U.S. Army Racing Trio Loses Traction in Phoenix
Schumacher, Brown and Pritchett Exit Early in NHRA Arizona Nationals
After breaking personal speed records in qualifying, the U.S. Army Racing trio of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher, 
Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett couldn’t find the necessary speed during Sunday’s warmer conditions to continue their streak of victories in the 34th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.
With each driver earning a pair of wins in the previous six Phoenix events, optimism was high that one of the Army Racing teams would bring home the Wally. As it turned out, track conditions proved to be insurmountable for the U.S. Army Racing drivers and teams during elimination rounds Sunday.
On Friday, Schumacher set new track records for both elapsed time and speed, but was upset in the opening round by Greg Carrillo after losing traction early in his pass. Brown went up in smoke in both his first-round battle with Mike Salinas and Carrillo in the second round, while Pritchett made a monster run in opening round to defeat Troy Buff before losing traction early in her run against Scott Palmer.
Schumacher was coming off a run to the final in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season opener two weeks ago in the U.S. Army Racing Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) and was armed with confidence entering his 1200th round appearance after surpassing 333 mph in three of the four qualifying sessions Friday and Saturday, including the fastest 1000-foot speed in NHRA history at 336.57 mph in Friday’s final session. “The Sarge” left the line first, but wasn’t able to settle his U.S. Army machine quick enough to catch Carrillo who was making his second career elimination run. Carrillo became the ninth driver to score their first career round victory over Schumacher. His pass of 4.223 seconds at 221.27 mph edged Schumacher’s lap of 4.858 seconds at 189.66 mph.
“We got beat,” said Schumacher, following only his second first-round loss in 22 career starts in Phoenix. “Plain and simple. We smoked the tires and (Carrillo) did the same. We should have gone right down the track, but it just wasn’t the same grip. That’s isn’t up to us. The tracks are prepared different on race day than we’re used to. Thirty-two crew chiefs didn’t get stupid during the round. It’s just one of those things that’s going to happen randomly throughout the season. We go out, pedal the car and would have beat most cars out there, and get beat by a car that just goes down the track. You can’t be angry, this is about my 500th race. And we’ve won 83 of them. We’ve won more than anyone in the class, but we’ve lost 400 plus. At the end of the day, this is not an easy thing to go out and do. I’m happy for Greg. He did his job and beat us. We need some youth and some different guys capable of winning in this class. I couldn’t be happier with my nine-man U.S. Army guys, they’re doing a great job. The car is performing as well as anything we’ve had in a long time.”
Brown, who made his fastest career run speed-wise Friday evening in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, wasn’t able to get down the track clean Sunday. He advanced into the second round after Mike Salinas left early in their first-round matchup. Brown lost traction before 100 feet and coasted to a run of 8.756 seconds at 79.76 mph and lost lane choice to Carrillo. The second pass for Brown looked almost identical with his machine hazing the tires early in the run. Carrillo scored his second career round win with his pass of 4.054 seconds at 284.21 mph compared to Brown’s lap of 6.793 seconds at 120.75 mph.
“We got away with one there in the first round and we just can’t get on the right side of it right now,” said Brown. “This Matco Tools/U.S. Army car has just been mean lately. We’re going to get it. It’s just going to take some time and putting laps down. We’re making good power. We just have to tame that beast down. Today should have been one of those days where we make a run to the final. Put on some pressure and move up in the points, but we let it slip away. We’ll just keep working hard and try to get to where we need to be at. The track went from being stellar the last two days to what it was like when we tested where it was really iffy. We have to get better at judging those type of conditions. The more laps we get the better we’ll be when a track makes that much of swing. It didn’t just bite us, it bit a whole bunch of cars this weekend. The experience we went through here will help us get there. I’ve got total confidence in my guys.”
Pritchett experienced the highs and lows this sport can provide throughout the weekend. She returned as the two-time defending race winner and looked on two occasions like she was capable of making it three in a row. The driver of the DSR/Dodge/U.S. Army Dragster went 334.15 mph in Saturday’s first qualifying session and her victorious run of 3.679 seconds at 333.08 mph over Troy Buff was the best in Sunday’s opening round. Unfortunately, Pritchett lost traction early in her second-round pass that ended with a time of 7.962 seconds and speed of 86.85 mph and fell to Scott Palmer for the second consecutive event.
“It wasn’t the weekend we were looking for, but there were some positives,” said Pritchett. “The feeling of a round win was much needed. It’s been a while and that’s what all the work is for. The up and down saga continues. When we were in the lanes for E2 for quite some time, the conditions changed more than what we were expecting. We adjusted for it trying to be as versatile as possible, but we were a little too much out of our spectrum. You try and prepare for race day as much as you can. We went out there in the second round trying to run a 3.72. These cars only know one way to run and that’s on kill, not on mediocre. The conditions were the same for everybody. We are all in the same field together, but we learned a lot physically about our racecar this weekend. Coming out of Phoenix knowing that we still do know how to get down the track on race days and be the quickest and the fastest is what’s going to propel us to Gainesville. We got a small little taste for winning and we’re still hungry”
Steve Torrence scored his first win at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park and 17th of his career by defeating Palmer, who made his first career final. The win for Torrence also pushed him into the championship standings lead.
After two rounds of the 24-event NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series for 2018, the top-10 drivers the
Top Fuel standings are:
1. Steve Torrence (183 points)
2. Doug Kalitta (144 points, -39)
3. Tony Schumacher (140 points, -43)
4. Scott Palmer (139 points, -44)
5. Antron Brown (133 points, -50)
6. Clay Millican (122 points, -61)
7. Leah Pritchett (90 points, -93)
8. Brittany Force (86 points, -99)
9. Billy Torrence (71 points, -112)
10. Greg Carrillo (66 points, -117)
Next up is the 49th annual Amaile Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, March 15-18. FS1 will carry Sunday’s elimination rounds live in a three-hour show beginning at 7 p.m. EST.
