U.S. Army Duo Celebrates America’s Veterans and First Reponders As 2017 Season Comes to a Close with the 53rd NHRA Finals at Pomona

POMONA, CA – It will be a special weekend in more ways than one when the U.S. Army duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown and their respective NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series teams for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) arrive at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California for the 53rd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals.

There’s only a remote chance that one of the U.S. Army drivers will hoist the Top Fuel championship trophy for the third year in a row and the fifth time in the last six seasons after this weekend’s season finale, but Schumacher and Brown will still be in celebration mode with this year’s annual Veterans Day holiday taking place on Saturday.

While the NHRA concludes its season-long tribute to America’s first responders in grand style during Sunday’s driver introductions, Schumacher, Brown and their five fellow DSR competitors in the Top Fuel and Funny Car class will be accompanied on stage by U.S. Army Soldiers.

And Schumacher, the eight-time Top Fuel world champion and winningest driver in class history, has a special opportunity planned for U.S. Army veterans in attendance this weekend via his handle on Twitter (@TheSargeTF), starting with Friday qualifying.

On the racetrack, Schumacher and Brown find themselves sixth and fourth, respectively, in the Top Fuel standings behind points leader Steve Torrence, second-place Brittany Force and third-place Doug Kalitta, with DSR teammate Leah Pritchett between them in fifth.

Schumacher is 187 points behind Torrence, an eight-time event winner this season, and would be eliminated from championship contention with a successful qualifying run by Torrence Friday or Saturday. Brown, who clinched the last two Top Fuel titles even before arriving at Pomona the last two seasons, is 135 points behind Torrence and would be eliminated if Torrence gets past his first-round opponent in Sunday eliminations.

Despite the points scenarios, both Schumacher and Brown and their respective U.S. Army-backed teams are determined to finish the season this weekend with an all-important event title that would build early momentum toward their renewed efforts to return to championship form in 2018.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for DSR, of course, would love nothing more than to return to the form with which they started the season, when they reached four final rounds in the first seven events highlighted by a resounding event title at the prestigious Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida.

Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, meanwhile, will channel their success in the 18-event regular season during which they reached 10 final rounds and scored four event titles.

Qualifying for this weekend’s 53rd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals are set for Friday and Saturday afternoons with one hour of live coverage provided each day by FS1 – at 6:30 p.m. EST Friday and 6 p.m. EST Saturday. Three hours of live coverage of Sunday’s elimination rounds also will be carried by FS1 beginning at 4 p.m. EST.

TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing

It’s one of those rare seasons when you arrive at Pomona with the Top Fuel title all but mathematically out of reach. What are your thoughts as you return for this year’s season finale?

“Believe it or not, we’re really looking forward to it, which is pretty much the case every race weekend with this U.S. Army team. We want to say hats off to Steve Torrence for the incredible year he and his team have had, and to the teams that still have a shot at beating him for the championship. We’re also looking forward to an awesome bout between (Ron) Capps and (Robert) Hight for the Funny Car championship. You know, it’s always nice to once in a while enjoy someone else’s good fortune. We’re an awesome race team with an incredible winning record, a championship heritage. Having won championships, we can really enjoy someone else’s championship efforts because we know every little thing that goes into winning them, just what it takes to earn it. Capps is another of our DSR brethren and he’s on the verge of clinching his second straight championship. As for what we expect this weekend, it’ll be business as usual. We are going to try and win the race. We’re well aware of the points situation and the fact we can finish as high as third in the points if everything falls into place for us. That would be all well and good, but we’ve first got to go in with the mindset of trying to win this race. The points will take care of themselves, as they always do. If you’re not No. 1 at the end of the season, it really doesn’t matter where you end up, does it? It’s all about winning. This is the best time to win because, if you don’t, you really have a long wait until you get your next chance.”

Over the years, you’ve been in the championship picture right down to the final run at the Pomona finale. Is it strange to show up without at least a chance to win the title?

“We’re just going to go out and do our job, be a machine, do the same thing every time and try and try and try. The Army that we represent is the strength of our Nation, and the Soldiers are the strength of our Army. This Army-NHRA partnership we are so proud to be the focal point of provides Americans a platform to experience the power, speed, teamwork and technology that drives that strength. That said, I’m also proud to say there’s not a team out here that tries harder. There are a lot of teams out here that perform well, but there’s no one who works harder than my guys. At the end of the day, the kind of adversity we’ve faced this season is half the battle. It’s all about getting through the adversity, keeping us on the track and winning races. We may not be able to go out and win the championship this year, but we can change the direction of other stuff, so now the goal becomes going out with a win. We’ve just got to go out and make that happen so we can spend the winter remembering that we know how to win.”

You’ve had some truly memorable moments at the Pomona season finale during your career. Safe to say you have a real fondness for the place?

“Pomona’s been truly amazing for us over the years. To me, so many times, it’s been what every single American boy dreams of – you’re up to bat in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, full count. Whether you end up winning it or not, you’ve had that experience, you’ve lived that dream and, later in life, when you’re chatting about great moments you’d like to relive if you’re given the chance, Pomona is going to come up more than any of the others.”

ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing

The last two years, you arrived at the Pomona season finale having already clinched the Top Fuel world title. Although you are still mathematically alive for this year’s championship, you need a lot of help to make it three in a row. Your thoughts?

“We’ve just had things go wrong, things not go our way in this Countdown. Going out first round (two weeks ago at Las Vegas) really hurt our chances. We hadn’t done that all year. It’s just unfortunate. The Countdown is a bad time to have bad luck. But, the thing is, we know we can go out there and win this weekend and that’s what we plan to do. That’s all we can do. Everything else will be what it will be. We’ll go out there, race our race and see what pans out. At this point, we have nothing to lose so we might as well go out there and win.”

With nothing to lose, as you say, what changes may you make in the team or in the car, or might you do some things differently?

“Well, when we come to Pomona, I can tell you one thing – that when we race at certain races, we race strategy – we race the racetrack, and I’d be lying to you, you look at your competitors and you try and look and see what you need to run to win that round. That gives you the best percentage value to win that round. That’s what everybody does in statistics, and we go in there and we go, ‘All right, we need to run this.’ Well, Pomona, the cool part is that we’re going to go out there and we’re going to run hard, and the good part is we have nothing to lose, and we can go out there and we can try to rotate the earth. We just hope the earth goes with us so we can actually make some world record-setting runs and have some fun with it. And then, on race day, we’re going to race to win. We’re going to push a little harder than we normally push, but we’re going to push because you have to now to win a round of racing, whoever you race, because all these cars are running so good. Everybody, every team out there is capable of breaking a world record at any given time if the conditions yield it. So, you have to go out there and run and make those runs, you have to go out there and give it your best shot so you can go there and have a shot at winning the race. Well, when you have a shot, you can make it to the finals but, to get there, you have to get through some serious competition.”