U.S. Army Teammates Riding High Heading into NHRA’s Countdown Playoffs

CONCORD, NC – The regular season is over in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and U.S. Army Racing drivers Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown are primed to deliver championship performances in the six-race Countdown to the Championship starting with this weekend’s ninth annual Carolina NHRA Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Brown, the reigning and two-time Top Fuel world champion, leads the contingent to Charlotte as the most successful driver of the regular season and Schumacher, the eight-time Top Fuel world champion, surges into the Countdown as the hottest driver in the class following his magical U.S. Nationals weekend in Indianapolis, where he swept both the $100,000 Traxxas Nitro Shootout and the U.S. Nationals – the latter victory for a record 10th time in his career. Both drivers are looking to begin their quest to deliver to U.S. Army Racing its fourth Top Fuel championship in the last five seasons.

History shows that a strong beginning to the Countdown has been paramount in the eventual champion’s run, and both U.S. Army drivers have experienced fast starts en route to their titles in the past two seasons.

Schumacher drove the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) to victory in the first two Countdown events in 2014 and never looked back, ultimately winning three of the six Countdown races and posting a 15-3 record in elimination rounds. “The Sarge” opened with a victory in the Carolina NHRA Nationals and followed that triumph with a win in Dallas before scoring a win at the fourth Countdown event in Reading, Pennsylvania. Last season, Brown was unstoppable in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR to open the Countdown sweeping the first three events in Charlotte, St. Louis and Reading. Brown won his first 14 elimination rounds on his way to a 19-3 won-loss record and second Top Fuel world title.

Following his historic weekend in Indianapolis, Schumacher begins his quest for a ninth world championship from the fourth position in the standings. It’s the same position he started from in 2014. The difference this weekend is Schumacher rolls into Charlotte with the momentum he and the U.S. Army gained in Indianapolis. The U.S. Nationals victory was his second of the season following a July win in Denver, and one that provided a weekend full of data that Schumacher and crew chief Mike Green hope to utilize throughout the six-event Countdown. The U.S. Army Dragster was the first car down the track at Indy in all 10 qualifying and race-day runs combined, and they came in a variety of conditions culminating with Schumacher’s holeshot victory over Steve Torrence in the U.S. Nationals final.

Consistency has been the key for Brown this season in his run to the regular-season title. His first victory came at Las Vegas and began a run of six consecutive appearances in the semifinals, which concluded with his victory in Epping, New Hampshire. In July, he scored win number three in Chicago, raced Schumacher in the Denver final and came out victorious in the Seattle event that was completed during Saturday qualifying at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway. The following day in Brainerd, he raced in the final again before being defeated Brittany Force. In Indy, Brown’s run for a second U.S. Nationals victory in Top Fuel was derailed by Schumacher in the second round. Brown has qualified in the top-five in 10 consecutive events and his four victories this season are most by any driver in Top Fuel.

The ninth annual Carolina NHRA Nationals will be showcased nationwide on FS1 and the FOX broadcast network. FS1 will carry highlights from Friday qualifying same day at 6 p.m. EDT, and Saturday’s qualifying highlights at 11 a.m. Sunday. FOX will provide live coverage of Sunday eliminations beginning at 2:30 p.m.

TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:

It’s been a long journey through the regular season with a lot of struggles, but the ultimate goal of challenging for a championship is coming to fruition. Can you gauge the confidence you and nine-man U.S. Army team have coming into the six-event run to the championship?

“We are coming in very positive. I think we’ve won the championship a couple times from the fourth position but, honestly, it’s more about how you run in the Countdown, and we’re running extremely well right now. I think in the middle of the year that there was concern we had worked on this new car for a long time and we weren’t getting where we need to be. Maybe nine races ago we figured out a huge problem and we fixed it and started going rounds and started getting better and better each and every run. We said it and made many claims that we’ve got this, and now we need to work toward that tune-up. I’m surrounded by incredibly smart people like (crew chief) Mike Green, (assistant crew chief) Neal Strausbaugh. They kept working at it. We knew we could win when it’s hot out, but can we win when it’s cool out? Can we make this car perform in different conditions? Indy was a beautiful thing because we won in both elements. We got to the finish line first every run we made in the car, even in qualifying runs, and I think it’s important going into the last six races, where you are fighting for this championship, knowing that you can run when it’s cool and when its hot. We know we are going to see those conditions. And we have the right attitude knowing we can step up in any conditions. We’re looking forward to it.”

After winning both the Traxxas Nitro Shootout and your record 10th U.S. Nationals, it would seem all of the hard work and sacrifice paid off. Was it a perfect storm, or is there more to your Indy success?

“It’s a magical place and I’ll leave it at that. We’ve had incredible success there from the first time I hit the gas pedal in a Top Fuel car, and that track is where I made my first full run. I think maybe it’s because of the amount pressure there is at Indy, and our U.S. Army team is such a good pressure team. Looking at history and the times in our career when we’ve had to win and, more times than not, we have. Indy is a little bigger, it’s a little more difficult to win and that’s what its all about. We are good at the adversity, overcoming struggles and dealing with all the peaks and valleys it takes to make something new work. I can tell you it’s not easy to deal with when you are a winning team. Knowing what you are doing is trying to find a tune-up that potentially can win you a championship. You just have to stick with it. And that’s exactly what we did. I had a really good feeling going into Indy and I told my team before the weekend started that we were going to win both races. It’s one thing to say it and another to do it. We did it by working hard as a unit and continuing to push through adversity. Adapting and sticking together. It was the complete package.”

Coming off the weekend you had in Indianapolis, you and the U.S. Army team have to be carrying a lot of momentum in the Countdown. Are you a believer in momentum?

“I’m a big believer in momentum when I have it. And right now, we feel like we have it because we have the right car going to the right place. I am also smart enough to know there are a lot of great cars we are competing with for this championship. It’s going to be important for me to lead the U.S. Army team into the Countdown feeling good about where we are so that everyone stays positive, but with a definite ‘humbleness’ behind me. I know how hard it is to win a championship. I know you go to these first few races and it will set a pattern. If you go out and win them and run well, other teams start to break down and they start to make changes that are unnecessary and not effective. I do know that these races right in front of us, starting at Charlotte, dictate the pattern we will see throughout the rest of the year.”

ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:

It’s been a very strong regular season for you and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army team and you enter the Countdown as the No. 1 seed. Now, it’s about six races to the championship. What’s your strategy heading into Charlotte?

“When you get into the Countdown, you need to qualify well. That’s our main focus going in, is not to leave one stone unturned. We’ve got to capitalize on those bonus points, also, through qualifying, then get in a good qualifying spot – in that top eight – so you can actually have lane choice. It’s tough to qualify in the top eight. We fell out of that a couple of times this year. I guarantee, that’s what contributed to one of our first-round losses, not being in that top eight. The thing about it is, every point is crucial. I look at the Countdown each and every year as not just six races. There’s 24 rounds up for grabs. Each round is worth 20 points. That’s your maximum points. How many of those rounds can you get? That’s what we focus on – just doing one round at a time and getting as many rounds as possible. Last year, we did a great job at it, but this year is going to be a whole other ball of wax, where the competition has stepped up again to just an incredible level, to go out there and try to make that happen like we did last year.”

You’ve talked all season about how tough this class has become. How do you assess your team’s chances of earning a second consecutive Top Fuel world championship?

“It’s been a tremendous season for Top Fuel. We had two drivers (Terry McMillen and Leah Pritchett) go down to the wire just to make the (Countdown) top-10. All these spots are so close and tight. It’s going to be a crapshoot going here for these six races for the championship. Those are the challenges we all live for. We live for these moments to go out there as a team, as a whole, to see who can be that champion at the end of the year. I’m just hoping all of our hard work pays off right now. I’m confident in my team. The thing about it for me is that I have no regrets each and every race that I go to race at. I put the work in every week. I work hard. My team is led by (co-crew chiefs) Brian (Corrodi) and Mark (Oswald) and they are always studying the data, breaking down different formulas, they’re making different graphs to be better each and every week. When I go into the Countdown, I’m going in with the team. The only thing we can do is lose the championship because we have all the necessary key pieces and ingredients to win this championship, like we did last year. When we go in, we have to go in with our same mindset and focus. I feel confident. I feel confident we can compete at the level that it takes to be there at the last race to have a chance to win this championship. I’m very confident about that.”