U.S. Army NHRA Racing Toyota NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas Friday Qualifying Report
Las Vegas – The U.S. Army driver trio of Antron Brown, Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Leah Pritchett are fourth, 
fifth and sixth on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s Toyota NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) had cylinder issues during both his runs today, but he still laid down an effort of 3.772 seconds at 330.15 mph on the second one. The first weighed in at 4.168 seconds at 206.86 mph that was ninth-best for the opening session.
“Today was so much like last race – the first run we had some issues, the second run we had to slow the car down,” said Schumacher, who’s won a record eight Las Vegas event titles and has earned a record 10 No. 1 qualifying spots. “It was on a good run, but it was just slow early. It put three cylinders out and it still ran 330 (mph). Tomorrow, we’ll have good conditions, so we expect to go out there and run faster. I honestly don’t think anybody was trying to run a 69 (3.69 seconds), including them (Clay Millican and his team). But it is what it is and we’ll see if we can go out and do that, if the conditions are willing.”
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR laid down a pair of identical runs of 3.766 seconds, the first at a speed of 324.28 mph and the second at 322.04 mph. His opening run was best for the session.
“We were No. 1 for Q1 and, in Q2, we tried to step it up a bit in the middle (of the run) but the track got a little bit better,” said Brown, who scored his lone Las Vegas event title in 2013. “The main thing is we made to, back-to-back, identical runs. So, tomorrow, we’ll get back and fix another little issue we had with one of our cylinders and we’ll be able to tune the engine up a little bit more. So we’ll got up there with some more power and we’ll be able to give it more clutch application and we’ll be running before Funny Car, which will give us a good chance to step up and try and go into one of the top three spots, for sure. That’s the game plan. If the weather goes right for Q4, and if we can get down the track in Q3 between a 71 and a 73, then we can go for that No. 1 spot in Q4. Tomorrow will be good.”
Pritchett and her Pennzoil/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR also laid down a pair of consistent runs, starting with an effort of 3.783 seconds at 317.12 mph that was third-best for the opening sessions, and the second a slightly better run of 3.781 seconds at 319.52 mph.
“It was a productive day,” said Pritchett, who introduced a stunning chrome paint scheme here this weekend. “We were trying to rotate the earth, actually. We just need to try and finish the job all the way to the finish line. We’ve got some good incremental numbers and keeping all eight (cylinders) lit all the way to the finish line is key. Today, we just had some cylinder issues. Overall, after being sixth on the first day, what I like about this event is that tomorrow is going to be the icing on the cake. Today we worked on the building blocks and, tomorrow, we running at the same time of day both sessions. I believe tomorrow is definitely going to dictate where we’re going to qualifying rather than the traditional Friday night session at most other events. For us, we revealed our chrome chariot and it is eye-catching and we’re just working our behinds off trying to find the performance to match how great the car looks. I feel really good about us coming in strong and qualifying well and turning on win lights on Sunday.”
The final two qualifying sessions are set for 3:30 and 5:45 p.m. EDT Saturday with FS1 providing live television coverage beginning at 5. Sunday’s elimination rounds are set for 2 p.m. with FS1’s delayed broadcast set for 7 p.m.
