U.S. Army NHRA Racing Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals Friday Qualifying Report
Reading, PA – Friday qualifying for this weekend’s 29th annual Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pa., 
was a classic display of the level of engineering and teamwork that is reflective of the U.S. Army’s leading-edge technology and the powerful, realistic training of its Army Strong Soldiers.
The U.S. Army duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown both laid down solid runs in first- and second-round sessions this afternoon and finished the day third and fifth, respectively, in the provisional qualifying order.
Schumacher, the seven-time Top Fuel world champion and driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), stopped the clock at 3.778 seconds at 323.97 mph during today’s second round. It was the fastest run of the day until the final pairing of Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon bumped Schumacher down to No. 3 in the provisional order by four-thousandths and two-thousandths of a second, respectively.
“The track was outstanding and well beyond anything the top-five or top-six could keep up with,” said Schumacher, who started the weekend 72 points behind points leader Langdon in this year’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship standings with three events to go. “It was just a good, stout racetrack. It’s a very tricky situation when you’re running at 5, 6, 7 o’clock, when the sun’s going down and you’re thinking the track might be one way and it ends up better than you expect. If you can determine your tune-up five minutes before you run, you have a whole different race. But these things are set up two hours before and you can only make minor adjustments after that. It’s the weather systems and the evaluations that you have, and there is a really good, smart group of people guessing at what it’s going to be like when you get there. And we’re good at what we do. It’s a testament to the fact the Army is the strength of the Nation, and the Soldiers are the strength of our Army. This Army-NHRA partnership provides Americans a platform to experience the power, speed, teamwork and technology that drives that strength. Now, if you look at the top three or four cars, they’re all within seven-thousandths of a second of each other. So, that’s pretty darn good. We have a good racecar. We made it down the track twice. Tomorrow, it all depends on the weather. If it’s nice and sunny, we’ll work on our race-day setup and our goal will be to get three points (for being fastest) in both sessions.”
Brown, who’s coming off Sunday’s event title at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, posted a fast run of 3.793 seconds at 321.27 mph in today’s second session.
“Another good day,” said Brown, who started the weekend 102 points behind Langdon in the standings. “We made two great laps, went down the track, and we’re right in the thick of things, right where we want to be. So, tomorrow we can just play on that and pick on it and just get a little bit better for Sunday. The important thing is, we’re moving forward and, after St. Louis, where we had a great outing, we’ve been nit-picking it each time where the car’s being consistent and we’ve got a great window and it’s showing right now. First run tomorrow, the conditions might be pretty good.
We should have a good run tomorrow and we can get after it. I feel really good. I’ve been very, very confident since we started the Countdown. We’ve been steadily working at it, everybody as a whole, just building. And I’m honing my skills every time I step in the car. The Top Fuel field can be very humbling, so we’re just looking to go out there and keep taking care of business.”
Third- and fourth-round qualifying is set for noon and 3 p.m. EDT Saturday. Qualifying rounds will be broadcast by ESPN News at 11:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, and again by ESPN2 at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. ESPN2’s three-hour broadcast of Sunday’s elimination rounds begins at 8 p.m. EDT
