Championship Drag Racing

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(October 25-28)

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Tony Schumacher U.S. Army dragster

Las Vegas, prerace: With eyes focused on a possible fourth straight world championship, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher will head into the NHRA’s Countdown to One here this weekend at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals.

The ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals, to be staged at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, is one of two races that will help determine the 2007 NHRA POWERade world champion.

Schumacher enters the 22nd race of the year holding third-place in the standings, 20 points removed from leader Larry Dixon. Schumacher, who hails from Chicago, will be squaring off with Dixon, Rod Fuller and Brandon Bernstein over the next two weeks to decide the world championship.

“That’s a tough group right there,” he said. “They’re all great drivers with great crew chiefs and great teams. We’ll have our work cut out for sure, but we’re definitely up for the challenge. We need to win another championship for our soldiers.”

In Las Vegas, Schumacher will be hoping the mechanical woes that he suffered through the last three events are a thing of the past.

“You can never predict when part issues are going to happen, but we do pray that we’re done with them,” he added. “I don’t want to hear anymore about broken barrel valves, busted valve springs or cylinders going out. It’s about time that we have a fast, flawless race car.”

A three-time winner at The Strip, Schumacher will be doing double duty this weekend. He will also be participating in his ninth Technicoat Top Fuel Shootout, which is an all-star race-within-a-race featuring eight of the best-performing Top Fuel teams in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

The popular Saturday event has an overall purse of $147,000 with $100,000 of that total going to the winner. Schumacher won the 2005 Shootout.

“Even though our main objective is to win the race as it relates to the Countdown to One, we definitely want to get another Shootout victory,” said Schumacher. “Putting aside the big money that’s on the table, when you win this event you know that you have beaten the best of the best.”

Schumacher, who is the event’s No. 1 seed, will take on eighth-place qualifier, Cory McClenathan, in Round 1.

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