Johnson, Make-A-Wish Dodge earn first pole of season while Schumacher leads DSR dragsters to start Countdown

CONCORD, NC – Let the Countdown begin. The 10th edition of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff begins Sunday at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte with the first round of eliminations in the NHRA Carolina Nationals scheduled to begin at noon (ET).

Most drivers say an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season championship can’t be won in the first of six playoff events, but it can put a team in a deep hole.

All eight Don Schumacher Racing drivers – four in Top Fuel and four in Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars – are among the 10 championship contenders in each category vying for prestigious titles and $500,000 payoffs for their teams.

Although DSR’s Ron Capps (NAPA AUTO PARTS) and Antron Brown (Matco Tools/U.S. Army) won their respective regular season titles and started the weekend with 30-point leads, it was teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Make-A-Wish team led by crew chief John Collins and funded by Terry Chandler that stole the spotlight with a track-record time of 3.876 seconds on Friday night that held up for the team’s first No. 1 qualifying position through 19 Mello Yello events this year.

“I was a little selfish, hoping it would be hot and sunny today, and then the sun came back out and I thought we’d be OK,” Johnson said. “But it kept coming and going. I knew we’d have to be careful, but we weren’t backing off. We were standing on it in the heat, trying to get a good number for what we could run (Sunday). We definitely had an advantage after Friday, and we came into the last session confident that we would make a pretty nice run. We did.”

Last season, Johnson was on the pole at zMAX to start the Countdown and advanced to the final round on race day. Ultimately, Johnson finished the year No. 3 in points for the second consecutive season.

Close behind in qualifying is Capps, who with crew chief Rahn Tobler, extended his points lead to 42 after claiming seven of a possible 12 bonus points in qualifying when the quickest in each of four sessions gets three points, next best gets two and third quickest earns one.

Capps was second best in the first and second sessions on Friday, quickest in Saturday’s opening session but was shut out in the last session when the NAPA Dodge lost traction.

“We’ve worked real hard to come here and get a good start to the Countdown,” he said. “We want to gain every little point we can. Those two points in each of those sessions then being quickest in the heat (Saturday) is definitely what we’ve worked to achieve and those will be conditions that we’ll see tomorrow.

“We pushed a little hard in (the last session), but to win this you have to stay aggressive. It worked to our advantage on our first three runs.”

In Top Fuel, eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team with crew chief Mike Green is the top DSR entry and will start No. 3 on Sunday. On his heels is teammate Shawn Langdon (Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel) and crew chief Phil Shuler are fifth with the event’s top speed of 328.14 mph.

“We have a great opportunity tomorrow,” Schumacher said. “This is what we’ve worked for all season. It’s been about working toward a championship for Mike and (assistant crew chief Neal Strausbaugh) and all the U.S. Army Racing guys this entire season.

“I said it yesterday that you win races by making good runs time after time after time. Today, it was about preparing for what can expect weather-wise tomorrow. The U.S. Army car is responding extremely well to the changes Mike and Neal are making to it. I can’t wait to get back here tomorrow and race.”

Brown, who is qualified seventh, lost eight points of his lead and is 22 ahead of Doug Kalitta while Schumacher, ranked fourth, moved within 47 of Brown.

“Tomorrow is very important,” Brown said. “We definitely want to get off to a good start and just take it one round at a time. That’s going to be the key. This is what you strive for. This is what you live for.
“It’s not going to be easy and we’re just ready to get after it right now. My guys are honing in on it. The car is getting better and better.”