U.S. Army Duo Looks To Build Momentum at Brainerd as Countdown Nears
BRAINERD, MN – Down to the final two events of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series regular season, the 
name of the game for the U.S. Army Top Fuel duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown is all about momentum.
It all starts with this weekend’s 36th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway and finishes with the “Grandaddy of them All” two weeks hence at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) arrive in Minnesota this week looking to elevate their game to the level at which they were racking up round wins by the bushel in Sunday eliminations over the opening six events of the season. A similar six-pack of event results during the six-event Countdown to the Championship playoffs would almost certainly put the team in prime position to up Schumacher’s record total of career Top Fuel titles to nine.
“The Sarge” closed the recent three-event Western Swing with a second-round loss to DSR teammate Leah Pritchett at Pacific Raceways on the outskirts of Seattle, but he did inch closer to his milestone 800th career round win when he beat Troy Coughlin Jr., in the first round for career round win No. 799. He would love nothing more than to leave Brainerd having moved that number to 803 and hoisting a Wally first-place trophy for the second time this season. It would be the perfect momentum builder heading to the regular-season finale at Indy, which Schumacher has won a record 10 times, including last year.
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster team for DSR, meanwhile, are oozing in momentum after a near sweep of the Western Swing. They won the opener of the grueling three-event summer stretch at the Mile-High Nationals near Denver, and closed with the win at Seattle. In-between was a close runner-up finish at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. The Seattle win vaulted Brown, winner of the last two Top Fuel world titles and three in all, back into first place in the latest standings. He has been a model of consistency of late with seven final-round appearances in the last nine events, and nine final-round appearances over the season’s first 16 events.
Schumacher is a three-time event titlist and three-time runner-up at Brainerd while Brown has one Top Fuel title and two runner-up finishes at Brainerd to go with his four Brainerd titles in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. A year ago at Brainerd, Brown qualified No. 1 and Schumacher No. 4. They met in the semifinal round where Brown prevailed before dropping his final-round matchup against Brittany Force.
Look for the U.S. Army duo and their respective teams to pull out all the stops this weekend in the interests of building more of that all-important momentum with playoff time approaching.
Qualifying for the 36th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals begins Friday afternoon with FS1 providing two hours of delayed coverage at 10 p.m. EDT both Friday and Saturday. Sunday’s elimination rounds will be broadcast live on FS1 beginning at 2 p.m.
TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing
You’re down to the final two regular-season events. What are your thoughts as you head to Brainerd to try and build some momentum for the Countdown?
“Things are shaping up to be those same, fast conditions at Brainerd this weekend like we are used to there. Two years ago, people were laying down record runs left and right. The fans are going to see some outstanding racing. We’re in one of those rough stretches which happen in this sport, no matter who you are. There’s not really a chance to catch the three drivers in front of us in the standings with just two events left in the regular season. But we need to work really hard to keep those folks behind us right where they are. We just have to do what we know how to do and try and try and head into the Countdown on a high note. The biggest reason our U.S. Army team is successful is because of its commitment to be the best and that starts with (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler). Those guys are phenomenal, and the rest of the guys follow their lead. Every one of them is vital to us being successful. They all have their role and have to be great at their jobs. We compete against great drivers and teams and, if we aren’t at our best, then we will get beat. Experience plays a big factor. They’ve been through the battles. When it comes time for those quick turnarounds and making sure everything is perfect, that’s when their talents come out even more. It’s a privilege for me to get in that U.S. Army car and look out and see my nine guys. I know I’ve always got a great chance just because of the work those guys do.”
Brainerd is said to be very similar to Seattle in the area of horsepower potential. Are there certain nuances about the racetracks you visit that you especially look for throughout the season?
“If a track has nuances, they don’t tell me about them. I don’t want to know. Unless there’s a groove I have to drive around, I don’t want to know about any of that stuff. The crew does its job and I do mine. I always say the mind can hold seven things in it. That’s why phone numbers have seven digits. There’s a reason for that. The more you tell a driver to watch for and do, the more he’s going to make mistakes. I like to say I’m a machine. I want to get in the car and be exact and do the same thing every time. Throw another thing in there and say, ‘Watch for this,’ and the potential to make mistakes increases. I think my guys are really good about knowing that. Likewise, I don’t have to get out of the car and tell them what it did. I don’t have to. We have computers for that. I drive the car and do my best to keep it in the groove and go straight, leave on time, and do the same thing every time so they don’t have to worry about the driver. We’ve been doing it this way for a long, long time and it’s a proven approach that works.”
ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing
You’re back in the Top Fuel points lead after reaching seven of the last nine final rounds and winning three of those. Safe to say you are building momentum as we head to Brainerd just two events from the end of the regular season?
“Think about it – we did that good with seven finals in nine races and we just got the lead back by only 13 points with the win at Seattle. That shows you how tough this field is. All these cars are just stepping up to the plate. I never imagined that you could say you have 12 that could win on any given Sunday, but now’s the time. It was just a blessing to get those wins under our belts (at Denver and Seattle). We’ve been to a lot of finals, but we only have four race wins out of nine finals this year. We aren’t even 50-50 right now. We have to do a lot better than that. But, in the big picture, we’re in the position that we want to be in at the right time, but there’s still two races left, especially with Indy being points-and-a-half. So it’s still anybody’s ball game, but the thing is we are making points up now. We just need to keep putting points on the board. We had the points lead before, so right now it feels good. Now we just need to keep doing what we have to do and keep plugging like we have been.”
With your Seattle win two weekends ago, you’re just three even titles behind Joe Amato for third place on the all-time Top Fuel win list. Your thoughts on that?
“I’m speechless about that. Joe is from Pennsylvania and he’s always been one of my big heroes from back in the day of watching this sport. He used to win like it was going out of style. In our profession, we never know when your next win is going to come. You can win a race now and then and not win again for another two years. We’re going to ride this wave and keep pushing as hard as we can. This makes you feel like you’re in some good company to be mentioned with Prudhomme, Amato – that’s history. People like that are what made this sport what it is today. It’s really the team that I’m with. We’ve got an all-star cast. We all have a passion for what we do. We don’t even have to talk about it, we can just look at each other and communicate. When you gel like that, these types of things happen.”
