Schumacher wins eighth U.S. Nationals title

CLERMONT, Ind. — Tony Schumacher may have come to Indianapolis under different circumstances than in previous years, but he’s leaving the same way — as Mac Tools U.S. Nationals champion.

Schumacher, driving the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster for his father’s Don Schumacher Racing, beat rival Larry Dixon in Monday’s final round of the NHRA Full Throttle Series’ most prestigious race. It was his eighth win at the “Big Go,” tying Don Garlits for the most in Top Fuel history.

“I don’t know why it’s our lucky track, but I’m sure glad it’s this one,” said Schumacher, who also collected career win No. 60, extending his class record.

Though a five-time defending champion coming into the season, including a 15-win 2008 that shredded the record book, Schumacher wasn’t expected to be a dominant force after wizard tuner Alan Johnson departed to start his own team, Al-Anabi Racing. Johnson took the entire U.S. Army crew with him, leaving “The Sarge” to start over with an entirely new group headed by Mike Green, formerly the crew chief of the DSR teammate car driven by Cory McClenathan.

There have been growing pains. Schumacher had won three times prior to arriving at O’Reilly Raceway Park, but had none in the previous nine races and only one final-round appearance. He had slipped to third in points, more than 200 behind second-year Top Fueler Antron Brown. He’ll start the Countdown to 1 playoff in two weeks in third place, 40 points behind Brown.

Those facts seemed to belong to someone else this week, watching Schumacher qualify in the No. 2 spot and then, in a first-round pairing in which the other lane was vacated by T.J. Zizzo’s broken car, run a meet-best 3.816-second elapsed time at 316.52 mph. In the next two rounds he took out rival Rod Fuller and Brandon Bernstein with consistent 3.879- and 3.877-second runs, then dropped the hammer on a tire-smoking Dixon in the final with a 3.861 at 314.17 mph.

The final had the Indy crowd on its feet for good reason. Schumacher and Dixon have won every Top Fuel championship since 2002 and every Big Go for a decade. Schumacher’s in the iconic U.S. Army car, Dixon’s in a car that says “Qatar” on the rear wing, paying homage to team co-owner Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani.

To Schumacher, it was a matchup for the sports’ biggest trophy against one of the drivers he most respects and Johnson, who is still considered by some as the sole factor in Schumacher’s success.

“I wouldn’t have asked for anybody else to be in the final lane in the final,” Schumacher said. “Anyone else, it would have been different. To sit up there and race a great team and a great driver and hold a trophy at the end of the day, it’s just not the same. Under the pressure and the circumstances we had, that’s the best.”

Other winners at the 55th U.S. Nationals included Ashley Force Hood (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle), drivers who each had pressures of their own.

Force Hood, though flying under the radar this week with John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight in a fierce Countdown battle (he qualified for the playoff by reaching the final), came to Indy with just one round win in the last four events, dropping her from first to third in points. Winning in the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang renewed her championship mettle and helped her to hold onto third place for the start of the Countdown.

Coughlin qualified 12th in the Jegs.com Chevy Cobalt and faced tall orders through the bracket, from resurgent former champion Greg Anderson in the first round to top qualifier Mike Edwards in the semifinals. Yet he continued delivering some of the best drives in the sport, earning an NHRA-leading seventh win by beating Greg Stanfield in the final.

Arana came into eliminations with red lights in each of his last two runs of consequence, at the last race at Reading, Pa., and in Saturday’s Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, Pro Stock Motorcycle’s bonus event. He was the top qualifier in both.

The 51-year-old was the No. 2 qualifier for the U.S. Nationals and kept his trigger safe but aggressive, recording reaction times of .015, .008 and .021 in three of four rounds (.000 is perfect) on his Lucas Oil Buell on the way to a second career win.

But Top Fuel was the top story, starring a driver who refuses to fade into the background. Indy is still The Sarge’s stage, no matter the storylines coming in.

“I’m comfortable getting in the car with the weight of the world pressure,” Schumacher said. “I make way more mistakes when there’s no pressure and with runs that don’t matter, but when there’s big pressure, crunch time, suck it up, I love that. And you surround yourself by people who also like that, and are good at that moment.”

There’s still plenty of those around -- and in -- the U.S. Army dragster.