U.S. Army NHRA Racing 11th Annual NHRA Carolina Nationals at Charlotte Friday Qualifying Report
Concord, NC – The U.S. Army Racing driver trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Leah Pritchett and Antron Brown 
are fifth, seventh and 15th on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s 11th annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway just outside of Charlotte.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), a two-time Carolina Nationals winner, opened the day with a run of 3.747 seconds at 330.39 mph, the second-best of the session, and collected a pair of qualifying points. “The Sarge” nearly posted an identical elapsed time in Friday’s second run making it down the track in 3.748 seconds at 328.54 mph landing him the fifth position.
“We’ve got a really good U.S. Army car,” said Schumacher, one of two Top Fuel drivers to eclipse the 330-mph barrier Friday. “It felt like a bracket car today. In that second run, it was down on power just a little bit. We are running right where we wanted to run. Last weekend, we were way behind and that’s not the case right now. We have a good car. And I’m ready to race. It’s not over yet.”
Brown, the all-time winningest Top Fuel driver at zMAX with three Top Fuel triumphs, lost traction late in his opening run aboard the Matco Tools ‘Tools for the Cause’/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR and crossed the finish line in 4.022 seconds at 239.14 mph. He wasn’t able to improve during Friday’s second qualifying session when crossed the line with a lap of 4.882 seconds at 148.46 mph and dropped to the 15th position.
“It was a tough day for us here in Charlotte,” said Brown, who won back-to-back Carolina Nationals in 2015 and 2016. “We’re just struggling and don’t know what’s going on. We’ve got some gremlins that we have to figure out. We’ll come back tomorrow and do what we do. The only thing we can do is fight the good fight and keep on going.”
Pritchett, fresh off winning the Factory Stock Showdown Series championship in Dallas, took the Papa John’s Pizza/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR down the track twice Friday opening with a run of 3.829 seconds at 322.96 mph. After crew chief Tod Okuhara and assistant crew chief Joe Barlam analyzed the data and devised a plan of attack for Q2. The results were a run of 3.763 seconds at 320.58 mph and the seventh position on the grid.
“We leave here today knowing we need to put a little more power to the Papa John’s Pizza/U.S. Army machine,” admitted Pritchett. “That’s what the racecar is telling us. It is starving for power and we’ve been trying to continue to run lower and lower. We did put it to it for Q2 and it wanted even more. The racecar is talking to us and we’re going to talk back to it on Saturday. We have a firm understanding right now of what it is that it wants. It’s abnormal, but I guess it’s in the Countdown and it’s thirsty.”
The final two qualifying sessions are set for 1:30 and 4 p.m. EDT Saturday. Eliminations are set for noon Sunday with FS1 broadcasting three hours of live eliminations beginning at 2 p.m.
