Don Schumacher Racing
DSR Team Reports: Brown optimistic about Matco Tools championship chances
Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster knows he will get a chance to defend the world championship he won with his team last season.
Capps, Massey give DSR its sixth ‘double-up’ of the year
BRAINERD, MN – Spencer Massey and Ron Capps won their respective titles Sunday in the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd 
International Raceway to mark the sixth time this year that Don Schumacher Racing has swept both nitro titles at an NHRA Mello Yello Series event.
It is the fourth title of the season for Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, while Capps won for the third time this season for the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant John Collins.
When Massey arrived at Brainerd, he had never won in the first round of Top Fuel competition in his three previous events at the track.
Beckman drives new DSR chassis to No. 1 at Brainerd; Battery Extender’s Massey qualifies No. 2 in Top Fuel
BRAINERD, MN – Jack Beckman arrived at Brainerd International Raceway on Friday with a new DSR chassis for his Dodge Charger R/T 
Funny Car, and crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder helped him produce the quickest time of the Lucas Oil Nationals to earn his second No. 1 qualifying position of the season.
Beckman, who was quickest after Friday’s first session, temporarily lost the top spot to Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Matt Hagan until regaining it in Saturday’s first session with a time of 4.038 seconds at 313.37 mph. Beckman also earned the pole at the last NHRA event near Seattle two weeks ago.
Venables puts Hagan, Rocky Boots Dodge on provisional pole at Brainerd while DSR teammate Massey is No. 2 in Top Fuel
BRAINERD, MN- The comeback season continued Friday for Matt Hagan when the Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger R/T driver was the quickest in Funny Car to earn the provisional pole heading into the last day of qualifying in the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
Hagan’s time of 4.044 seconds at 315.34 mph puts him in position to tie his career-best fourth No. 1-qualifying effort in the Rocky Boots/MTS Dodge tuned by crew chief Dickie Venables if the time holds through Saturday’s two sessions.
Hagan, who is the Funny Car points leader with four Mello Yello titles this season, continues a 180-degree turn from a year ago when he did not win a title or a pole, and did not qualify for the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff.
Brown starts off the DSR pre-Brainerd report with a Visit to the St Louis Cardinals
BROWNSBURG, IN – Antron Brown had a few stops on his way to Brainerd International Raceway for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello event in northern Minnesota.
Last weekend, as a crew chief, he helped 8-year-old son Anson win his second NHRA Jr. Dragster title that puts him within the 37 Wally trophies won by his father.
While Anson was in school Tuesday, Dad headed to St. Louis for a media tour to promote the Sept. 27-29 Mello Yello event at Gateway Motorsports Park and capped the daytrip by going to that night’s Pittsburg Pirates-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game where he threw out the first pitch.
Hagan, Magneti Marelli Funny Car saves the day with fourth win of season while other teams struggle
KENT, WA – Matt Hagan and the Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar Funny Car team saved the weekend for Don Schumacher Racing 
when they won the fourth title of the season in Sunday’s championship round of the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.
When Hagan won his second-round race, he became the first and only Funny Car driver to clinch a spot in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship six-race playoff that begins Sept. 13-15 near Seattle.
It is the fourth title of the season for Hagan and 214th for DSR.
When he won his first-round race Sunday, it matched his 2012 season total of 24 round wins and after 16 of 24 Mello Yello events his eliminations record is 27-12.
U.S. Army NHRA Racing 26th Annual NHRA Northwest Nationals Final Qualifying Report
Kent, WA – The U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown both logged a solid day of qualifying for this weekend’s 26th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash. Having lost the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday to Mother Nature, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competitors were left with two rounds in mostly cloudy but dry conditions Saturday to position themselves for Sunday’s elimination rounds.
And both Schumacher and Brown landed spots in the top half of the 16-car draw with their second-round runs today, showing that only the strongest wear the colors of the U.S. Army, whose Soldiers possess a mental, emotional and physical strength like no other, and the U.S. Army Racing team reflects those strengths.
Fast Jack Beckman’s #1 qual shot leads of the Seattle DSR Report
Smith sends Beckman to No. 1 spot for first time in 10 months as MTS/Valvoline Dodge will face DSR teammate in first round
KENT, WA – Jack Beckman won his first pole since last October to put the MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T in the top spot for Sunday’s championship eliminations of the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.
Beckman hopes starting in the No. 1 spot is what his reigning world championship team needs to win their first national event title of the Mello Yello Series season.
“It’s great to qualify No. 1, but we really just want to win a trophy. It’s been a while,” said Beckman, who used a tune-up provided by crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder to record a time of 4.049 seconds at 303.64 mph for the ninth pole of his career.
U.S. Army Duo Closes Western Swing at 26th Annual NHRA Northwest Nationals
KENT, WA – His spot in the 2013 Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship clinched when this year’s three-event Western Swing 
commenced in Denver two weekends ago, Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) have had their eyes focused on nothing but the ultimate prize – Schumacher’s eighth career Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship.
This weekend’s 26th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways just outside Seattle brings the curtain down on this year’s Western Swing and marks the third-to-last event of the Mello Yellow Series’ regular season.
DSR Pre-Seattle Team Reports
– Every team intent on winning a season championship knows the key is peaking at the right time.
The Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team and driver Antron Brown have the experience of winning last year’s NHRA world championship to fall back on, and despite not winning a Mello Yello Series title since May 12 near Atlanta, Brown likes the timetable crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald are following.
