Sun, 24 Oct 1999, 07:38 PM DALLAS - Top Fuel Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Ed Dykes

ENNIS, Texas - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Top Fuel at the 14th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec:

  
 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   1 Scott Kalitta       4.546 318.92  Q    2 Tony Schumacher     4.557 326.91
   (M Smith     ) 0.496  4.567 317.01  E1   (D Lampus    ) 0.415  4.659 323.85
   (L Dixon     ) 0.465  4.596 310.66  E2   (D Herbert   ) 0.476  4.591 319.94
   (M Dunn      ) 0.565  4.585 306.22  E3   (D Kalitta   ) 0.492  4.598 323.85
                  0.471  5.072 205.62  E4 *****WINNER***** 0.472  4.621 323.39

The final pair of cars take to the Motorplex concrete, in what has been the best weather that we can ever remember for this event. What a contrast to the race just two weeks ago in Memphis, when it rained every other hour (seemingly) all weekend long. And a fitting matchup for this final race, Kalitta with no stake in the Championship, versus The Guy who leads the pack as we go right down to the wire. And the race is everything Team Exide had hoped for, the first-ever win for Tony Schumacher. So he takes a 81 point lead over Joe Amato into the last two races, making life more difficult for the remaining title contenders. Congrats to Schumacher and Olson and Team Exide!