Schumacher, Hight, Anderson, Arana win in Dallas

Tony Schumacher, Robert Hight, Greg Anderson, and Hector Arana scored huge playoffs victories at the 24th annual O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec at Texas Motorplex, wins with huge points implications for all.

Schumacher and Hight used their wins in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively, to springboard into the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series points lead as the Countdown to 1 playoffs hit the one-third mark with race two of six. Arana's win in Pro Stock Motorcycle kept him ahead of the two-wheeled pack, and former world champ Anderson moved from sixth to third with his victory in Pro Stock.

Tony Schumacher

The Top Fuel final was a continuation of the ongoing power struggle between the decade's only two world champs and a rematch of their final at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil. The result was the same, with Schumacher leading Larry Dixon across the stripe, which was most unexpected here as no Top Fuel driver before Schumacher had won in the right lane all day. Schumacher scored the win, the 60th of his career, with a 3.944, 312.86 to Dixon'ts 4.23, 225.18.

"That was huge," said Schumacher. "To get stuffed in the right lane [and win], that's a statement. That's just Mike Green doing a heckuva job. He even said, 'Let's not get stuck in the right lane; let's choose it,' and kept it positive, and we went right down it. The right lane wasn't that bad; it was clear you could go down it. We took the left lane in the final last year and got beat by J.R. Todd. I think a lot of people who got put in the right lane just misjudged it. It’s extremely important at this track to keep the car in the middle of the groove, and we did.”

Schumacher, who won his first Top Fuel race here 10 years ago, marched the U.S. Army dragster to his 94th final and past T.J. Zizzo, points rival Antron Brown, and rookie of the year hopeful Spencer Massey, the last with a 3.960 that left him .003-second shy of lane choice against Dixon.

Dixon, who qualified No. 1 for the sixth time this year, powered his Jason McCulloch-tuned maroon marauder past first-time starter Mike Bowers and longtime beer rival Brandon Bernstein with runs of 3.88 and 3.93. The two-time event winner (2001, 2007) then dispatched last week's runner-up, Shawn Langdon, with a 3.95 to reach final round No. 91.

The Funny Car final also had points-leading implications as Hight's victory, his second straight of the playoffs, moved him past teammate Ashley Force Hood and to the head of the pack, not a bad turnaround for a guy who barely made it into the Countdown to 1. Hight's close 4.21, 296.44 to 4.27, 292.58 decision against Jack Beckman gave Hight a 17-point edge on Force Hood.

“We were No. 1 qualifier, and usually in Funny Car, the No. 1 qualifier doesn’t do well, so to run the table here is just a great tribute to my team; they did an awesome job. We have four [races] in a row here, and it’s so exciting as a driver to be able to go right back out next week and maybe keep this streak going. When you’re on a hot streak, you don’t want to go home and celebrate, you want to get right back in the race car and keep it going. The first two weeks of the Countdown couldn’t have been any better for us. We won them and went from worst to first, so it’s very exciting for me. It’s something I never thought was going to happen. I never lost faith in my team. You dream big, but this is huge.

“This is probably the best race car I’ve ever had. We’ve won races and been close to winning the championship, but we’ve never been this dominant, this consistent, this steady; it’s going down the racetrack every run. The only person to beat us is my teammate [Ashley Force Hood] in Indy in the final – we had a malfunction and it kind of blew up – but it’s not hurting parts and it’s running fast; Jimmy Prock definitely has a handle on it. But we still have to give [credit] to [Hood’s crew chiefs] Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas. Thank God [tuner] Jimmy [Prock] listened to them and worked with them. That’s what’s great about our team; we all work together. Honestly, it’s kind of hard to want to go out there and beat those guys because without them, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Hight reached his third straight final round by powering his Automobile Club of Texas Mustang from the No. 1 qualifying spot past Leif Helander, Tim Wilkerson, and teammate and then-points leader Force Hood in the semifinals. Hight's 4.27 in the final four earned him the all-important lane choice against Beckman.

Beckman reached his fourth final of the year and his first since Norwalk in June with his Johnny West-wrenched Valvoline machine and reached third place in the points. Beckman defeated teammate Matt Hagan, John Force, and upset-minded Jerry Toliver in the semifinals in a close 4.54 to 4.55 match.

Anderson's considerable early-season woes must be a distant memory as the former world champ now finds himself right in the thick of the playoff hunt, just 80 points behind leader Mike Edwards and just 15 markers behind second-place Jeg Coughlin. Anderson earned the win, the 58th of his career, by a narrow .002-second margin after tracking down Johnny Gray's .034 to .061 holeshot to win, 6.684, 207.11 to 6.713, 206.64.

"I can't remember stealing one like we did today," Anderson admitted. "I didn't exactly wake up this morning brimming with confidence because Mike Edwards is making us all look bad. We like to be the performance leader, and we're not, and it's driving us nuts. It certainly wouldn't have been a big shock to exit early today. We just fought and clawed and found a way to win all four rounds, and, honestly, if we had another first-round loss today, we probably would have been done for the Countdown.

"We found a way to win today and bought ourselves a little time to try to find some performance in this car and get to where Mike Edwards is, or get closer to him. It feels good to win the race because even though you can't win the Countdown in the first race or two, you certainly can lose it."

Anderson, now a three-time winner here, reached his 86th Pro Stock final with a surprising victory over Edwards, who had dominated every qualifying round and the first two rounds of eliminations. In a weird semifinal, Edwards was caught staring at the Tree after flickering his own stage bulb several times while pulling in. Anderson was long gone before Edwards, whose run was doubly affected when his Young Life/ART Pontiac broke traction. Prior to Edwards, Anderson had beaten Warren Johnson with a 6.68, then scored a super-narrow .0004-second victory over Allen Johnson's Dodge.

Reading runner-up Gray returned to the final with his Dodge by upsetting regular-season points front-runner Coughlin in the semifinals after the Jegs.com Cobalt got loose on the launch. Prior to that, Gray had defeated fellow Mopar man Larry Morgan and Matt Hartford, who had upset No. 2 qualifier Jason Line in the opening stanza.

In a battle for the points lead, the Pro Stock Motorcycle final featured the class' top two points earners and the event's top two qualifiers: Arana and reigning world champ Eddie Krawiec. Krawiec got away first, .017 to .033, but Arana chased him down in the lights for his third straight win, 6.97, 190.67 to 7.00, 190.43. Arana, who entered the event in the points lead just nine points in front of Krawiec, left with a 27-point edge.