U.S. Army NHRA Racing Tenth Annual Carolina NHRA Nationals Friday Qualifying Report

U.S. Army Racing drivers Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown began their run for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world championship Friday at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte in the 10th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals by completing two rounds of qualifying. Brown and Schumacher rank fourth and 14th, respectively, in the provisional qualifying ladder with two sessions Saturday remaining in this year’s first Countdown to the Championship event.

Schumacher, the two-time NHRA Carolina Nationals champion, and his U.S. Army Racing team were looking to make a fast start in the first event of the Countdown, but his U.S. Army Racing Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) lost traction just before halftrack in the left lane during the opening qualifying session and he clocked a pass of 4.481 seconds at 175.30 mph. Unfortunately, in Friday’s second qualifying session the result was similar in the right lane with “The Sarge” losing traction and running a lap of 5.391 seconds at 127.57 mph.

“That wasn’t quite what we had in mind to start, but this U.S. Army team will not quit,” said Schumacher. “There is a reason you have four qualifying sessions and we’re going to come back tomorrow and get down the track. It’s frustrating, but overcoming adversity and being able to adapt on the fly is what makes this team a contender when Sunday comes. I know (crew chief) Mike (Green), (assistant crew chief) Phil (Shuler) and all the Army guys will work hard tonight and give me a great car tomorrow. We learned some things today. We found the edge in both lanes and we’ll have two more runs tomorrow to get us ready for Sunday. Sunday is when you must be at your best. The path to Sunday isn’t always smooth, but that opportunity to win that trophy is what drives all of us to find a way to succeed.”

Brown returned to zMAX as the winner of the previous two fall races in Charlotte. The three-time and reigning Top Fuel world champion had a short-lived first pass as the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR lost traction as soon as he hit the accelerator pedal. His team led by co-crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswold made adjustments between sessions that resulted in a solid run of 3.728 seconds at 331.85 mph in Friday’s second session.

“We made a great second run, but I we needed just a little more to get that top spot,” said Brown. “We really feel like we are right in the hunt and tomorrow is going to be about constantly getting better. Some of the things we worked in testing after Indy helped us today. We wish that we would have made that second run to start the day, but we’ll just to come back tomorrow and adapt to some hot conditions. That’s what we’ll be racing in Sunday, so that will really show us how close we are. We look forward to that challenge and see what we can make happen.”

Top Fuel qualifying continues Saturday with third- and fourth-round sessions scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. ET. FS1 will cover qualifying and broadcast highlights Sunday morning at 2 a.m. Eliminations begin at 12 noon Sunday and FS1 will begin live coverage at 2:30 p.m.