U.S. Army NHRA Racing NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Final Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett are 10th, 11th and 
second on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), seeking their first triumph of 2018 this weekend, were not able to make clean passes in either session Friday. The eight-time Top Fuel world champion posted a lap of 4.219 seconds at 212.26 mph Friday afternoon, slowing near the end of the pass. “The Sarge” followed that with a run of 4.994 seconds at 141.08 mph after losing traction just pass the midway point of the run. He’ll look to improve his position on the ladder Saturday and chase his illusive first win at the track in 21 attempts.
“This U.S. Army car is an amazing machine,” Schumacher said. “We should be winning races. We are just having situations with parts breaking and we’re working hard to keep that from happening. That Q2 pass was on a good run and got a little fast. I could feel it get fast and saved it, but once it does it, it heats the tires up and wants to use a little more clutch application and smokes the tires. We’ll go back and look at it. There was something we said a few days ago in Charlotte. Someone asked if we were going to try and run a 3.80? And (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) said if we try to run a 3.80, we should just go home. These cars and teams in Top Fuel are extremely tough so we are all trying to run in the 3.70s. The track is just not taking it. We should all be putting up those numbers. We have to work on our problem and we have to get these tracks where we can run fast again.”
Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR had similar results in his two qualifying sessions failing to make complete runs down the track. He posted a lap of 4.466 seconds at 178.85 mph in Friday’s first session. It was looking like the four-time Southern Nationals champion in Top Fuel would make a stout run in his second pass before having a mechanic failure prior to reaching the 330-foot mark. He coasted to the line and scored a lap of 4.435 seconds at 185.10 mph. The three-time Top Fuel world champion will return Saturday looking to make full passes with an eye on Sunday and his 50th career Top Fuel victory.
“The Matco Tools/U.S. Army car was going down the track just fine in the second run, but we just broke the rearend,” Brown said. “We have a big old hole in the back cover. That’s another one man. We were trying to make gains forward and had something pushing us back. We won’t give up. We’ll just keep on pushing. We’ll just get ready to come back tomorrow. We have a great opportunity here this weekend. I can’t wait.”
Pritchett and her FireAde/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, looking to earn a second No. 1 qualifier in the last three races, was one of two drivers to make runs under 4 seconds in both passes Friday. Her opening pass of 3.984 seconds at 287.41 mph ranked second in the first session. She closed the second qualifying session with an impressive run of 3.789 seconds at 314.83 mph to regain the second overall position.
“Huge hats off to the FireAde/U.S. Army team for overcoming not having driveshaft data from our Q1 run,” Pritchett said. “That is an extremely important factor when you’re preparing for the next round. I know we had a little bit more after seeing Clay (Millican) post that number right in front of us. There is something to be said about those final words from Todd Okuhara when he sticks his head in there. He knows how to navigate this Atlanta track and we’re doing a good job navigating this comeback pretty well.”
The final two qualifying sessions are set for 12 and 3:15 p.m. EDT Saturday. Sunday with FS1’s three hours of delayed television coverage beginning at 6 p.m.
