U.S. Army NHRA Racing Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals at Topeka Friday Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army driver trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett are fifth, sixth and 
seventh on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 30th annual Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), who won this event in 2010 and was No. 1 qualifier here last year in track-record time, solidly got down the track on both of his qualifying runs today, opening with an effort of 3.888 seconds at 319.75 mph that was second-best for the session, then finishing with a run of 3.826 seconds at 324.51 mph that was topped by four other drivers in the second session.
“We went down the track twice on all eight cylinders,” said Schumacher, who is second in the Top Fuel standings after the season’s first seven events. “Like I keep saying, lately, we’re not trying to go fast, we’re trying to figure out how to go slow. The new track prep is different than we’re used to and we have to figure it out, and we’re doing it the right way. That was an important run.
Mike (Neff, crew chief) said, he could’ve set it up to go faster, but he needed to see what it would do like this. Love it when you’ve got a plan and the plan works. The plan wasn’t to go out there and do something stupid. We can win from any spot, we’ve just got to learn how to go down the racetrack. Last race, we cost ourselves Friday night trying to go fast. This time, we were trying not to do that. Mike was actually up there pacing because he wanted to change the plan, but he knew not to and we ended up in a good spot.”
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR also got down the track both runs, starting with an effort of 3.897 seconds at 317.94 mph and closing with a run of 3.840 seconds at 319.45 mph.
“We’ve been working hard and, man, it hasn’t been going our way but Mark Oswald, Brad Mason (co-crew chiefs), and all these Matco Tools/U.S. Army boys have been just picking away at it and getting us better and better every run,” said Brown, who scored his first career Heartland Nationals victory last year after reaching his first final here the year before. “We just want to keep doing that and try and maintain it and see where we end up. This is the month of May, ‘Military Awareness Month,’ so for all the military, the Fisher House, all the soldiers and their families that we can help, we’re just going to push strong. We won’t quit, we’ll get versatile, we’re going to adapt to the situations, and we’re getting better and better. Two more runs tomorrow and we’ll keep giving it all we’ve got.”
Pritchett and her Schumacher Electric/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, winner of the last event two weekends ago at Atlanta Dragway didn’t make it all the way down the track her first run today but got across the finish line in 3.840 seconds at 286.07 mph despite blowing a head gasket just short of the finish line.
“We were on track for a high 70 but fuel issues past halftrack – hats off to all our safety efforts in keeping our parts together – and unfortunately we coasted to that 3.84 that put us in the seventh spot,” Pritchett said. “We learned today that a majority of where we want the car to be, it’s there. The issues we’re battling are from a fuel curve standpoint. We would’ve loved to have had a solid first run. That would’ve helped us with our second run, get a full pull down there. But tomorrow’s going to be real consistent with race day. I have a ton of confidence in this team and we believe what we learned at Atlanta will carry over to here as soon as we take care of a couple of gremlins tonight. They’re very small things that can have pretty huge repercussions, like you saw when we torched a gasket. I’m totally confident we know how to fix it, and I feel absolutely great about tomorrow.”
The final two qualifying sessions are set for 3 and 6 p.m. EDT Saturday. Elimination rounds are set for noon Sunday with FS1’s live coverage set for 2 p.m. FS1 also will broadcast one-hour qualifying highlight shows at 11:30 tonight and 1 p.m. Sunday.
