U.S. Army Top Fuel pilot Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher dropped into the 10th starting position here
Friday following the initial day of qualifying for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit
Motorsports Park.
Schumacher posted his best pass of the day - 3.979-seconds at 289.63 mph - during the
second session when track temperatures were near 110 degrees.
"We had a nice run going there for a while, but we started putting some cylinders out
and that slowed us down considerably," said the six-time world champion. "We certainly don't want
to stay in the bottom half of the field. We'll try to move up tomorrow."
To date in 2009, Schumacher has not qualified any worse than sixth. He's coming off a
number one qualifying effort in Englishtown, N.J. two weeks ago.
"We'll be fine," he added. "Mike Green and the guys will work through everything
tonight and we'll be ready for the final two sessions. We really need to have a good race day."
Schumacher is looking to end the first half of the '09 schedule with his fourth victory
and his second at Summit Motorsports Park. He captured the Norwalk race two years ago.
"This is a great facility," said Schumacher. "Hopefully, we can come back out here on
Saturday (at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.) and put on a good show."
The Chicago-area resident arrived in the Buckeye State holding second-place in the Top
Fuel standings, 34 points behind Antron Brown.
"We need to dramatically cut into his lead or even go around him this weekend," he
said. "My U.S. Army team wants to get that number one spot back."
