U.S. Army Trio Can’t Slow Down Countdown Leaders in St. Louis

Pritchett and Brown Defeated by Top Fuel Championship Frontrunners; Schumacher Upset in Second Round

U.S. Army Racing’s Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett returned to St. Louis this weekend looking to hit a walk-off homerun in round two of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ Countdown to the Championship. Unfortunately, they watched the two biggest sluggers in Top Fuel head to Dallas with all of the momentum.

Steve Torrence defeated Clay Millican in Sunday’s Top Fuel final of the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. Torrence, winner of the first two Countdown races, dispatched Pritchett in the semifinals, while Millican defeated Brown in the second round. Schumacher, who was competing in his 500th career NHRA race was knocked out in the second round by Pat Dakin.

Schumacher became the seventh member of the 500 club this weekend and first in the Top Fuel class. The driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) qualified sixth and survived an opening-round matchup with Richie Crampton by skillfully pedaling his machine to the finish line. “The Sarge” posted a lap of 4.067 seconds at 257.73 mph, and the win didn’t come easy after losing traction midway through the run before the two-time St. Louis winner found enough traction to advance into the second round. In the second round, Schumacher was looking to remain undefeated versus Dakin in eight career races, but once again he had his hands full. After taking the advantage at the light, the U.S. Army machine lost traction and Schumacher again had to pedal it to the finish. Dakin had enough traction and momentum to cross the finish line first despite exploding his engine late in the run. Dakin’s run of 3.946 seconds at 268.13 mph bettered Schumacher’s pass of 4.115 seconds at 270.43 mph.

Schumacher was looking to become first member of the 500-club to win their 500th start, but instead he duplicated the outcome of all-time leader John Force, who made his 755th career start today, by losing in the second round at Gateway Motorsports Park.

“I’ve been around for 500 races,” said Schumacher, who leaves St. Louis third in the championship standings 101 points behind Torrence. “I understand that you don’t make it to the finals every time like I did in my first race. If you would have asked me after my first race, I would have said, ‘Gee, this is easy. I always get to the final.’ But after doing it for a long, long time, you realize this is a competitive sport with some incredible teams. Today was simply proof of that. Pat Dakin beat me today. He competes in about 10 events a year and has a quality team. He brings good stuff and knows how to race a car. When you get beat by him, you don’t hang your head. We need to regroup. A car can’t win the race smoking the tires. That’s what we’ve done four out of the last six elimination rounds. We can make some rounds but can’t get away with it that many times. We’ve got to come up with a different plan.”

Brown pointed to this weekend’s event as an early turning point for his Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota team. He is the winningest driver at Gateway Motorsports Park with five career Top Fuel victories and felt this was the perfect venue to make his move in the Countdown standings. His first-round performance showed promise that he had a great opportunity. The three-time Top Fuel world champion drove around Doug Kalitta and scored the win with his lap of 3.728 seconds at 328.86 mph, his best run of the weekend and best of the first round. The victory gave Brown lane choice in round two which helped him get out of the gate first, but Millican drove around him by the 330-foot mark went on to defeat Brown for only the third time in 27 career meetings.

“We felt real confident coming into today,” said Brown, now fifth in the Countdown championship standings. “We’ve been working hard and we’ve just been getting better each run. We’ve even been finding the small little things that have been nipping at our heels, so we felt good that we could bring it home today. The day started off great for our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota. We ran low E.T. of first round. In round two, we just backed it off too much. At Reading, we didn’t back it off enough and then in the second round today we backed it off too much. Now we’ve got a game plan for the next race that we’re just going to go in the middle. There are still four races left, so there’s a lot of racing still to go. We wanted to take a step up in the points, but we’ll maintain where we are at. We just need to keep building.”

Pritchett, driver of the Papa John’s Pizza/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, was the last Army Racing driver standing Sunday tying her career-best Countdown result by reaching the semifinals. She was on a solo run in round one when a broken throttle cable on Scott Palmer’s machine ended his day before the run. Pritchett smoked the tires near the 200-foot mark and coasted to the finish with a run of 5.568 seconds at 125.37 mph and lost lane choice in the second round. Blake Alexander was her next opponent and the two met for the fourth time this season. Pritchett had the starting-line advantage and never trailed with her run of 3.802 seconds at 322.73 mph. In the semifinals, Pritchett had a chance to take down the championship leader and gave it her best effort. She had a slight advantage at the start, but Torrence powered around her and took the win with his pass of 3.772 seconds at 325.22 mph compared to Pritchett’s run of 3.809 seconds at 322.11 mph.

“Going to the semifinals in the Countdown against some of the stiffest competition is definitely nothing to hang our heads about,” said Pritchett, who ranks fourth in the championship standings. “We weren’t the quickest or fastest this weekend, but we made great improvements. We made wholesale changes that we had to commit to, and there was no turning back. We nipped away at them, but it just wasn’t quite enough. The points are still tight. We still have a shot and this team errs to the side of positivity. We’ve got a couple of things in our back pocket that I can’t wait to try out at our next race. Overall, it was a successful weekend and we’re going to build on this.”

With the second of six NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship events complete, the top-10 drivers in the Top Fuel standings are:

1.Steve Torrence (2,346 points)

2. Clay Millican (2,276 points, -70)
3. Tony Schumacher (2,225 points, -121)

4. Leah Pritchett (2,192 points, -154)
5. Antron Brown (2,169 points, -177)

6. Doug Kalitta (2,135 points, – 211)

7. Mike Salinas (2,119 points, -227)

8. Terry McMillen (2,093 points, -253)

9. Scott Palmer (2,085 points, -261)

Brittany Force (2,085 points, -261)

The 2018 playoffs resume next in two weeks with the 33rd annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, October 4-7. FS1 will broadcast elimination rounds Sunday, October 7, live staring at 2 p.m. EDT.