Schumacher, Scag Top Fuel Team Continue to see Progress during Houston Outing

BAYTOWN, TX – Tony Schumacher and the Scag Power Equipment team were solid during qualifying at the final running of the NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park. Out of the gate, Schumacher posted a 3.720 E.T. on Friday night, and on Saturday afternoon, the Scag Top Fueler was one of only two cars to make it down the track in the heat of the day, laying down an impressive 3.801-second pass while nearly all nitro-burning teams struggled to adapt to the challenging conditions.

Schumacher started race day from the No. 8 seed to draw No. 9 qualifier Mike Salinas as his first-round opponent. In the NHRA ‘Top Fuel Marquee Match-up’ battle between the two top 10 ranked drivers, the win light went to Salinas. Both drivers smoked the tires early, and both pedaled, but Salinas was able to cross the beams first for the round win.

“The car is obviously great, and we’ve got a great team,” said Schumacher, who departs Houston ranked seventh. “It may not look that way on paper though, and unfortunately, people go off the numbers in drag racing but the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely bright. My team is picking away at it, and we’re taking small steps toward it and pretty soon, we’ll be able to take bigger leaps.

“What was great about this race here in Houston was that even though we didn’t have a great race day, the Scag Power Equipment folks that came out to support us were saying that this was such an awesome event, and they loved seeing the grandstands packed. Everything about this weekend was great other than the results on race day. I’ve been doing this a long, long time. You’ll have awesome days, and you’ll have days that are a little less than awesome. There are no bad days in a job where you get to drive a race car and drive 330-miles-per-hour. You’ve got to dig through adversity when it happens, and in this sport, it’ll happen quite often but at the end of the day, we’ve got a great race team and a beautiful car, and God bless Texas.”

Qualified: No. 8 (3.720 E.T. at 326.79 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 4.860 E.T. at 170.34 MPH defeated by Mike Salinas 4.192 E.T. at 297.42 MPH