U.S. Army NHRA Racing NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Saturday Qualifying Report
There wasn’t a great deal of movement on the provisional ladder Saturday during the second day of qualifying for the 
NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series 64th annual NHRA Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. The U.S. Army Racing contingent of Antron Brown, Leah Pritchett, and Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher rank third, fifth and sixth, respectively, with three of five qualifying sessions complete.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) were not able to make it down cleanly in either session Saturday and hold the sixth position thanks to Friday night’s run of 3.751 seconds at 328.14 mph. He lost traction early in his first run Saturday resulting in a pass of 6.080 seconds at 110.04 mph in the left lane. The 10-time U.S. Nationals champion had a slightly better lap in the right lane later in the day making it past half-track before ultimately losing traction again. He would cross the finish line with a time of 5.063 seconds and speed of 143.19 mph.
“We’re still working on some things with our U.S. Army car,” said Schumacher. “I know (crew chief) Mike (Neff) and (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) won’t stop analyzing all the data we gathered today until they come up with a plan for tomorrow. We talked about it last night that you spend two days testing to be prepared for that Friday night session, but in reality, you are working for sessions like today in the heat too. We have two more opportunities tomorrow and over the years we have a learned a lot on Sundays here in Indy that paid dividends on Monday.”
Brown dropped from second to third in the ladder because Clay Millican put up a monster run late Saturday afternoon. After losing traction in Saturday’s first pass, which ended up being 5.370 seconds at 133 mph, Brown took the Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota for DSR right down the track and posted a pass of 3.884 seconds at 300.20 mph. A lap that has the 2011 U.S. Nationals champion excited for what the rest of the weekend might hold.
“We’re plugging away for sure,” said Brown. “That last lap came in conditions that feel we like we’ll have not only tomorrow, but Monday too. I’m excited for all of these Matco Tools/U.S. Army boys led by Mark (Oswald) and Brad (Mason). They’ve been on their game and we’re going to just keep our heads down and continue to try and get better and better tomorrow.”
It was also a learning day for Pritchett and her DSR team as well. She got down the track both runs in the Papa John’s Pizza/U.S. Army Dragster /U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, but neither was at full speed. She opened Saturday with a pass of 4.631 seconds at 160.33 mph and finished the day with a run of 4.323 seconds at 193.10 mph.
Qualifying concludes Sunday with sessions set for 12:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. EDT Saturday. FS1 will air two hours of live coverage Sunday beginning at 4 p.m. ET.
