U.S. Army NHRA Racing 26th Annual NHRA Kansas Nationals Friday Qualifying Report

A rain-shortened opening day of qualifying for this weekend’s 26th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals ended with Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher posting the third-best run of the day in the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) Friday afternoon at Heartland Park Topeka.

Schumacher and his DSR team showed that only the strongest wear the colors of the U.S. Army, and the Army NHRA partnership provides Americans a platform to experience the speed, power, teamwork and technology that drives that strength. Schumacher laid down a solid run of 3.791 seconds at 322.96 mph, which was bested only by provisional top qualifier J.R. Todd of Kalitta Motorsports and Steve Torrence of Capco Racing.

Light but steady rain arrived at the track shortly before Friday’s second scheduled qualifying session was set to start, prompting NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series officials to cancel the session.

“It was a good run,” said Schumacher, who scored his lone career Heartland Park event title in 2010 and was top qualifier here in 2012 before reaching last year’s final round of eliminations. “You hate to go out and have a great run like that and still be third and five-hundredths slower than the first car. Obviously, there’s a lot more racetrack than anybody anticipated including, I’m sure, the guys who qualified No. 1. Nobody went out there trying to run a 74 (3.74 seconds). I guess, when you’ve got a car like that, and his teammate (Doug) Kalitta is out in front in the championship, you’ve got the other car you can throw everything at.

That’s a good way to do it. It’s smart thinking. They did what they had to do. Sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the way to figure it out. If that’s it until Sunday because of any weather issues tomorrow, then we’ll just go out and race on Sunday. We’ve got a car that goes down the track almost every run right now and it’s looking really good. You know, every time we are on the track, this U.S. Army Racing team demonstrates the same attributes the Army looks for in its Soldiers – putting the mission first, a never-quit attitude and a refusal to accept defeat. We’ll just keep soldiering on and win this darn race and start catching the points leader.”

Meanwhile, DSR teammate Antron Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster lost traction during the opening qualifying session and shut his racecar down well before the finish line. Brown was listed 14th fastest with a run of 5.499 seconds at 124.41 mph. Only 16 Top Fuel Dragsters are entered here this weekend.

“The track was really good, we were just a little weak on power off the line,” said Brown, who’s already a three-time event winner this season. “We took off and didn’t have enough momentum, and then the clutch came on too fast and picked up the tires in the middle. So we’ll get after it tomorrow and try to move ourselves up as far as we can in the order, Mother Nature permitting.”

The final two Top Fuel qualifying sessions are set for 2 and 4:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. Local weather forecasters are calling for a 65 percent chance of rain through the afternoon hours.

ESPN2’s two-hour qualifying show begins at 6 p.m. Saturday while its three-hour coverage of the elimination rounds begins at 10 p.m. Sunday