U.S. Army NHRA Racing 37th Annual Mile-High NHRA Nationals Final Qualifying Report
Another qualifying evening slightly hampered by Rocky Mountain rain showers Saturday shuffled the order a bit for 
the U.S. Army Top Fuel driver duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown, who locked down the Nos. 9 and 2 positions, respectively, for Sunday’s elimination rounds of the 37th annual Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Raceway on the outskirts of Denver.
There was no change for the Army duo from their Friday qualifying positions after today’s opening session and third of the weekend for the Top Fuel Dragsters, as Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing held onto the No. 5 spot with a solid run of 3.852 seconds at 309.20 mph. Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR dropped a cylinder at the start of his run and limped across the finish line in 4.253 seconds at 204.17 mph, but still held onto the No. 9 spot he closed with on Friday.
After an almost three-hour rain delay, the weekend’s final session took place in prime conditions and the order shuffled considerably. Schumacher, the eight-time Top Fuel world champion and two-time Mile-High Nationals winner, had to settle for a tire-smoking run of 4.563 seconds at 166.01 mph while several other competitors were able to jump ahead of him, including Brown, who vaulted all the way up to the No. 2 spot with his run of 3.805 seconds at 305.36 mph.
“It’s funny, somebody asked me this morning about what are the moments I remember the most to me and everyone’s expecting me to say, ‘The Run,’ or this or that,” said Schumacher, who will open against No. 8 qualifier Doug Kalitta in Sunday’s first round of eliminations while chasing his first Top Fuel event title since he conquered his hometown Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois a year ago this month. “But, the moments that mean the most are the ones that lead up to something like ‘The Run (Schumacher’s final run of the 2006 season that clinched that year’s Top Fuel world title in record time),’ that lead up to great moments like that. Right now, the adversity we’re going through is leading up to truly spectacular moments, once we start winning again. This U.S. Army team is an absolutely great team, one that digs deep, one that knows how to adapt. We’ll get through it. We’re just getting beat by some great cars right now. But the good times are coming. That’s just the way it works with this U.S. Army team.”
Brown, meanwhile, will open Sunday against No. 15 qualifier Rob Passey after getting by far his best qualifying run of the weekend during tonight’s prime-time session.
“The mountain has kicked all of our tails, but we were just determined to keep on staying persistent with it and paid off,” said Brown, who with his third event title of the season at Route 66 Raceway two weekends ago put him two points ahead of Kalitta atop the Top Fuel standings entering this weekend. “That’s what makes it so great when you win up here. The mountain is either going to be your friend, or it’s going to be your foe. It was our foe the whole weekend until that last run tonight. Tomorrow, on race day, it’s going to be even more challenging because the conditions are going to change completely. The main thing is we ended up in a really good qualifying spot, so tomorrow we’re going to just go out and give it all we’ve got. We know how to win here. We’ve won here twice. We’ll just keep our heads down and keep it to the grind and I’ve got the best team in the business, so I’ve got all the confidence in the world. We had a couple of minor setbacks, but we’ll just go out and take it one round at a time and keep on pushing. It’s going to be a whole, different ballgame tomorrow. The main thing will be to go out on the track and keep all our holes (cylinders) lit. As long as you’re in the field, everybody has a chance to win tomorrow.”
Elimination rounds Sunday are set for 1 p.m. with live TV on the FOX broadcast network beginning at 3 p.m. EDT.
