BRAINERD, MN – Gaining momentum and maintaining it is the top priority this weekend for the U.S. Army Top Fuel driver trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett as they head to Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway for this weekend’s 37th annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Nationals.

It’s the penultimate event of the regular season, which winds up Labor Day weekend with the series’ annual blockbuster event, the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, and Schumacher, Brown and Pritchett and their respective teams are down to their final two race weekends to put themselves in prime position when the six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs begin.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) enter the weekend at Brainerd second in the Top Fuel standings and look to continue the qualifying consistency they’ve maintained all season while hoping to translate it into a pair of much-needed event titles before the playoffs commence. He’s a distant 161 points behind leader Steve Torrence in the Top Fuel standings but has Clay Millican and Pritchett looming in third and fourth place, just six and seven points behind him, respectively. While the top spot in the final regular-season standings might be a longshot, locking down the No. 2 position would put Schumacher just 30 points behind Torrence when the Countdown begins and the points are reset. A three-time Brainerd event winner, three-time runner-up and six-time No. 1 qualifier, “The Sarge” and his U.S. Army team are confident they can hoist their first Wally trophy this weekend at the track located two hours north and west of Minneapolis.

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U.S. Army Driver Beats Teammates Schumacher and Pritchett En Route to 50th Career Top Fuel Triumph

For the third consecutive season, U.S. Army Top Fuel competitor Antron Brown concluded the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ three-race Western Swing in winning style. The three-time Top Fuel world champion captured his 50th Top Fuel win by defeating fellow U.S. Army Racing racers Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher in the second round and Leah Pritchett in the final of Sunday’s 31st annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.

With the victory, Brown joins Schumacher, Joe Amato and Larry Dixon as the only drivers in the category to have reached the historic milestone and also snapped a 23-race winless streak that dated back to his triumph in Seattle last August.

Schumacher was looking to make history of his own this weekend at Pacific Raceways. The four-time Seattle winner was seeking a fifth victory and tie Joe Amato as the winningest Top Fuel drivers at the track. He made four impressive qualifying runs aboard the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR and entered Sunday confident he and his team led by tuners Mike Neff and Phil Shuler would be a major factor in the outcome. He opened the day by continuing his dominance of Terry McMillen in the first round, winning for the 24th time in 27 career meetings, but it wasn’t the clean run he hoped to have. “The Sarge” hazed the tires near 330 feet and pedaled the car to post a lap of  4.137 seconds at 258.47 mph to advance past McMillen, who went right up in smoke at the hit.

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The U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett held onto the fourth, fifth and sixth positions on the ladder, respectively, Saturday for Sunday’s elimination rounds of this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 31st annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), winners of this event in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008, continued their consistency in qualifying this weekend picking up bonus points in both sessions today. “The Sarge” posted the second-best lap with his run of 3.807 seconds at 325.30 mph during Saturday’s opening session to grab two bonus points and closed qualifying with a pass of 3.802 seconds at 327.11 mph, which was third in the session and earned him an additional bonus point. He’ll meet No. 13 qualifier Terry McMillen in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. The two have met in the first round twice in 2018 with Schumacher winning both, first at Pomona and then at Bristol, to improve his career record versus McMillen to 23-3.

“We made two great runs today,” said Schumacher. “There were big changes made coming here to give (crew chief) Mike (Neff) and (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) adjustability in an area where they needed it. And it did exactly what they wanted. All four runs were right down the racetrack.

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The U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett are fourth, fifth and sixth on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 31st annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) rolled into the Western Swing finale looking to close it out with a record-breaking triumph in Seattle. “The Sarge” is tied with Joe Amato as the winnginest Top Fuel driver at the track with four event wins and is coming off his fourth final appearance of the season last Sunday in Sonoma, California. The eight-time Top Fuel world champion posted a solid lap of 3.804 seconds at 325.45 mph to close Friday afternoon’s opening session and came back with a run of 3.751 seconds at 327.03 mph to move up to fourth in the provisional ladder.

“Today was a good day for the U.S. Army team,” said Schumacher. “We had the goal to come in here and make a change or two. We have an amazing race car, but it’s just a little sporadic at a certain spot. (Crew chief) Mike (Neff) and (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) came up with a game plan and I think the game plan has worked. Now we just have to bring it all in. We had two really good runs down the race track today. We had the third-best run in that second session with the sun out and Man, it was difficult to see. We made a really good run with the changes we made. Having a package we can race with is so important. Mike’s goal was not to go the fastest, but instead learn how to race on Sunday. I think he learned a lot on those two runs that we needed to learn. What I’m most impressed with is that he said, ‘we got to make this change’ and we stuck with that plan. That’s progress and hopefully we’ll make more tomorrow.”

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KENT, WA – After a successful month of July, where the U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett each advanced to a final in the three NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events, the mission this weekend is to make it four straight in the 31st annual NHRA Northwest Nationals, the finale of NHRA’s three-event Western Swing, at picturesque Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.

Schumacher, the eight-time Top Fuel world champion and driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), is coming off his 151st career final-round appearance Sunday in Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. That run put back up to second second in the championship standings with three events remaining before the points are reset for NHRA’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs following the 64th annual U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis Sept. 3.

Brown, who reached the NHRA New England Nationals final the first weekend of July, returns to Washington looking to make it three consecutive Seattle wins in a row behind the wheel of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR and hoist a Wally in the Top Fuel class for the 50th time in his career Sunday afternoon.

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U.S. Army s Schumacher Comes Up Just Short Against Alexander; Brown, Pritchett Fall in Second and First Rounds, Respectively

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher soldiered through a painful pinched nerve in his shoulder in driving his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) to his 151st career Top Fuel final round Sunday at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Sonoma Nationals, coming up just short against remarkable upstart driver Blake Alexander, who scored the second event title of his career and of the season in just his third career final round.

Meanwhile, fellow U.S. Army and DSR drivers Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett suffered second- and first-round losses, respectively.

From his No. 4 position on Sunday’s elimination ladder, Schumacher overcame the effects of the pinched nerve in his right shoulder in beating Shawn Reed, defending series champion Brittany Force, and longtime rival Doug Kalitta on his way to his fourth final round of the season. After laying down the best two Top Fuel runs during Saturday qualifying, Schumacher and the Army team felt confident they had the car to beat, and opened the day with a stout run of 3.743 seconds at 330.88 mph in beating Reed, who smoked his tires well down track. He then had to pedal his way past a tire-smoking Force in the second round, illuminating the win light in 4.375 seconds at 192.71 mph while Force crossed the finish line in 4.985 seconds at 144.77 mph.

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The U.S. Army driver trio of Leah Pritchett, Antron Brown and Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher are second, third and fourth on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s 31st annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), who won this event in 2007 and 2008 – the latter year as part of his sweep of the three-event Western Swing – struggled to get down the track on his opening run of the day, crossing the finish line in 4.892 seconds at 144.21 mph after smoking his tires at halftrack. He closed with a vengeance, however, vaulting from the No. 11 spot to the top-four with a solid run of 3.747 seconds at 327.98 mph to open the night qualifying session.

“We’ve been working on our first 60 feet for a long time and we did an .833 that got us off to a really strong start and it set the tone for a really solid run to the finish line,” said the eight-time Top Fuel world champion, who also is a four-time Sonoma Nationals runner-up and two-time No. 1 qualifier. “We lost a real close one last weekend – one 10,000th of a second. And we knew it was going to be in the early numbers if we’re going to keep that sort of thing from happening. Great job by Mike Neff (crew chief) and Phil (Shuler, assistant crew chief) and the Army team. That was a great run. That was exactly what Mike wanted to run. The conditions were fantastic. This big crowd got a great show. We love coming here to Sonoma.”

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SONOMA, CA – Safe to say one of the most difficult feats in all of motorsports is sweeping the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series annual Western Swing – back-to-back-to-back weekends at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, and Pacific Raceways on the outskirts of Seattle. The last two drivers to successfully string together consecutive event titles at those three events are U.S. Army Racing’s Top Fuel aces Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher in 2008 and Antron Brown in 2009.

They are two of only five Top Fuel drivers who have ever swept the Western Swing – constested since 1989 – the others being Joe Amato in 1991, Cory McClenathan in 1997 and Larry Dixon in 2003. Only two non-Top Fuel competitors have ever pulled off the sweep – Funny Car’s John Force in 1994 and Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson in 2004.

Both Schumacher and Brown and their respective teams set themselves up to repeat the feat the past two seasons, Schumacher scoring his third career Mile-High Nationals title at Bandimere in 2016 and Brown winning the 2017 Mile-High Nationals. But both U.S. Army drivers came up short of the rare and coveted sweep. Statistically, the Denver winner over the years has had a less than eight percent chance to go on to victory at Sonoma and Seattle.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) was eliminated in the second round at Sonoma in 2016 to end his bid for a second career Western Swing sweep. Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR came ever so close to actually pulling off his second career sweep last year, advancing to the Sonoma final where he was edged at the finish by Steve Torrence, but returning the following weekend to win at Seattle.

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Schumacher, Brown Suffer First-Round Exits at NHRA Mile-High Nationals

For the third time in the last three years, a U.S. Army Top Fuel competitor earned his or her way to victory lane at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in the Denver suburb of Morrison, Colorado, as Leah Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher concluded a perfect weekend Sunday by winning this year’s 39th renewal of the event.

Fellow U.S. Army driver Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, who won this event in 2016, laid down the third-best run of the opening round of eliminations Sunday, an effort of 3.852 seconds at 321.12 mph. He had an ever-so-slim starting-line edge against longtime rival Doug Kalitta in their 89th career meeting, scoring a reaction time of .064 of a second to Kalitta’s .067 of a second. Kalitta managed to cross the finish line in 3.849 seconds at 320.43 mph and illuminated the win light by a margin of just one 10,000th of a second and beat Schumacher by about 1 inch. It was Kalitta’s 39th career win over Schumacher. Only Clay Millican’s first-round run of 3.824 seconds at 327.59 mph was better than Schumacher’s and Kalitta’s.

“It was a phenomenal race – there’s no other way to look at it,” said Schumacher, who entered the weekend with three Mile High Nationals titles and nine final-round appearances in all. “You could be upset that the race is over, but you can’t be upset with what we did. It would’ve beat every other car but one with the reaction time and the ET (elapsed time) and we lost by one 10,000th of a second. We could say it put a hole out or some other excuse but it doesn’t matter because it was a great race. The car ran what we wanted it to run, I left like I wanted to leave, it was a phenomenal race. That’s just two drivers cowboying up and the fans got the win there. They paid money to watch that particular run. I said it was going to be a great race and it was.”

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The U.S. Army driver trio of Leah Pritchett, Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown all made gains in Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions for this weekend’s 39th annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado, with Pritchett keeping the No. 1 qualifier spot in track-record fashion, and Schumacher and Brown moving up to Nos. 7 and 8, respectively, on the elimination ladder.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), a three-time Mile-High Nationals winner and five-time runner-up, had another solid pair of runs today, opening with an effort of 3.870 seconds at 324.59 mph that was third-best in the session, and finishing with a run of 3.834 seconds at 325.37 mph that earned him a first-round matchup Sunday against longtime rival and No. 10 qualifier Doug Kalitta.

“It’s a great first-round matchup – those are the rise-to-the-occasion moments that are always good, makes it good for the fans, makes it good for the teams, gets everybody pumped up,” said Schumacher, who last won this event in 2016. “We’re not going to look for how we can just slide it down the racetrack, we’ll look for how we can win the race right from the first push of the pedal. We’ll race the track, it doesn’t matter who’s in the other lane, but we’ll have to push it more than we would, normally. Now, after running four qualifying sessions at night, we have to adapt to racing in the heat of the day starting at 11 o’clock tomorrow. We did that at Bristol and we won the event with good notes to go off of. It’s going to be hot and slippery and we know how to slide the car down the track. All I can say is, we’re going to show up for the game.”

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