U.S. Army NHRA Racing NHRA Mile-High Nationals Final Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army driver trio of Leah Pritchett, Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown all made gains in 
Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions for this weekend’s 39th annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado, with Pritchett keeping the No. 1 qualifier spot in track-record fashion, and Schumacher and Brown moving up to Nos. 7 and 8, respectively, on the elimination ladder.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), a three-time Mile-High Nationals winner and five-time runner-up, had another solid pair of runs today, opening with an effort of 3.870 seconds at 324.59 mph that was third-best in the session, and finishing with a run of 3.834 seconds at 325.37 mph that earned him a first-round matchup Sunday against longtime rival and No. 10 qualifier Doug Kalitta.
“It’s a great first-round matchup – those are the rise-to-the-occasion moments that are always good, makes it good for the fans, makes it good for the teams, gets everybody pumped up,” said Schumacher, who last won this event in 2016. “We’re not going to look for how we can just slide it down the racetrack, we’ll look for how we can win the race right from the first push of the pedal. We’ll race the track, it doesn’t matter who’s in the other lane, but we’ll have to push it more than we would, normally. Now, after running four qualifying sessions at night, we have to adapt to racing in the heat of the day starting at 11 o’clock tomorrow. We did that at Bristol and we won the event with good notes to go off of. It’s going to be hot and slippery and we know how to slide the car down the track. All I can say is, we’re going to show up for the game.”
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, the two-time and defending Mile-High Nationals event titlist, got down the track cleanly during both of his runs today, laying down an effort of 3.887 seconds at 316.82 mph, followed by a closing run of 3.856 seconds at 318.47 mph that earned him a first-round matchup against No. 9 qualifier Scott Palmer Sunday.
“I can tell you one thing, that our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota/Pennzoil team, we’ve just been making strides,” said Brown, who first won this event in 2009 en route to a sweep of the three-event Western Swing. “We came here with a completely new engine combination we’ve been running since Norwalk. It took us some runs to where we could get it to not drop holes, like we did yesterday. It’s a credit to our team where, as you can see, we’re just getting better and better every lap. And, we made a big, wholesale change between Q3 and Q4 because we wanted to move up, but it only got us halfway where we wanted to be. We wanted to run an 80 flat (3.80), a 79 (3.79). But we know where we’re at, we made a good jump, and tomorrow the conditions are going to fall right where we need them to be. I think an 85 is a run we’ll be able to make tomorrow in the heat of the day and be really competitive all day long. So we’re feeling really confident going into race day tomorrow. We’ll go out there and do what we do and have fun doing it. We’re ready to do some work tomorrow.”
Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, who reached the Top Fuel final at Bandimere a year ago this weekend only to be beaten across the finish line by Brown, continued her qualifying dominance on “Thunder Mountain” by improving upon Friday’s provisional No. 1 qualifier effort. She opened the day with a run of 3.813 seconds at 319.90 mph that was best for the session, then bested her Friday-night run with an effort of 3.799 seconds at 327.19 mph, the latter number establishing a track speed record to go with the track elapsed-time record of 3.733 seconds she set here last year. It was Pritchett’s second No. 1 qualifying effort in a row, her third of the season, the 10th of her career, and her second in a row at Bandimere.
“This is a huge weekend for us – you might as well put it up there with the U.S. Nationals,” said Pritchett, who will face No. 16 qualifier Terry Totten in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. “For all of Don Schumacher Racing, Dodge and Mopar, all the bigwigs in the house this weekend, it’s been incredible. What’s exciting is, coming here to Bandimere, kicking it off with the (Mopar Big Block) Party, and the fans, this vibe is like none other. The crew did an awesome job. We felt really confident. It goes back to strategy. We were able to run late in the night and it was so cool, they made last-minute changes and that’s what we saw on the track. They went for it, and that’s what this team is about. That’s what I love about (crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara) and Joe (Barlam), is that when it’s time, they can put it down and they’re not afraid.”
Elimination rounds are set for 1 p.m. Sunday with three hours of live coverage on the FOX broadcast network set for 3 p.m.
