Championship Drag Racing

Virginia NHRA Nationals
Richmond, Va.
(October 10-12)

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Driver Profile

Tony Schumacher U.S. Army dragster

Richmond, Friday: U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher grabbed the provisional pole here Friday following the first day of qualifying for the Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Schumacher posted the quickest 1,000-foot time in NHRA history with his 3.771-second pass at 317.05 mph during the second qualifying session.

“Just fantastic,” said the five-time world champion. “That’s how you want to start off a race weekend. The conditions were certainly perfect to put up that kind of a run. I knew we were really hauling the mail, I can tell you that.”

With two qualifying sessions remaining on Saturday, Schumacher will be looking for his third straight pole at VMA and his seventh of the season. He’s also seeking his 54^th career pole.

“We can use every point that we can get in an effort to distance ourselves from our competition in the standings,” he added. “Nothing has been decided as yet when it comes to the championship.”

Schumacher entered the 22^nd race of the year holding a 166-point lead over second-place, Cory McClenathan, in the Top Fuel standings. Should he manage to leave VMA on Sunday with a 237-point advantage over the second-place driver, he would clinch his fifth consecutive world title.

“We’re not going to look that far ahead,” he said. “We want to go out tomorrow and get in a couple of good runs, while securing the pole. Only then will we look ahead to race day. And, we’ll only look as far as our first-round opponent.”

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