Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals
Ennis, TX
(September 21-24)

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Tony Schumacher U.S. Army dragster

Dallas, Saturday: In his final qualifying pass on Saturday, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver, Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher, claimed the number one starting spot for tomorrow's running of the 21st annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals here at the Texas Motorplex.

Schumacher, in pocketing his 32nd career pole, lit up the scoreboard with a 4.520-second run at 321.12 mph to move around point leader, Doug Kalitta, in the race day order.

The Chicago native will face off with 16th-place qualifier, Joe Hartley, in the opening round of final eliminations beginning at 11 a.m. CDT.

"It was nice to get another pole here today, but gaining a point on Kalitta (who qualified second) was definitely more important," said Schumacher. "With the championship chase so tight, every point that we can grab from him is extremely critical."

Schumacher is now 53 points behind Kalitta entering round 19 of the 23 race NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

"Qualifying is over and now we all have to get in race day mode," he added. "The only guy we're going to concern ourselves with is Hartley come tomorrow morning."

With his 10th pole of the season, Schumacher is now one short of tying his single season record of 11 poles set last year.

"While that's an interesting statistic, we really want the round points on Sunday,"

 he said. "And, of course, ultimately, we want the world championship."

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