Mission Accomplished: Schumacher Clinches Eighth Title
It’s official: U.S. Army driver Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher has clinched the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world 
championship Saturday by virtue of an insurmountable points lead heading into Sunday’s elimination rounds of the 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.
The championship ups Schumacher’s record number of Top Fuel titles to eight and is his first since winning his record sixth consecutive title in 2009. He won his first in 1999. The driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) heads into Sunday eliminations with a 105-point lead over DSR teammate Spencer Massey, his nearest pursuer in the Top Fuel standings. Schumacher will be looking for his sixth event title of the season and fourth in the six-race Countdown to the Mello Yello Championship playoffs Sunday.
“Just outstanding,” Schumacher said after solidifying the No. 9 qualifying position and watching Massey haze his tires in an effort to improve upon his No. 6 position in the fourth and final qualifying round. “It’s definitely different sitting back and watching somebody else than it is sitting in the (driver’s) seat trying to accomplish the task at hand. What a gift to be part of the U.S. Army and to have this opportunity. I’m so excited for Mello Yello, for the NHRA, what a great sanctioning body.
To pull it off just goes to show you what a great group of nine guys I have and the guys back at the shop and all over. What a blessing. I think the turning point in the Countdown was running (Doug) Kalitta in (the semifinals at Maple Grove Raceway in) Reading – that was huge. He went out and ran a 73 (3.73 seconds) and we beat him and it was just a lucky break. It really is what it all came down to. That’s an amazing team and they dominated all year long. It’s just the way the Countdown format is set up. But that was a huge, huge run. That particular run set the stage for us. If we didn’t win the race, it was one of those make-it-or-break-it things. But early on, winning the first two races (at Charlotte and Dallas), having so much success, that kind of broke everyone’s back and it put us on the offensive and everyone else started battling for that second-place spot.”
Schumacher entered the weekend with a 109-point lead over Massey and the DSR teammates battled it out over the four qualifying rounds Friday and Saturday with Massey able to shave only four points off the deficit.
After posting the third-fastest qualifying run of the day Friday, Schumacher returned to close the day Saturday with a run of 3.761 seconds at 321.27 mph that left him ninth in the final qualifying order. He hazed the tires during today’s opening qualifying session. Schumacher will meet No. 8 qualifier Larry Dixon in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.
Meanwhile, numerous Top Fuel competitors flirted with the track record throughout the day Saturday and, in the final qualifying session, Richie Crampton of Morgan Lucas Racing managed to lay down a stunner at 3.711 seconds at 316.30 mph that beat Kalitta’s previous track elapsed-time record of 3.713 seconds at 330.15 mph set in February.
Schumacher’s DSR teammate and fellow U.S. Army driver Antron Brown, the 2012 Top Fuel world champion, continued a stellar weekend of his own by laying down the second-fastest qualifying run of the weekend in today’s final session – a run of 3.720 seconds at 319.07 mph. That earned him a first-round meeting with No. 15 qualifier Clay Millican in Sunday’s first round of eliminations in his quest to up his series-high total of event titles this season to seven.
“We’re very happy,” said Brown, who also laid down the second-fastest run of today’s opening session with an effort of 3.757 seconds at 322.58 mph. “The thing about it is, you’re coming to the last race of the year and you want to bring home that win for Team Matco and Toyota and all of our Army Soldiers and we’re pushing hard. We had a couple of mishaps in the Countdown and we just want to make up for it at this last race and end the year on a good note. We’re going to hold our heads up going into next year and we’re going to have some energy and we’re going to work hard next year and we plan to come out with our new combination and see what we can do, see how consistent we can be. We’ll try to gear up for the Countdown. We know now that you have to plan and build toward the Countdown to the Championship and the first half of the year really means nothing. That’s our goal for next year. This year, the Army team has done a great job doing what’s needed to be done when the Countdown came. Hats off to Mike Green and Neal Strausbaugh, all the Army boys and Tony for achieving another great championship. They did a great job and we’re just happy it comes back home to the DSR house. Meanwhile, for us tomorrow, it’s very important to get that seventh win of the season, but we’re not even going to go into tomorrow thinking about that. We’ll think about each and every round to get busy with. Relax and go hard, and hopefully by the end of the day we’ll be in the final and then we can start thinking about that seventh race win.”
Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. EST Sunday with ESPN2’s delayed three-hour broadcast set for 7:30 p.m. ESPN2’s delayed qualifying broadcast featuring Friday and Saturday’s action is set for 3 a.m. Sunday and will be rebroadcast at 3 p.m.
