Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher, who handles the controls of the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster, lost in
the finals here Monday to Morgan Lucas in the rain-delayed O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis
Motorsports Park.
After breezing through the opening three rounds, the Chicago-area resident got involved
in an unexpected tire-smoking affair with Lucas. But, it was Lucas who was able to get his car to
recover sooner and thereby get to the finish line ahead of the six-time world champion.
"I didn't figure on that happening at all," said Schumacher. "We were running on a rail
for the first three rounds and I fully expected to get on down there again against Morgan. But, I
guess things changed just enough and we ended up overpowering the track."
Despite the final round loss, Schumacher was able to extend his lead in the Top Fuel
standings to 54 points over second-place Larry Dixon.
"That's certainly a positive for sure," he added. "But, to be honest, when you get to
the finals you want to close the deal. We want to win every race for our Army Strong Soldiers."
Before lining up against Lucas, Schumacher had to brush aside the likes of Terry
Haddock, Bob Vandergriff and Doug Kalitta.
"The race against my buddy Doug was really tight," he said. "As I've stated before,
there are no easy ones in Top Fuel anymore."
Schumacher and his U.S. Army team will now turn their attention to next weekend's
Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park outside of Richmond. It marks the end of four
consecutive races for the NHRA tour.
"The objective will be the usual - go out and win the race," he said. "We're fighting
for another world championship and we need to eliminate rounds from our competition."
Schumacher is the defending Virginia Nationals champion.
