U.S. Army NHRA Racing 32nd Annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals Friday Qualifying Report 

The U.S. Army driver duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown are second and third on the provisional ladder after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 32nd annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis.

Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) opened the day with the fifth-best run of the first qualifying session, 3.793 seconds at 324.75 mph. He closed the evening with a stellar run of 3.692 seconds at 327.66 mph that was bested only by local favorite Steve Torrence’s run of 3.682 seconds at 327.51, which equaled the track elapsed time record set a year ago this weekend.

“It was an outstanding run considering there’s an incredibly fine line between going for it too much and not enough in these conditions on this track tonight,” said Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in Texas Motorplex history with six event titles. “We made an extremely good run and theirs (Steve Torrence) was a little better. They’re No. 1, we’re No. 2. Looking back at how many Friday nights we’ve lost that run and ended up in a different qualifying spot, that was an excellent run for us – right now. Now, Sunday is going to be 60-something degrees out, and after as hot as it was here today, conditions are going to be nowhere near Sunday what they were today and will be tomorrow. Still, what we were able to do tonight has a step in the right direction.”

Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR smoked his tires at the hit on his first qualifying run of the day but then came back with a vengeance in the nighttime run. His first run ended with him coasting across the line in 6.714 seconds at 100.46 mph but then he scorched down the track in 3.696 seconds at 329.91 mph to close the day.

“After that first run, we were just shooting for a solid top-five run,” said Brown, who is the defending Top Fuel winner here after scoring his first Texas Motorplex Top Fuel event title in 2012. “The first run, we were overly aggressive. You’ve got to be aggressive out here. All of these cars are running so strong and so hard and we just wanted to be in the thick of things. We have so much fight in us right now with three races left and this is a race that is a must-do-good. So, with that run there, we’ll take it and build off of it and we’ll keep on pushing forward right now. I know Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald, co-crew chiefs), I know they’ve been working hard.”

The final two qualifying sessions Saturday are set for 3 and 6 p.m. EDT with FS1’s delayed coverage set for 1 p.m. Sunday. Elimination rounds are set for noon Sunday with live television coverage on FS1 beginning at 2 p.m.