U.S. Army NHRA Racing 49th Annual Auto Club NHRA Finals Friday Qualifying Report
Pomona, CA – Halfway through qualifying for this weekend’s 49th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, 
Calif., the U.S. Army driving duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown showed Friday that only the strongest wear the colors of the U.S. Army Soldiers they represent, who possess a mental, emotional and physical strength like no other, and that the U.S. Army Racing team reflects those strengths.
Both Schumacher, the seven-time Top Fuel world champion, and Brown, the defending series champ, picked up on their opening-round qualifying runs from Thursday.
Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) got down the 1,000-foot straightaway in 3.819 seconds at 322.58 mph, which moved him up to 13th in the provisional qualifying order.
“To be totally honest, I thought that was an awesome run,” Schumacher said. “It may not necessarily look that way on the timesheet right now because a lot of guys are out there, being that it’s the end of the season and all, who are willing to blow up parts and pieces to get down the track on Friday afternoon. Like I said yesterday, we have reverted to a tuneup we used previously this year – at Chicago, where we won – and it’s just a matter of tweaking it to where we can be superfast down the track this weekend. Our guys continue to work hard, as they always do, because we know each member of the U.S. Army Racing team plays a vital role in the success of the car on the track, just like every Army Soldier, no matter which of the more than 150 career options he or she chooses in the Army, is vital to the success of the mission. We’ll come back a step another step farther along with this tuneup, and I think we’ll be really fast on Saturday.”
Brown, who is the only Top Fuel driver with a mathematical possibility of capturing championship front-runner Shawn Langdon of Al-Anabi Racing, laid down another blazing-fast run today, this one in 3.775 seconds at 322.42 mph. Like Thursday, when he was paired alongside Langdon for the final Top Fuel run of the day, Brown’s effort in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR was trumped only by Langdon. The Al-Anabi driver crossed the finish line in 3.750 seconds at 327.03 mph.
“There are still two more rounds of qualifying, so we’ll at least try and square it up for the weekend on Saturday,” said Brown, who now trails Langdon by 104 points after the Al-Anabi driver collected three bonus points for the top qualifying effort of the session while Brown collected two. “They gained another point, so they have two points on us this weekend. We’ll keep plugging away. We’ve made two great runs. We’ll just keep pushing and tomorrow should be even better. We have two more shots at it tomorrow. The weather will be cooler, so we’ll just crank things up and go out there and get it done.”
Third- and final-round qualifying sessions are set for 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. EST Saturday. ESPN2’s delayed qualifying show will be broadcast at 2:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday. ESPN2’s delayed three-hour broadcast of Sunday’s elimination rounds begins at 7 p.m.
