Defending champion Tony "the Sarge" Schumacher clinched a spot in the Countdown to One championship
playoff and moved into second place in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series regular-season Top
Fuel points race today with his runner up finish in the 22nd Annual Northwest Nationals here at
Pacific Raceways.
Schumacher, in his sixth-consecutive final round at this race, drove his U.S. Army Top Fuel
dragster to a 3.990-second run at 300 miles per hour during his final's loss to points leader
Antron Brown, who did the 1,000-foot course in 3.985 seconds at 301.07 mph.
"That was a great race, just a great race," said Schumacher, who had won the previous three NHRA
Northwest Nationals. "Like our soldiers stationed around the globe, we had several missions this
weekend, including improving our standing in the points race and having a solid weekend. And, like
the brave men and women serving this country, our guys worked as well-coordinated team to achieve
these goals; we made progress and gained ground."
Getting to the finals was a test for the Chicago-area native who had to get by the racers ahead and
behind him in the points race. In round one, a rematch from the last two years' NHRA Northwest
Nationals finals, he bested Brandon Bernstein, who came into the race in fourth place, with a
3.935-second pass at 297.88 mph to Bernstein's 6.533-second at 95.06 mph run.
Schumacher, with a 3.937-second, 297.09-mph pass, defeated Larry Dixon, who ran 5.367 seconds at
126.29 mph, in the second round, moving past him up to second place.
The semi-finals featured a pedal job by Schumacher whose 5.115-second run at 203.86 mph
topped Troy Buff's 11.75-second run at 30.81 mph; Buff's car broke early in the race.
"Mike (Green, crew chief) and the team did a great job getting our car ready for the
finals, especially after the disaster we had in the third round," he said. "We knew the right lane
would be a challenge, but we stepped it up and within eight-thousands-of-a-second. A great race!"
Schumacher, six-time Top Fuel Champion, including world titles the past five years,
heads to next weekend's 22nd Annual FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals in Sonoma, Calif., second in the
championship race with 1,031 points after 14 events. He is 137 points behind Brown.
The top 10 drivers after the 18th race of the season, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis, qualify for the Countdown to One. The points totals are reset for the playoffs with
the first-place driver gaining a 30-point advantage over the second-place driver. From then, it is
a 10-point gap between each subsequent driver.
