U.S. Army NHRA Racing NHRA Northwest Nationals at Seattle Final Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett held onto the fourth, 
fifth and sixth positions on the ladder, respectively, Saturday for Sunday’s elimination rounds of this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 31st annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), winners of this event in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008, continued their consistency in qualifying this weekend picking up bonus points in both sessions today. “The Sarge” posted the second-best lap with his run of 3.807 seconds at 325.30 mph during Saturday’s opening session to grab two bonus points and closed qualifying with a pass of 3.802 seconds at 327.11 mph, which was third in the session and earned him an additional bonus point. He’ll meet No. 13 qualifier Terry McMillen in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. The two have met in the first round twice in 2018 with Schumacher winning both, first at Pomona and then at Bristol, to improve his career record versus McMillen to 23-3.
“We made two great runs today,” said Schumacher. “There were big changes made coming here to give (crew chief) Mike (Neff) and (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) adjustability in an area where they needed it. And it did exactly what they wanted. All four runs were right down the racetrack.
Everything was smooth. This U.S. Army team is working their tails off and when you can get bonus points on Saturday that’s usually a pretty good sign for Sunday. I said yesterday we just needed it all to come together. We are getting closer to where we want to be. The real test is tomorrow. We have studied for the test. Now we just have to go out and do our jobs at a track where in the past we have performed really well. This is right where we want to be. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
The two-time defending Northwest Nationals champion Brown showed signs of continuing his winning ways at Pacific Raceways in qualifying. After a pair of solid runs Friday aboard the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, the three-time Top Fuel world champion said he and his team would be making a run to move up in the ladder Saturday. He ran a lap of 3.824 seconds at 323.27 mph early Saturday before topping the final session with his pass of 3.772 seconds at 328.94 mph. Brown will face Shawn Reed in Sunday’s first round. The two have met twice previously with Brown winning both times in 2017.
“I hope this is the weekend where we turn it around,” said Brown, who will be chasing his first triumph of 2018 Sunday. “The competition is so tough out here. You have people like Scrapper (Mike Salinas) out there running 3.77 (seconds), Steve ‘O’ (Torrence) qualified No. 1, and my teammates are out there. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but it feels really good to have four good qualifying laps. The Matco Tools/U.S. Army boys are having a lot of fun right now and we’ll see what we can do on Sunday.”
Pritchett made a pair of clean passes Saturday in the Sparkling Ice/U.S. Army Dragster /U.S. Army Dragster for DSR. The two-time Top Fuel winner in 2018 posted a lap of 3.910 seconds at 318.39 mph in the early afternoon qualifying session. She closed with a run of 3.856 seconds at 322.34.28 mph and will face Troy Buff Sunday to open eliminations. Pritchett defeated Buff in the opening round in Las Vegas in April 2017 and again in Phoenix earlier this year also in round one in their only two previous meetings.
“We feel like we made strong, healthy runs today,” said Pritchett. “We are experimenting with our blowers and figuring out how much steam we can put to it in order to get back where we consider par. Come Sunday, we know where we need to be. If there’s any team that has a handle on making power, it’s this one and I’m excited for tomorrow. We’re coming from the sixth spot, and we hope to finish out this swing strong. I’d like to say it’ll be redemption from last week. Sunday is a whole new race day no matter what.”
Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. (EDT) Sunday with three hours of live coverage on FOX set for 4 p.m.
