Championship Race Tightens for U.S. Army Duo

Schumacher Jumps to Third, Brown Maintains His Hold on First Place at NHRA Midwest Nationals 

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher came agonizingly close to his third NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series victory of the season during Sunday’s elimination rounds of the fifth annual NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park in the St. Louis suburb of Madison, Illinois. But the eight-time Top Fuel world champion and driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) still had two simple words of encouragement heading into the final four Countdown to the Championship events of 2016 – “game on.”

Schumacher’s quest for his record ninth career world title got a tremendous boost with his march to this afternoon’s Top Fuel final while points leader, DSR teammate and fellow U.S. Army driver Antron Brown made an uncharacteristic first-round exit. “The Sarge” began the weekend in fifth place in the standings, 127 points behind Brown, but heads to next weekend’s third of six Countdown events at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pennsylvania in third place, just 54 points out of the championship lead.

He did it by qualifying second late Saturday, then beating Chris Karamesines, Leah Pritchett and J.R. Todd in today’s opening three elimination rounds to set up a meeting with another fellow DSR driver, Shawn Langdon, in the Top Fuel final.

A model of consistency today, Schumacher beat Karamesines with a run of 3.785 seconds at 322.96 mph in the first round, then DSR’s fourth Top Fuel driver Pritchett in the second round with a run of 3.767 seconds at 321.42 mph, and finally eliminated Todd in the semifinal round with a run of 3.751 seconds at 326.71 mph. The latter run was the fastest Top Fuel run of the day.

In the Top Fuel final, Schumacher’s time of 3.783 seconds at 317.49 mph bested Langdon’s 3.798 seconds at 323.66 mph, but Langdon turned on the win light thanks to a holeshot, his reaction time of .032 of a second making the difference over Schumacher’s .064.

“I should’ve left with a .040 light, I just was late,” said Schumacher, admittedly happy about the Army team’s points day but not about his personal performance in his 143rd career final. “It’s the final round, I should’ve gone in a little deeper, whatever, darn it. Still, it was a great points day, a great race day. I just hate to get that close and not win it. Langdon’s always been a heck of a leaver and I had my worst light of the day and it was just bad timing. Normally, you can get away with it if one thing or the other happens. You can be late but still have the right things happen, but when you leave late and spin the tires at the same time – it was tiny, just whipping around like a little dogtail – man. Honestly, that last race didn’t work out for us but we knew had a car capable of winning this weekend and we’ll have one for the next four. The next four races we’re dominant at. Game on. We’re within striking distance of the people ahead of us. It was a good day for DSR all around. We’re now one, three and four in the Countdown. I just was driving too good all day to not have a .040 light on that last one. He’s a good driver, he’s qualified, he’s a champion, he’s excellent.”

It was the fourth meeting this season between Schumacher and Langdon, who evened the score at two wins apiece today. They last met in in June in the final round at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway, where Langdon also was victorious. Schumacher beat Langdon in the opening round at Gainesville, Florida in March, and again in the semifinals at Elizabethtown, New Jersey in June.

Meanwhile, Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR hit town with a full head of steam after winning last weekend’s Countdown opener at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, North Carolina and a series-high four event titles during the 18-event regular season. The two-time Top Fuel world champion began the weekend with a 42-point lead over second-place Doug Kalitta, a 100-point lead over third-place Steve Torrence, a 116-point lead over fourth-place Brittany Force, and the 127-point lead over Schumacher.

Coincidentally, it was No. 5 qualifier Langdon who put Brown, the No. 12 qualifier, out in the first round with a run of 3.771 seconds at 325.53 mph to Brown’s 3.774 seconds at 320.20 mph. Torrence also made a first-round exit, while Kalitta and Force each suffered second-round losses, opening the door for Schumacher and Langdon to take the third and fourth sports in the standings, respectively.

“It was a tough race,” said Brown, who had won this event each of the previous four seasons and also in 2010. “We fought hard – it was a hard-fought battle and (Langdon) did a really good job this weekend. With that, we’re just going to keep our heads forward, keeping our heads down, and the good part is we get to race again next week. We were in good position in the points, we were padded. We lost some but we still leave here in the top spot. Our main focus is to keep on working hard and pressing. I guarantee what it did was get all of us motivated even more. We’re definitely hungry and we’re in that race mode right now. Sometimes, you’ve got to get a tune-up and the Good Lord knows he tuned us up this weekend because we fought hard and we gave it all we had and we know we can press that much harder. That’s our focus right now, to go on to Reading and start off with qualifying, hit that Q1 hard, and get this Matco Tools/U.S. Army car where we know it needs to be.”