Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
Memphis, TN
(August 19-21)

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Tony Schumacher U.S. Army dragster

Memphis, prerace: U.S. Army drivers Tony Schumacher will look to return to victory lane here this weekend in the O’Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. Schumacher, who pilots the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster, has not won since the Denver race in mid-July.

Despite posting the fastest speed in NHRA history during qualifying last weekend in Brainerd, Minn. (337.58 mph), Schumacher could not survive the second round of eliminations and thus fell 70 points behind leader Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel standings.

“That was tough to take, no question, but we’ll come back strong this weekend,” said the 2004 NHRA POWERade Top Fuel world champion. “This U.S. Army team will never go quietly into the night. To a man, we’ll never accept defeat.”

The Chicago native is headed back to a track he loves and hates. Relative to the latter, he clearly recalls two horrific crashes suffered in 2000 and 2003.

“They are both etched in my memory to be sure,” he said. “But, with the one two years ago, we came back to win that race with our back up car. That was the ultimate ‘never give up’ deal.”

Schumacher knows points are critical now as the 2005 season begins to wind down to a precious few races.

“We’re not far behind," he said. "This weekend, we have to re-capture the momentum that we built up in Denver and Seattle.”

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