U.S. Army NHRA Racing Toyota NHRA Summernationals Final Qualifying Report

With a bright blue sky and warmer temperatures filling the air, Saturday’s third- and fourth-round qualifying sessions of the 46th annual Toyota NHRA Summernationals turned out to be important data collecting opportunities for U.S. Army teammates Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. Both drivers maintained their slots in the ladder with Brown, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), earning his 40th career No. 1 qualifier award, and Schumacher locked into the third position for Sunday’s eliminations.

Schumacher was machine-like behind the wheel of the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR with a solid run in Saturday’s first session. The U.S. Army team was led again by assistant crew chief Neal Strausbaugh, with crew chief Mike Green in Indiana to attend his daughter Lexi’s high school graduation ceremony. The team displayed for the second consecutive day their adaptability and Army-like difference making skills. Schumacher ran a lap of 3.764 seconds at 317.94 mph in session three and followed that with a run of 4.267 seconds at 192.06 mph to close qualifying.

“I’m really proud of this U.S. Army team,” said Schumacher, the 2008 Englishtown winner. “They are such a talented collection of people and a team that really makes a difference. Neal did a great job and everyone stepped up their game. Mike’s been staying in touch and keeping up with how we are doing here. We’re all happy for Lexi and happy Mike is there. You never know exactly how something is going to be until you go through it. Now Neal has experienced something new. Our team is better for it and we’re in a great position for race day. This U.S. Army car is a bad to the bone machine and we have some really good data that should give us a great chance tomorrow.”

Schumacher will face Morgan Lucas in Sunday’s opening round. The eight-time Top Fuel world champion is looking to join Brown as a two-time winner in 2015 and earn his category-best 79th career win.

Through the first two days of the Summernationals, things have gone almost as good as Brown could have hoped. The annual weekend at home began with Brown topping the qualifying field with Friday night’s monster run of 3.725 seconds. And two more consistent runs Saturday has the 2012 Top Fuel champion in prime position to challenge for his first career Top Fuel triumph at his home track and 50th event win of his career.

“It’s been a good couple of days for this Matco Tools/U.S. Army team,” said Brown. “It all can go together. We’re not treating this like a home race, we’re treating it like any other race and we’re going to come in and hit it hard. We’ve gotten caught up in that hoopla before and made it to the final round a couple times in Top Fuel. I’ve redlighted here, we’ve hurt the car because we pushed it too hard so this year we’re just going to race this racetrack like we’ve done at every other race this year. You couldn’t write a better story. If we win Sunday, then I might retire … nah.”

Brown will begin what he hopes to be a historic day with a matchup versus Jenna Haddock in Sunday’s opening round.