DSR’s Beckman, Schumacher use track record runs at Las Vegas to hold provisional poles in longshot battles to stay in hunt
LAS VEGAS – Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army arrived at Las Vegas knowing their backs were against the wall if 
they were to earn a ninth NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championship.
Despite being ranked sixth and a nearly insurmountable 192 points out of first, Schumacher with crew chief Mike Green and assistant Phil Shuler produced The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway records with an elapsed-time of 3.673 seconds and speed of 332.67 mph, which is his career best.
“I was pretty sure that 3.67 was going to hold for the top spot,” said Schumacher, who has been a fixture in the media center at Las Vegas during his career where he has won nine poles and eight event titles. “That 3.67 was such a good run, it forces people to go out and try a little too hard a lot of times.”
“Let’s remember we have won this race a lot of times and we have more data than just about everyone else here. We have a good quality map of this place. Yes, it is a different racetrack under different situations. It’s hard to run great here, but we are able to make those kind of runs with the U.S. Army car because of the outstanding notes and ability of the incredible people working together on this team that made it happen. They evaluated the situation and made good decisions and we made a great run tonight.
“Look, we qualify fine, but we race terrible right now (on Sunday). And we have to change that. I don’t care where we qualify, we’ve got to win the race.”
Joining Schumacher with provisional No. 1 positions heading to Saturday’s last two qualifying sessions before Sunday’s eliminations is Jack Beckman and Terry and Doug Chandler’s Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil led by crew chiefs Dean Antonelli, John Medlen and Neal Strausbaugh who were best in the early evening session and quickest of the day with a track-record time of 3.867 seconds at 329.50 mph.
“I didn’t think it would stand up,” he said of registering the record time early in the session. “In night sessions the track is going to continue to cool off and when you run early like we did it shows the other teams what the track is capable of. To watch it stand as No. 1 surprised me.”
Don Schumacher Racing’s Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars Powered by Pennzoil were the quickest in both of Friday’s qualifying sessions of the 17th annual NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
DSR teammate and points leader Ron Capps with the NAPA AUTO PARTS team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane pushed their Dodge to a time of 3.916 (325.06) to earn three bonus points by leading the pack in the first session of the 17th annual Las Vegas Nationals.
Capps started the day leading Robert Hight by 24 points in the next-to-last race of the season and now leads by 26 after Hight earned one point in the last session.
