U.S. Army NHRA Racing – 27th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals Friday Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army Top Fuel duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown kicked off the second leg of the NHRA Mello Yello 
Drag Racing Series Western Swing by each posting a pair of solid passes to open the 27th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. After possessing mental, emotional and physical strength like no other reflective of the more than one Army Strong Soldiers they represent, Schumacher ranks third and Brown fourth with two qualifying sessions set for Saturday.
Schumacher was consistent driving the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) landing third after each session. He opened qualifying with a pass of 3.887 seconds at 304.05 mph and backed that up a run of 3.793 seconds at 323.43 mph in Friday’s critical night session.
“It was a really good day for the U.S. Army team,” said Schumacher, the 2007 & 2008 Sonoma winner. “We made two really solid runs and (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) made some great calls today. We were able to put ourselves in a good position on the ladder. It’s what we expected to do. We can come back tomorrow and actually work on getting ourselves ready for Sunday. The schedule the last few events hasn’t quite given us those opportunities. I’m happy we’ll get to run in conditions tomorrow that will be similar to what we’ll have in eliminations. It’s going to be a great opportunity for the U.S. Army team display a level of engineering and teamwork reflective of the Army’s leading-edge technology and the powerful, realistic training of its Soldiers.”
Brown, the only five-time Top Fuel winner in 2014, came out on a mission in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster for DSR by laying down a monster first pass in extremely warm conditions. The 2012 Top Fuel champion posted a pass of 3.864 seconds at 313.22 mph to grab the top spot in the opening session. He backed that up with another strong pass of 3.796 seconds at 319.60 mph to grab the fourth spot.
“We feel real good about our two qualifying runs today,” said Brown, a three-time Sonoma Top Fuel winner. “The thing about that last run you can go two ways. You can go for that number one spot or you can simply try to improve and stay in the top half. We were trying to make a good run, somewhere between a 3.77 and 3.78. If you go out there, get too aggressive and smoke the tires, then you are on the outside looking in. Tomorrow the conditions are not going to be better, so the Matco Tools/U.S. Army guys made a great call. We are in a good qualifying position. And tomorrow, we can focus on making some quality runs in the heat and get ready for Sunday. We feel real good about the position we are in and we’ll keep on pressing forward.”
Top Fuel qualifying continues Saturday with third- and final-round sessions set for 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. EDT. ESPN2’s delayed qualifying coverage begins at 7 p.m.
