Army Team Races to Houston NHRA Final
Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and his nine-man U.S. Army team were put to the test Sunday in the NHRA Mello 
Yello Series 28th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas. The eight-time and reigning Top Fuel world champion advanced to Sunday’s final, but narrowly missed earning his second victory of the season when his engine exploded halfway down the track allowing Doug Kalitta to pull out the victory.
Despite coming up short in his bid for career win number 79, Schumacher concluded the first quarter of the 24-race campaign with the points lead and a U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) that has been remarkably consistent throughout the campaign.
“We’re off to a tremendous start to the season,” said Schumacher, who holds a 33-point lead over his DSR teammate Spencer Massey through six events. “I’m so fortunate to be surrounded by an incredible team led by (crew chief) Mike Green. Mike and I won our first race together here back in 2009 and we nearly did it again today. This U.S. Army team really makes a big difference here at the track just like the Army makes a difference in our nation. To be able to come out here and go four rounds in these changing conditions… and then add in the pressure of doing it all with quick turnarounds so that we can be on live television, I can’t thank them enough. We went after it in the final and just pushed it past the point of no return. We knew Doug and his team were going to be tough, and there’s no shame in coming up short against those guys. It was a really good weekend for this U.S. Army team.”
“The Sarge” opened the day from the number two position in ladder and put up a track record pass of 3.726 seconds versus Jenna Haddock to advance to the second round. Schumacher then dispatched of his U.S. Army and DSR teammate Antron Brown with a run of 3.774 seconds at 326.48 mph. He advanced to his 134th career final by defeating Clay Millican with a lap of 3.855 seconds at 319.37 mph setting up the 16th time Schumacher and Kalitta raced with a Wally on the line. Schumacher had a huge early lead after posting a .009 reaction time, but his engine exploded and he crossed the stripe with a run of 4.014 seconds at 225.60 mph compared to Kalitta’s pass of 3.820 seconds at 324.98. The triumph was Kalitta’s first of season and he became the sixth driver to win an event in 2015.
Brown returned to Houston as the defending race winner and was looking to continue building momentum behind the wheel of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR. The 2012 Top Fuel world champion qualified 10th with his lap of 3.782 seconds on Friday evening under the lights. In the first round run Sunday, he posted his best lap of the weekend at 3.756 seconds at 321.73 mph and defeated Dave Connolly and into the second round versus Schumacher. In that matchup, Brown felt like his machine was making the run they had hoped it would early, but he lost power late and clocked a lap of 3.808 seconds at 318.99 mph, which wasn’t enough to defeat his U.S. Army teammate.
“The track just ate us up that round against Tony (Schumacher),” said Brown, a two-time winner at Houston. “The track was very, very good and we may have just underestimated it a little bit. It was a close race. We put on a great show for the fans here at Houston. We went down the track twice today and the car did what we wanted it too. That’s progress and that’s important for this Matco Tools team. We’re at about 70-percent of where we need to be heading into the Countdown (to the Championship) in September. That’s good with this new clutch program. We have a better game plan to start with in Atlanta. Getting down the track on the first lap of the weekend would be a big key for us to continue building and getting better through eliminations. That’s our goal”
