Tony Schumacher scored his fifth victory of the season Sunday we he won in the Top Fuel class at the O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex.
Schumacher headlined a list of class winners that included Matt Hagan, Greg Anderson and LE Tonglet at the famed all-concrete dragstrip just south of Dallas.
Schumacher topped Shawn Langdon in the final round with a winning pass of 320.43 mph and gained ground on points leader Larry Dixon who lost in the second round.
“When Dixon goes out, you absolutely have to rise to the occasion and win and put some pressure back on him,” said Schumacher. “I wish we could have done this a race or two earlier, but we didn’t and Dallas is a great place to start. It’s the site of my first career Top Fuel win. We’re only down [94] points with three races to go. I’ve been down a lot further than that.”
“What NHRA and Full Throttle did was to make it this way, make it last all the way to the end. I’m in a happy place right now. Not where I want to be yet, but a lot better place than I was at 9 a.m. this morning.” Gant Daily
Hagan made a major move in the playoffs with his third Funny Car win of the season. He powered to a 4.155 at 294.63 in his Dodge Charger to beat series leader John Force, whose Ford Mustang lost traction near midtrack and finished in 4.491 at 203.74. Hagan is second in the standings, 25 points behind force.
Anderson overcame a near-perfect reaction time from Mike Edwards to claim his second consecutive playoff victory in Pro Stock. Anderson powered his Pontiac GXP to a 6.585 at 209.39 to drive around Edwards’ GXP at the finish line. With the win, three-time world champ Anderson cut Edwards’ series lead to 16 points. The Associated Press
“I had a big weekend last weekend and got myself back in the Countdown,” said Anderson. “Every race you go is sudden death out here. If you have a really bad race you can knock yourself completely out of it. You just can’t make a mistake, and my team has been flawless for two races now and I’m so proud of them. They’ve got a heck of a job on their hands trying to keep me positive all the time because if my car’s not the fastest car out here, I’m not happy. Half of their job is to keep my lip from dragging the ground and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They do a great job.”
“We’ve got serious chance at getting the championship back and I really had doubts a few races back. The guys are giving me a race car every race that I can win with now. We’re still not in the lead after back-to-back wins and that just goes to show you how tough this class is and how tough Mike Edwards is. We’re going to have to find a way to take that trophy from him; he’s not going to give it up. He’s the champion for a reason. He’s a great racer, he’s got a great team, he’s got a great hot rod, and he just doesn’t make many mistakes. The good news is we’re kind of peaking at the right time. We’re a threat to win every race now and we’re threat to win the championship.”
The Pro Stock Motorcycle final featured the same matchup as both of the last two events, with Tonglet battling Hines again, and for the third straight time the outcome was the same with the rookie beating the former world champ. Hines made it easy in him this time with a -.006 red-light. Tonglet trailed Hines by 66 points entering the event but now is only 44 behind.
“For him to go up there and red-light, you know that he had to be thinking about the pressure,” said Tonglet. “It’s just unreal. When I saw the red-light and knew I was the winner even before I reached the finish line was really great. I try not to think too much about the pressure, but it’s there. I’m just glad that my dad, GT, is there to keep me calm. I think that we’d be happy with a top three finish, but my dad reminds me that he needs the money.
“I wasn’t feeling too confident on Saturday night because we had struggled in qualifying. In the second round the bike moved up, and so did our confidence. I begin to think we could do this. We were just happy to be in the semi’s, and the win just made everything all that much better.” NHRA.com
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