U.S. Army Racing Trio Primed for Drag Racing’s Biggest Stage in Indy 

INDIANAPOLIS – A season rarely is defined by one event, but one event can certainly define a driver’s career. In the fast and furious world of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, where nitro methane-burning machines are cranking out more than 11,000 horsepower during four-second battles decided by thousandths of a second, the U.S. Nationals stands alone as the “one” every driver and team wants to win.

And the one driver who has amassed unparalleled success in Indy is U.S. Army Racing’s Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher.

This year’s signature event, the 64th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, will be contested at historic Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis and, beginning Friday, Schumacher and his U.S. Army Racing and Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett will look to continue writing their legacy on drag racing’s biggest stage.

No matter what happens from here on, Schumacher’s illustrious career will be closely tied to the U.S. Nationals. Sure, he’s won eight world championships and come up big in “absolute, have-to moments” at other places, but it’s his accomplishments in Indy that will be difficult for anyone to duplicate. It’s the site of his NHRA debut in 1996, where he remarkably reached the final from the 16th position on the elimination ladder. Four years later, he became a U.S. Nationals winner in his first event carrying the U.S. Army colors to kick off what has been an incredible 18-year partnership.

That win was just the beginning, and at no point could the son of the 1970 U.S. Nationals Funny Car-class winner Don Schumacher fathom the idea that someday he would match and surpass NHRA legends Don Prudomme, Gary Beck and Joe Amato with three U.S. Nationals wins in Top Fuel. He joined them as a three-time winner in 2003 and passed them in 2004 with his run from the No. 2 qualifying position by defeating Mike Strausburg, Morgan Lucas, Scott Kalitta and Doug Kalitta.

Schumacher came back in 2005 looking to become first driver to win four consecutive U.S. Nationals Top Fuel Wallys and inch closer to “Big Daddy” Don Garlits’ record of eight Indy wins. Larry Dixon defeated Schumacher in the final and became a three-time Indy winner himself. The loss was the only blip on the radar during an eight-year stretch for Schumacher and the Army team in which they won four consecutive U.S. Nationals starting in 2006, including two over Dixon, to tie Garlits’ record for most Top Fuel Indy wins in 2009.

“The Sarge” returned to the U.S. Nationals final in 2012 and, with Garlits on hand, he defeated fellow DSR driver Spencer Massey to become Indy’s all-time winningest driver in Top Fuel with nine triumphs and tying Bob Glidden for most U.S. Nationals wins overall. Two seasons ago, Schumacher reached the top in typical Schumacher style. He doubled up winning the $100,000 Traxxas Shootout on Saturday and stormed through the ladder Monday with wins over Tripp Tatum, Brown, J.R. Todd and Steve Torrence to claim his 10th U.S. Nationals crown.

This weekend, Schumacher will be carrying the U.S. Army colors for the final time at Indy driving the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR and his goal is complete the mission the same way he started it by taking the Army to the prestigious Indy winner’s circle.

The tradition of the U.S. Nationals runs deep with Brown, a three-time U.S. Nationals winner. The New Jersey native grew up hearing stories of just how magical the U.S. Nationals and Indy were. His father and uncle would make annual trips from the East Coast to Middle America and soak up all the nitro and return home with stories that had Brown begging to be part of it someday.

Ironically, he became a U.S. Nationals champion for the first time the same day Schumacher did. Brown wheeled his Pro Stock Motorcycle to the winner’s circle in 2000 and four years later became a two-time winner, this time carrying the U.S. Army colors on his winning bike.

During his fourth year of Top Fuel competition in 2011, he became the 24th  different driver to win the U.S. Nationals in Top Fuel by racing from the No. 1 qualifying position and defeating Langdon, Kalitta, Dixon and Del Worsham. This weekend, Brown will pilot the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR seeking to become the eighth driver to win multiple U.S. Nationals in Top Fuel and the only driver in the event’s 63-year history to win multiple Wallys in two classes.

Climbing the ranks in NHRA’s professional classes is no easy task. Pritchett, driver of the Papa John’s/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, once raced on the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis during her Junior Dragster days dreaming of returning to Indy and competing in “The Big Go” in the professional classes. She nearly made the Top Fuel field of 16 in 2014 but was bumped out in the final session by Brown in what was at the time the quickest field in NHRA history. She made the field in 2011 and 2012, qualifying 11th  and 10th, respectively, but lost each year in the first round. Last year, she qualified second and defeated Wayne Newby and Pat Dakin before losing to eventual winner Torrence in the semifinals. Pritchett is looking to join NHRA legend Shirley Muldowney, the 1982 U.S. Nationals Top Fuel winner, and become only the second female Top Fuel Indy winner.

REGULAR-SEASON FINALE

The U.S. Nationals is not only the premiere event on the 2018 schedule, it’s also the final regular-season event before the 2018 season championship points are reset in each class for NHRA’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs, which begin in two weeks at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania. Drivers in the Mello Yello Series categories will earn points based on a point-and-a-half system (150 points to win). A single racer in each category can earn a maximum of 188 points at this event.

Schumacher leads the Army brigade ranking second in the championship standings, trailing leader Torrence by 187 markers. Pritchett holds fourth, trailing Schumacher by 27 points, and Brown is sixth, one point behind fifth-place Kalitta. Pritchett has a pair of wins – at Atlanta and Denver – while Schumacher won at Bristol and Brown won at Seattle. At least one of the Army drivers has reached the Top Fuel final in the previous five events – Brown reaching three and Schumacher and Pritchett one apiece.

EVENT SCHEDULE/TELEVISION COVERAGE

Qualifying at the U.S. Nationals will take place over three days beginning with one session Friday at 8 p.m. EDT and continuing with two sessions Saturday at 2 and 5 p.m., and concluding Sunday at 12:45 and 4:30 p.m. Eliminations are slated for Monday at 11 a.m. FS2 will air Saturday Nitro Live at 4:30 p.m. and FS1 will broadcast live coverage Sunday at 4 p.m. Monday’s eliminations will be carried live by FS1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., then the FOX network from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing

The U.S. Nationals have been a marquee event in drag racing throughout the sport’s history. Your name is all over the record books with your Indy stats highlighting them all. What has Indy meant to you?

“You know, Indy for me, it means kind of everything. There are a few tracks on the circuit that have extra special meaning, and this is the first place that I ever raced a Top Fuel car and so much happened that weekend as a young driver coming into a sport. We lost a world champion. We lost a Top Fuel motorcycle rider. We qualified 16th in a car that I had never made a full pass in my entire life with a team of guys that I met the week before. That was ‘the welcome to Top Fuel racing and NHRA’ to me. It was right here. I can remember the faces. The smells. And, to be in the final round, I remember the talk with Cory Mac (McClenathan) before and the talk with Cory Mac after he beat me in the final. Just the idea that this is how I was welcomed to sport. That was the beginning for me at this place. To have the chance, now so many years later, to come into a race here with 10 Indy wins, it’s hard for me to believe. It was like yesterday that I’m staging against Gary Clapshaw, who red-lit, but to have that moment with a new sponsor in the U.S. Army, it was just surreal. We were going to show them what this team was made of. To go out and win the first one was incredible. Now, fast-forward 18 years later and knowing that this is our last time together to have a chance to give back to them, the final Indy is huge. What they have done for DSR, the team members and me personally as a character-building group of men and women, it’s just been so fantastic. I know everyone on this team would love to give them one last trophy from Indy.”

ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing

What do you think of when people ask you about the U.S. Nationals?

“What makes the U.S. Nationals so special to me is that I distinctly remember how my dad and uncle would make trips to Indy. And I never knew what this place was, and every year they were like, ‘We’re going to Indy. We’re going to Indy.’ And we lived in New Jersey. They would just make that trek west across the Pennsylvania Turnpike and straight out (Interstate) 70 right here to Indy. They would come home with their Indianapolis and U.S. Nationals shirts. And that right there was a memory that always stuck in my mind. And now, to actually be a part of it, is unbelievable. It’s the heritage and history of our sport, just this race meaning so much worldwide – not just here in the U.S., but competitors come from around the world because they know, if they win Indy, they’ll know they won on the biggest stage in drag racing history.”

What would a U.S. Nationals win this weekend mean to your team?

“It would mean a great deal to our team if we could pull off a U.S. Nationals win here in 2018. Our year didn’t start off the greatest. We’ve gone through our bumps and bruises and had our struggles, but just the momentum we have built up coming off a win and runner-up has us entering the granddaddy of them all in the right position. If you can come out and first qualify well and then pull off a win, it would be like saying we just won a championship inside of championship, because that’s what Indy is. It would make all those bumps and bruises we dealt with, all that blood, sweat and tears we poured into this Matco Tools/U.S. Army machine, worth it. An Indy win would make our whole year.”

LEAH PRITCHETT, driver of the Papa John’s/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing

It’s been a whirlwind experience from your Junior Dragster days in Southern California to reaching the highest level of competition in NHRA. What’s been the biggest factor in your reaching this point?

“I would say it’s several series of events. I would say it started out with personal ambition that gets that ball rolling. Secondly, it’s the people you are surrounded by. For me, every single step along the way has been because of the cars, the crew chiefs, the crews, and the partners believed in me and all worked in unison. You look at where I’m at today, I’m with Don Schumacher Racing, the top team in the sport, which has given me a championship-caliber crew and car. It’s been a great 20-year climb and the talent around me has grown with each step.”

You have won two “special races”  this year – Atlanta, a race close to where you called home, and Denver, the Dodge Nationals, for your sponsor. You said those were incredible wins. How would adding a U.S. Nationals win this weekend make you feel?

“Winning Denver was the pinnacle for me and this Mopar/Dodge team. It would have to be the perfect storm for anything to top that win, but the U.S. Nationals certainly provides us with that backdrop. You look at what we did out there. Let’s say we go out and are the No. 1 qualifier, low ET in every single round and I won a couple rounds on holeshots in really close races and win without hurting parts. That would be like the perfect weekend, being able to do it on the biggest stage. I’m going to be honest, Denver was incredible on so many levels. To go back and seal the deal at a place where I raced a national event as a child, that was a really emotional win. Ironically, the only other national event I raced as a child was here in Indy. The first time I ever got here, I ate a piece of the ground because I knew this was where the professionals raced. That’s what it would mean to me, to close the book on another career milestone. I won a Wally here as a Junior and that’s the only thing I’ve won here. This is the biggest race of the year. They call it the Big Go for a big reason.”