Schumacher gives U.S. Army a Wally trophy to help celebrate 240th birthday, Johnson reaches final round for Make-A-Wish in Funny Car

EPPING, NH – It was a banner day to be a multi-time NHRA Mello Yello Series champion and that was highlighted by Tony “the Sarge” Schumacher’s 79th career victory on the 240th birthday of the U.S. Army. It also is Schumacher’s 75th win flying the black and gold colors of the U.S. Army.

A day after earning his 78th career No. 1 qualifying position, the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history dispersed of Morgan Lucas, Clay Millican, DSR teammate Spencer Massey and three-time series champion Larry Dixon to earn a second consecutive Wally trophy at New England Dragway. It was Schumacher’s 720th NHRA elimination round win as the Army team won from the pole.

“There’s only one race a year you can do that on, so it’s very special,” Schumacher said of winning on the U.S. Army’s birthday. “To go out there and qualify No. 1, the odds are against you. People think it’s easy to win from the No. 1 spot, but it’s difficult. It was a rough first round, but Mike (Green) and Neal (Strausbaugh) made the correct changes to go fast and we won the race.”

In the Funny Car final, Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T driver Tommy Johnson came up just short against John Force in a close drag race. Johnson left the starting line first, but Force had just enough horsepower to score the narrow win 4.160 to 4.195. Johnson had defeated Bob Tasca III, Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force in the first three rounds. It was Johnson’s slowest elapsed time of the weekend after earning his 11th career No. 1 qualifying position at 4.047 secs. on Saturday.

“The team is back on track and running really good numbers, it’s unfortunate that we had a mechanical issue in the final,” Johnson said of his match against Force. “It was a really good weekend as a whole and we’re back on track with the Make-A-Wish car. The confidence level is through the moon for the team. To run like we did all weekend at Epping and knowing we’re going to Bristol, a race we won last year, gets us all excited.”

In other DSR Top Fuel action, Massey in the Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher dragster posted his fourth semifinal finish of the season, while Antron Brown remains the point’s leader despite an opening round loss for Matco Tools.

While Johnson reached his 26th career NHRA final round, the other DSR Dodge Funny Cars teams struggled with the tricky New England Dragway strip. Last week’s winner Matt Hagan for Rocky Boots and Mopar Express Lane bested colleague Jack Beckman’s Infinite Hero Charger R/T in round one. Hagan fell to Force in round two. Ron Capps, who won the Epping race last June, lost a close opening round race to Alexis DeJoria. The team DSR Funny Cars now rank 1 (Hagan), 2 (Capps), 5 (Johnson) and 6 Beckman in the Mello Yello standings.

Schumacher was joined in the Epping winner’s circle by Force and Greg Anderson.

Schumacher’s triumph was win No. 253 for DSR. Team DSR has 13 wins in 10 races this season.