Championship Drag Racing

Schuck's Auto Supply NHRA Nationals
Seattle, WA
(July 21-23)

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Driver Profile

Tony Schumacher U.S. Army dragster

Seattle, prerace: After banking a win and a final round advancement in his last two races, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver, Tony Schumacher, is starting to become one expert mathematician.

Having moved up three spots in the standings, while totaling some valuable round points, Schumacher has recently been crunching numbers just like a college professor would do.

“I guess I have been doing that,” admitted the defending NHRA POWERade Top Fuel world champion. “Since winning in St. Louis and then getting to the finals in Denver last weekend, suddenly, we’re just about in the thick of the championship chase.”

The Chicago native is hopeful the U.S. Army team’s resurgence will extend into this weekend’s race – the Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals – at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle.

“In two races, we’ve gone from being 312 points behind the leader to 209 points behind (Doug Kalitta),” he added. “If we can match that improvement (103 points) in the next two races, we’ll be right there.”

With the Seattle tour stop looming, Schumacher continues to lavish praise on his crew chief, Alan Johnson, and the rest of the U.S. Army Top Fuel crew.

“There’s never been a moment when they’ve thrown their arms in the air due to frustration,” he said. “The prevailing thought is that our soldiers never give up, so we’re certainly not going to. I wouldn’t trade Alan Johnson and my guys for anyone.”

In the last two years, Pacific Raceways, which is the second of three venues on the NHRA’s annual Western Swing, has been a welcomed sight to Schumacher. After capturing the pole, he won the 2004 event, and then lost in the finals last year.

“We’ve had success there so we’ll cross our fingers that we’ll do well again this year,” he related. “Like I said earlier, we want to keep carving away at the lead. Every round win will get us that much closer to challenging for our third straight title.”

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