Schumacher, U.S. Army team earn second straight pole, Hagan, Beckman in Bristol Funny Car top-three for DSR

BRISTOL, TN – Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team led by crew chief Mike Green Saturday set a track record for the second consecutive night at Bristol Dragway in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals to earn their second consecutive No. 1 qualifying position.

Schumacher, the eight-time and reigning Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion, had a time of 3.745 seconds at 326.08 mph Saturday night after several rain delays moved the last of four qualifying sessions to mid-evening about three hours past the originally scheduled time.

Schumacher’s Don Schumacher Racing teammate and Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan and the Rocky Boots/Mopar team led by crew chief Dickie Venables nearly made it a DSR sweep of the poles when he qualified second with a time of 3.996 (322.04) to John Force’s track-record time of 3.978.

Jack Beckman, driving DSR’s Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T matched Hagan’s time in the last qualifying session but will be seeded third because Hagan had the higher speed on their respective runs.

“It was the best one that’s ever been seen here,” he said of his record run. “It’s great except it was on a 91-degree racetrack and we won’t see that unless we were racing tomorrow night,” said Schumacher, who has won five Thunder Valley Nationals titles at the track.”

Schumacher, who was quickest in three of the four sessions, believes what the team learned last weekend en route to winning the Top Fuel title at Epping, N.H., will help more on Sunday racing in the heat of the day that qualifying runs at Bristol.

“Those runs last week in the heat are going to be just as much if not more important for us tomorrow. This morning, we tried some different stuff that didn’t work and we learned. When you go out and run fastest in your first and second runs, you can do that.”

DSR teammates Spencer Massey (Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant) qualified No. 4 with Saturday’s nighttime run of 3.768 (313.72) and Antron Brown (Matco Tools/U.S. Army) is No. 6 with a 3.770 (318.39).

For Hagan, Sunday’s race has added importance because Bristol Dragway is his home track and less than a two-hour drive from his home in Christiansburg, Va., so his 8-year-old son Colby and father David Hagan will join him at the track for Father’s Day.

“I really can’t tell you how special that would be to me,” Hagan said of having them join him in the winner’s circle. “My dad has done so much for me and taught me so much that I would love to be able to meet him in the winner’s circle on Sunday and give him that Wally trophy. To have my son here for a win would be amazing too. That would be pretty close to a perfect day.”

Hagan’s DSR teammates Ron Capps (NAPA AUTO PARTS) is qualified No. 8 and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Make-A-Wish) will start 11th.