U.S. Army NHRA Racing Eighth Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals Final Qualifying Report

The U.S. Army Racing Top Fuel duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown will start Sunday’s elimination rounds of the eighth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in the seventh and third positions, respectively, after Saturday’s final Mello Yello Drag Racing Series qualifying sessions at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

The Army is the Nation’s preeminent leadership experience, where the Nation’s future leaders are developed and empowered with the confidence to take decisive action when needed and the flexibility to excel in constantly evolving situations. While the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teams qualified twice in the late afternoon and twice in the night, the U.S. Army teammates will race in much different conditions Sunday, as final eliminations begin at 11 a.m.

Schumacher, who advanced from eighth to seventh in the qualifying rundown, posted passes of 3.839 seconds at 322.65 mph and 3.794 seconds at 324.12 mph. He will face No. 10 qualifier Khalid alBalooshi in the opening round of eliminations Sunday.

“I’d rather be seventh with my hot-track tune-up than first with what they’ve got,” said Schumacher, who won the inaugural Top Fuel event title at Summit Motorsports Park in 2007. “Our U.S. Army car is better than their cars are. It’s good to go down the racetrack when it’s cool out and try to get a point or two here and there, but the reality is that tomorrow, nothing we’ve seen will be anything like the conditions we’re going to see. It’s going to be hot, and we’re good when it’s hot.”

Brown, who posted a pass of 3.801 seconds at 321.65 mph in Saturday’s afternoon session, closed the day with an impressive run of 3.763 seconds at 323.04 mph in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR. His Friday-evening pass locked the 2012 Top Fuel champion into the third position in Sunday’s ladder. He will face No. 14 qualifier Clay Millican in the opening round.

“A great run to cap off qualifying,” said Brown, who advanced to the Top Fuel final at Summit Motorsports Park in 2010, where he was narrowly defeated by Larry Dixon. “We made some good qualifying attempts. We learned a lot, and we’re really excited right now. We were shooting for that No. 1 spot, and we ended up in the third spot, but we’re in a good position for tomorrow. We’ll definitely get lane choice tomorrow. We’re going to stay poised with our Matco Tools/U.S. Army car. We’re going to be in attack mode because we know that tomorrow’s going to be a difficult day with racing in the middle of the day. What we did tonight really doesn’t make a difference. There are guys who are set up in a great spot for our plan of attack tomorrow so, with that being said, we have to go into tomorrow being ready because all these cars out here are running good. We’re excited to be where we’re at, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow to get it on.”