Maynard Family Racing Announces Expanded Multi-Year Partnership with SCAG Power Equipment

CONCORD, NC – NHRA Top Fuel championship-contender Tony Schumacher and the Maynard Family Racing team announced today that they have renewed their partnership agreement with SCAG Power Equipment, an industry leader in commercial and residential riding, stand-on, and walk-behind lawn mowers, as well as professional and residential debris management equipment.

SCAG burst onto the NHRA scene in 2022 when it made its drag racing debut at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. with Schumacher at the helm of the SCAG Power Equipment Top Fuel dragster. The Mayville, Wis.-based organization was eager to partner with NHRA’s winningest Top Fuel driver when Schumacher announced his full-time return to the sport ahead of the 2022 season. What started as a seven-race primary/six-race co-primary one-year partnership, has now grown into a multi-year agreement with SCAG increasing their role to become a primary partner of the Maynard Family Racing Top Fuel team through 2025.

“The decision to not only continue, but expand upon our partnership with Tony Schumacher and the Maynard Family Racing team was an easy one,” explained Randy Gloede, President and CEO of SCAG Power Equipment, from the zMAX Dragway media center on Saturday morning at the Betway NHRA Carolina Nationals. “NHRA was a new market for us and we looked at 2022 to be somewhat of a trial run. Our distributor and dealer network quickly capitalized on the value of our relationship with Tony through social media campaigns, appearances, trackside hospitality, midway interactions, and customer appreciation events.

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Concord, NC – Schumacher will make his first Carolina Nationals appearance since 2018. So far in 2022, Schumacher has one win (Seattle), and one runner-up finish (Brainerd, Minn.) The winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history is vying for his ninth series title

“I’m looking forward to getting back to Charlotte for the second time this year and racing it ‘normal’ two-wide. We’re in the Countdown, and the fact that Reading didn’t work out well for us really puts the pressure on. We’ve got five races to cowboy-up and get this thing moving. I think we’re heading in the right direction. We made drastic changes in Reading, and I think it’s going to show starting this weekend. The conditions are going to be great, and we’re going to go out and try and win this thing. We’re going to test after Dallas, we’re going to test after Vegas, and we are going to get our car back into winning form.” explained Tony

Countdown to the Championship Ranking: 12th

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READING, PA – Tony Schumacher qualified the SCAG Power Equipment Top Fuel dragster 11th for the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals, the opening event of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Making his first Countdown and Maple Grove Raceway appearance since 2018, Schumacher returned to ‘the Grove’ looking to add to his category-best five Reading Wally trophies.

Schumacher’s 3.754-second pass from the weekend’s third qualifying session pitted him against fellow championship-hopeful Clay Millican in round one of eliminations on Sunday morning. Schumacher, a two-time finalist in 2022 who powered to victory in Seattle last month, scored a large holeshot start on Millican to nab the early lead, but his 11,000-horsepower machine drove into tire smoke shortly after, and his opponent was able to drive around for the win, ending Schumacher’s day after the first round.

“It’s been four years since I’ve been back at Reading, and man, this is a beautiful place,” said Schumacher, an eight-time Top Fuel series champion. “The fans were jam-packed in here all weekend, and we love to see that. Our car did not perform that well during qualifying, and we didn’t do that great on race day. We had a huge lead versus Clay early on and then it spun the tires, I pedaled, it shredded a belt, and Clay got past at the finish line.

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Reading, Pa – Tony Schumacher leads the class in number of Top Fuel victories (five) at Maple Grove Raceway. Schumacher has been the Reading No. 1 qualifier seven times- the most of any Top Fuel driver at a single event.

The 2022 event marks Schumacher’s first time returning to Reading since 2018. Schumacher will make his first Countdown to the Championship appearance since 2018. So far in 2022, Schumacher has one win (Seattle), and one runner-up finish (Brainerd, Minn.) The winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history will be vying for his ninth series title.

“This is the first time where we’ve had a Countdown with more than 10 cars fighting for the Top Fuel title. There are 12 teams battling it out this year, and that’s exciting, and I’m one of those that believes this is the right decision. I think that if a team shows up, runs every race, makes a few qualifying runs, they deserve to be there. We are fortunate that we didn’t get in that way. We got into the Top 10, and stayed in the Top 10, based on the way we performed, and we’re proud of that.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Despite a first-round exit at the NHRA U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis, Tony Schumacher is optimistic about the performance of his Maynard Family Racing Top Fuel dragster going into the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. The 10-time Indy winner secured the No. 10 spot in the Countdown, giving him a shot at a ninth NHRA Top Fuel world championship.

With 25 Top Fuel entries vying to make the elimination show, it was a nail-biter of a weekend for Schumacher, who went into the final day of qualifying for the ‘Big Go’ not qualified, but his DSR Performance-powered Maynard Family Racing dragster fired off a 3.743-second blast during Q4 to secure one of 16 spots in the fastest Top Fuel field in NHRA history.

Starting race day from 13th, Schumacher and opponent Mike Salinas left the starting line together, but the 86-time race winner ran into issues and had to coast through the finish line with a 5.072-second pass. It wasn’t enough to beat Salinas, but Schumacher was quick to point out the positives of the weekend.

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Indianapolis, IN – After powering to victory in Seattle earlier this month, Schumacher raced to a runner-up finish in Brainerd, Minn. two weeks ago, having visited the final round two times over the last three events.  Following the Brainerd race, the team was notified that they were receiving a fine and points penalty due to circumstances related to the second elimination round at the Minnesota event. Schumacher was docked 50 points, and has dropped from eighth to 10th in the standings to start the race weekend. The team disagrees with NHRA’s stance and has requested that the penalties be reversed.

With an unprecedented 10 U.S. Nationals victories, Schumacher is the winningest Camping World Series driver in Indianapolis history. The U.S Nationals is a hometown event for the Maynard Family Racing team, whose racing operation is located in nearby Brownsburg
Schumacher will campaign the Maynard Family Racing green and orange livery one final time before the JCM paint scheme is sunsetted following the event.

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Shuler Joins Todd Okuhara, Marc Denner as part of Tony Schumacher Top Fuel Brain Trust

BROWNSBURG, IN – The Maynard Family Racing team (JCM) announced today that crew chief Phil Shuler has joined the Tony Schumacher-piloted Top Fuel operation in an official capacity. The news shouldn’t come as a major surprise for NHRA fans, who may have noticed Shuler’s presence on the starting line and in Schumacher’s pit for the last several events. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, Shuler had been lending his knowledge and serving as an extra set of eyes since temporarily joining the JCM/DSR camp for the Sonoma, Calif. event in July when crew chief Todd Okuhara was sidelined due to COVID. Shuler then continued on with the team as they raced to victory near Seattle at the NHRA Northwest Nationals, and remained onboard for the Topeka, Kansas outing and runner-up finish in Brainerd, Minn. last weekend.

The initial plan was for Shuler to join JCM crew chief Todd Okuhara and assistant crew chief Marc Denner on a temporary basis, but after seeing how well the trio has worked together and the team’s recent uptick in performance, the decision was made to bring Shuler in-house as a full-time team member and serve as co-crew chief alongside Okuhara as the crew prepares for their 2022 Countdown to the Championship title campaign.

“The addition of Phil to our team became a must-do as I watched the brain trust of Todd, Phil, and Marc work with Tony and our crew to attain the victory in Seattle and continue with performance improvements since that race. Cathi (Maynard) and I are excited to know we have our team set!” said JCM team owner Joe Maynard following the group’s second final round appearance in three events.

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BRAINERD, MN – For the second time in three events, Tony Schumacher and the Okuma Top Fuel team advanced to the final round, having recorded a runner-up finish on Sunday afternoon at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals.

Following his NHRA Northwest Nationals victory in Seattle earlier this month, and a quarterfinal finish in Topeka, Kansas last weekend, Schumacher and the Maynard Family Racing team have been steadily making their way back into the 2022 NHRA Top Fuel title conversation. With Sunday’s final round appearance, Schumacher moved up one spot in the standings to eighth with only one event remaining before Countdown starting positions are set.

Schumacher qualified his DSR Performance-powered Okuma dragster seventh to start race day, and eliminated Doug Kalitta, Josh Hart, and Justin Ashley to reach his 156th final round, but it wasn’t without some drama, and the round wins were hard-fought. Schumacher pedaled to an ugly win over Kalitta as the two Top Fuel titans smoked their way down the track. While getting the car prepped for their round two contest versus Hart, the team encountered a mechanical issue which caused them to be delayed heading to the starting line. Without the opportunity to warm up, the team raced to the starting line with moments to spare before crew chiefs were instructed to fire up their machines. Despite the hiccup in the pit and a loss of traction during his race, Schumacher powered to the win over Hart’s immediate tire-smoker.

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TOPEKA, KS – Following his NHRA Northwest Nationals victory in Seattle two weeks prior, Tony Schumacher was looking to make it two-in-a-row at the Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor in Topeka, Kansas.

Schumacher qualified the Scag Power Equipment Top Fuel dragster 12th to face Doug Kalitta in the opening round of eliminations at Heartland Motorsports Park, setting up a match-up between two of the most tenured drivers in the sport. Schumacher and Kalitta lined up side-by-side for the 93rd time in their career on Sunday morning, the most of any two Top Fuel drivers, with Schumacher holding the round win advantage 52-40 over his opponent. Schumacher successfully extended his win count when he moved first to earn the holeshot triumph in a close side-by-side race. Not only did the round win net the 86-time race winner a bid to the quarterfinals, but it allowed him to crack back into the Top 10 in the point standings by moving up two positions from 11th to ninth for the first time since the Bristol, Tenn. event in June.

Seeking his sixth consecutive win light, Schumacher faced reigning Top Fuel world champ Steve Torrence in round two. Schumacher nabbed the starting line advantage, but a dropped cylinder at the step of the throttle caused his machine to slow while Torrence drove to victory, ending Schumacher’s day after the quarterfinals.

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Topeka, KS – Schumacher enters the race weekend fresh off a win from Seattle, the NHRA Camping World Series’ most recent event.
Joe and Cathi Maynard will be looking to extend their undefeated streak as team owners after Schumacher’s NHRA Northwest Nationals victory, their first event since taking over the Schumacher-piloted Top Fuel team.

Schumacher on this weekend race, “It’s great to be going to Topeka this weekend after our big win in Seattle two weeks ago. We didn’t have all of the performance we wanted but we’re moving in the right direction. After Seattle, we spent the week at Scag headquarters in Wisconsin where we got to hang with the CEO, CFO, the plant managers, got to tour the facility, and the best part was, we brought our Scag Top Fuel dragster to their company picnic and fired it up for everyone.

“I can’t wait to get back to Heartland Motorsports Park. It’s been several years since I last raced there, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out there this weekend. We still hold the track record from 2017, which is pretty neat. Phil Shuler is able to join us again this weekend, working alongside Todd Okuhara and Marc Denner, and it’s always nice to have an extra set of eyes. The goal is to go for two-in-a-row this weekend, and hopefully, we can end our Sunday in the winner’s circle again.”

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