Texas Puts a Damper on U.S. Army Title Hopes

Shots at Runaway Points Leaders by Schumacher, Pritchett Come Up Short

The U.S. Army trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett each had a solid start to Sunday’s elimination rounds of the 33rd annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, but their chances to derail the hottest two drivers in the Countdown to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Championship playoffs came up just short.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) had a shot at eliminating runaway points leader Steve Torrence in the Top Fuel semifinals but smoked his tires, while Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR did the same in her second-round matchup against the red-hot Clay Millican, who’s second in the points and qualified No. 1 for the ninth time this season here this weekend. As a result, the U.S. Army trio will start the second half of the six-event playoffs third, fourth and fifth in the points but with a mountain to climb if they are to catch Torrence and Millican.

After a stellar final qualifying run late Saturday vaulted Schumacher to the No. 3 spot on the elimination ladder, “The Sarge” laid down a smooth and steady opening-round win over No. 14 qualifier Shawn Reed. The U.S. Army car crossed the finish line in 3.747 seconds at 325.69 mph to Reed’s solid 3.900 seconds at 283.01 mph. That set up a meeting with Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR for the third time in the last six events. Schumacher was solid and steady once again with a run of 3.817 seconds at 323.89 mph while Brown smoked his tires midway down the track and crossed the finish line in 4.131 seconds at 241.15 mph.

Trailing Torrence by 125 points at the start of the day, Schumacher and the U.S. Army team were hoping to begin turning the playoff momentum in their favor with the chance to leave Texas having significantly downsized that deficit. But it was not meant to be as Schumacher smoked his tires at halftrack and had to settle for a run of 4.917 seconds at 166.64 mph to Torrence’s 3.779 seconds at 321.73 mph. Torrence went on to win the event, his third in three playoff events and eighth overall this season.

“We came here in the hunt, even though we may not be leaving here in the hunt, but we finally figured out two dramatic issues with our U.S. Army car,” said Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver at the Texas Motorplex with six career event titles. “Now we can run at the level we need to run at. We may not win a championship with it because it might be too late. If we go off and beat Torrence right now and win the championship after struggling the way we have lately, it’s almost disrespectful to the sport. Have we pulled off things like that before? No. We’ve won races but we’ve always done it in some dramatic form and, right now, winning off of some luck would not be the way we would want to do it. We do have a great car after this weekend. But we’re down to 12 rounds and he’s a lot of rounds ahead of us. He’s got to go out in the first round at the next three races and we have to win them all. Is it impossible? No, but he’s dominated this year. If he wins the championship, I’ll be proud to call him champ. His team’s led the way all year, and Clay’s done the same thing. So, let’s watch them battle it. We’ll see if we can get in everybody’s way and see if we can earn some points and finish off the season No. 1, 2 or 3 but, realistically, we didn’t have that championship car until this weekend. We’re just getting back to that point.”

After a consistent  two days of qualifying during which Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster team for DSR were uncharacteristically searching for speed, the three-time champion opened the day with his best run of the weekend in disposing of No. 6 qualifier Doug Kalitta. Brown crossed the stripe in 3.777 seconds at 323.43 mph to Kalitta’s 3.781 seconds at 326.71 mph in a tight battle. He then was unable to get past his second-round matchup against Schumacher, their third meeting in the last six events.

“It wasn’t the day we wanted,” said Brown, who was chasing his fourth career Dallas event title this weekend, third in the Top Fuel class after the first ever Wally he won here in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class in 1999. “We started off in E1 the way we wanted to, but we’re just going through the second-round blues, right now. We went out there and it got through the clutch too much and it dropped a hole. Then the clutch caught up with the engine and it just spun the tires. We’ve just got to keep working hard. We know we are right on the cusp of some great things, but we just have to make it happen right now. We have three races left in the Countdown to the Championship. We’re sitting solid in fifth place, but that’s not where we want to be. We want to be in the top-three. We still have a shot for that. Our main focus is just to go back and regroup and we have to come out swinging in Charlotte next weekend. We can’t race scared, we just have to go out there and throw it down.”

Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster team for DSR weathered their qualifying gremlins from Saturday with a solid run of their own to open the day of competition. Her effort of 3.831 seconds at 324.20 mph was plenty enough to beat No. 8 qualifier Kebin Kinsley, who smoked his tires a halftrack and coasted across the line. That set up Pritchett’s second-round meeting with Millican, who’s been hot on the heels of Torrence through the first three playoff events. This time it was Pritchett who smoked her tires at halftrack after dropping a cylinder at the starting line and Millican was able to get away cleanly, illuminating the win light in 3.783 seconds at 321.50 mph.

“Some people say the glass is half empty or half full. For us, we think it’s half full. We’ve experienced gremlins we’ve never experienced before in Dallas. We thought we had them completely flushed under after a not really good day of qualifying on Saturday. Were able to fix it and get that first-round win. But, with the boost problems we’d been having, that resulted in a cylinder dropping at the hit in the second round. It would’ve been awesome for everybody, including us, to take out Clay so we could climb higher into the championship chase. This Mopar/U.S. Army team is undoubtedly still in it and we are looking forward to still chasing it and we’re definitely not counting this team or this car or any of the guys out. We have a couple of things to fix and I have confidence in this team that we will turn it around. I’ll tell you what, for the fans and the people who are watching this Countdown, it’s going to get interesting and it’s going to be good and we’re going to give it absolutely everything we have because that’s what we do.”

After 21 of 24 events on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour for 2018, the top-10 drivers in the Top Fuel class are:

1. Steve Torrence (2,468 points)

2. Clay Millican (2,365 points, -103)

3. Tony Schumacher (2,303 points, -165)

4. Leah Pritchett (2,244 points, -224)

5. Antron Brown (2,221 points, -247)

6. Terry McMillen (2,189 points, -279)

7. Doug Kalitta (2,169 points, – 299)

8. Mike Salinas (2,150 points, -318)

9. Brittany Force (2,140 points, -328)

10. Scott Palmer (2,117 points, -351)

Next up is next week’s NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, North Carolina, round four of the six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Live television coverage of Sunday’s elimination rounds begins on FS1 at 2 p.m. EDT.