It was safe. There’s more room in there, but the U.S. Army car was really smooth. There are 19 cars in the field here. And looking at the weather, tonight might have been our only shot. Maybe we get another one tomorrow. We are lucky that we got one run in. The U.S. Army guys will get everything ready to go for us to make another run at it tomorrow. We’re in a good position and that’s the way we wanted to start the weekend.”

Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR laid down a strong run of 3.805 seconds at 325.14 mph and the 2014 Norwalk winner is confident following his team’s performance Friday.

“We’re off to a great start,” said Brown. “There is some added pressure on days like this when the weather is so uncertain. You know you might only have one shot to get down the track. We don’t know what the weather is going to be tomorrow, but if it’s bad we know we are in a good spot. We made a quality lap. We ran a 3.80 and low for the session was 3.77, so if we do get to run tomorrow we can go all out. The other part about tomorrow is getting ready for Sunday. We know the weather is going to be cooler and the track is right. I think the track actually surprised some people with the teeth it had. You had to get after which is hard after we have had so many tracks where you had to be gun shy because of the grip or lack thereof. I’m really happy with today and we’re looking forward to pressing hard tomorrow.”

Pritchett and her FireAde/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, looking to earn her second victory of the season, made a run opposite of Brown and turned a lap of 4.099 seconds at 271.73 mph. She’ll try to make a big jump on the ladder tomorrow and position herself for another run to the semifinals and beyond Sunday.

The final two qualifying sessions are set for 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. FS1 will air live coverage from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Elimination rounds begin at 11 a.m. Sunday with FS1’s delayed three-hour broadcast set for 6:30 p.m.