Schumacher Gives His Best In NHRA Victory

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Listen to Tony Schumacher for just a few minutes, and it’s easy to understand why he’s been the best Top Fuel driver five years running.

His determination and passion to be the best aren’t diminished at all by success. The man simply refuses to rest on his laurels, to settle for anything less than running first.

“I don’t wake up and think I have three-tenths of a second on anybody,” he said. “I wake up in the morning and think: ‘What a day, man. We’re going to have to dig deep and suck it up, and we’re going to have to do it to beat these guys.’ We’re all so even right now.”

That three-tenths of a second Schumacher mentioned was his margin of victory in Sunday’s final run against veteran Doug Kalitta. Both drivers now have three career victories at Thunder Valley.

“To meet Kalitta in the finals … I cannot stress enough how great it is to race him,” Schumacher said. “We have so much history battling [between] ourselves. It was like that again today.”

To hear Schumacher tell it, it’s like that every day in Top Fuel. The competition is fierce, so much so that he said he believes it is some of the best in the history of the classification.

Just how competitive is it? Schumacher beat Brandon Bernstein in the semifinals by five-hundredths of a second. Had Bernstein advanced instead and won in the final, he would have moved into the Top
Fuel points lead. Instead, Schumacher moved into first in the points past Antron Brown, who’d strengthened his lead two weeks ago with a win in Madison, Ill.

“NHRA is putting out some outstanding drag races right now,” Schumacher said. “The races we’re winning – even the races we’re losing – are less than half a car length. Fans are getting their money’s worth. So are the sponsors. You’ve got to step up and drive the car well, and the crew [members] have to do their jobs, because the cars are very even.”

Though he’s the five-time defending Top Fuel champion, Schumacher was expected to possibly slip some this season because of a wholesale change in his support team. Long-time crew chief Alan Johnson left to help form the Al-Anabi team with drivers Del Worsham and Larry Dixon, and Mike Green took over as crew chief for Schumacher.

It has not taken long for the two to mesh, Schumacher said, because Green has the same commitment to and passion for winning that he does.

“All the runs today were big,” the driver said. “To get through them, you have to stay calm and believe [your team is] giving you an outstanding race car. They give you a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask for. Then you can do your best. That’s what it’s about. We’re having a blast.”

Schumacher might be back in the points lead, but he made it clear that he’s not about to take it easy. He and his team are staying an extra day in Bristol, where they will use one of the four testing days they are allowed by the NHRA.

He said he’d hoped the predicted temperatures would be warmer on Monday, because it would give the team a chance to prepare for the hot days of summer. But, he said, if it is chilly, as expected, the team will take all the data it gathered during four runs on Sunday and put it to good use for future races.

A reporter asked Schumacher before Thursday’s benefit golf tournament at The Country Club of Bristol what it would take to win the Thunder Valley Nationals. He replied that he would have to bring everything he had because he knew that’s what the competition would do.

“I brought my best game,” he said early Sunday evening, holding up the winner’s trophy. “I didn’t bring my golf game, I can tell you that. I stunk [on Thursday].

“[But] I’d rather get it handed to us on the golf course and come out here and do my job. What a day!”

jcnockaert@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2572