Top Fuel Title Picture in Focus for Army Duo

The championship picture became crystal clear for the U.S. Army Top Fuel driver duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown during Sunday’s elimination rounds of the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis.

While the eight-time world-champion Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) were unable to cash in on a solid second day of qualifying Saturday when they dropped their second-round matchup Sunday by the narrowest of margins, Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR took another giant step closer to clinching the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel title for the second year in a row and the third time in the last five seasons, beating local favorite Steve Torrence in today’s final.

Schumacher started the weekend fifth in the Top Fuel standings, 141 points behind the championship-leading Brown with three events to go. “The Sarge” and the U.S. Army team left the outskirts of Dallas 209 points back after getting beaten across the finish line on a holeshot by DSR teammate Shawn Langdon in today’s second round. Schumacher clocked in at 3.751 seconds at 322.73 mph with a reaction time of .134 of a second. Langdon’s reaction time of .055 of a second enabled him to illuminate the win light despite a slightly slower elapsed time of 3.756 seconds at 322.65 mph.

“That one’s definitely on me and I wish I had it to do over again because I decided to try something different in the way I stage the car,” said Schumacher, who rallied Saturday to qualify third and beat No. 14 qualifier Kebin Kinsley in today’s opening round with a run of 3.720 seconds at 327.11 mph. “Changing how I stage the car is something I tend to do every now and then. In this case, Shawn has always been an excellent leaver and he knows I like to go in quick (between the staging beams), so he’s been going in quick to keep me from doing that rather than letting me go in and sit there. I decided to let him go in this time and I waited, and then I started to go in, and I was expecting to leave but the light wasn’t on, yet. I was just amped up, the light wasn’t on, so I stopped. Then the light came on and I left and it just wasn’t quick enough. Part of me is just frustrated for letting that happen because this U.S. Army team, as it always does, gave me a bad-to-the-bone racecar again this weekend. We really needed to win this one and we needed for the Countdown (to the Championship) contenders ahead us in the standings to have problems. It wasn’t shaping up that way, to begin with. Antron and his team have been lights out all year, and they’re peaking here in the Countdown. They deserve to be on the verge of clinching the championship and, if we can’t be the ones to win the championship, we’re always rooting to keep it in the U.S. Army and DSR family. It’s on to the last two race for us and, like we do each and every weekend, we’ll be out to win the last two for the U.S. Army.”

Brown, meanwhile, had a very methodical start to his day after qualifying No. 1 for the third time this season and the 36th time in his Top Fuel career, opening with a first-round victory over No. 16 qualifier Chris Karamesines with a run of 3.709 seconds at 325.53 mph. That set the stage for a monster second-round matchup against Doug Kalitta, who started the weekend second in the standings, 77 points behind Brown. The Matco Tools/U.S. Army driver laid down another marvelous run of 3.729 seconds at 320.74 mph to beat Kalitta’s 3.733 seconds at 325.49 mph.

In the Top Fuel semifinals, Brown faced off against J.R. Todd and beat Kalitta’s teammate by 12-hundredths of a second with a run of 3.731 seconds at 319.52 mph, setting up the hotly contested Top Fuel final against Torrence.

Once again, Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster were machine-like in getting down the track cleanly in 3.744 seconds at 321.12 mph, beating Torrence, a native Texan, who crossed the finish line in 3.750 seconds at 323.12 mph.

It was the seventh win of the season for Brown, the third in the first four of six events of this year’s Countdown playoffs, and the 45th Top Fuel event title of his career.

“The dream is coming true today and it’s happening one round at a time,” said Brown, whose one and only previous event title at the Texas Motorplex came in 2012, the year he won his first to two Top Fuel world championships. “I am truly blessed to be on this team with (co-crew-chiefs) Brian (Corradi), Mark (Oswald) and all these Matco Tools/U.S. Army boys. We work hard and it’s a team effort. I’ve got to give a big shout-out to (DSR Funny Car crew chiefs) Jimmy Prock, John Medlen and also (DSR Funny Car assistant crew chief) Chris Cunningham. After St. Louis, we were a little down and they gave us the boost we needed when we stayed after and tested. We made some things happen and it’s paying big dividends right now. This competition is no joke. Look at that final right there, it’s Steve Torrence, a hometown boy – it was a tough matchup and I knew it was going to be tough. He threw down a great tree (reaction time), they threw down a great run, we threw down a great run, that race could’ve gone either way. That’s how all of our NHRA drag races have gone all year long and we’ve been fortunate to be on the right side of it. We’re just trying to make it happen and we love it.”