Two of the NHRA’s biggest stars won for the first time in their illustrious careers in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka on Sunday afternoon.
Six-time defending NHRA Top Fuel series champion Tony Schumacher defeated Cory McClenathan by .0052 second — or two feet — in their final, while defending Funny Car series champion Robert Hight defeated Jeff Arend.
Mike Edwards, the reigning Pro Stock series champion, avenged his loss in last year’s final at Heartland Park when he defeated Allen Johnson.
The win was the third of the season for Schumacher, and he extended his Top Fuel career record to 64 victories. It was also the 100th victory for the U.S. Army team in NHRA competition. Kansas City Star
“I enjoy those big moments, where you have to really pull something off and that’s what we had today,” Schumacher said. “Cory’s a great driver and he gave us a great race. We knew it was just going to be just inches no matter what.”
“To win three in a row, I’ve only ever won three races in a season,” Hight said. “To win three in a row, to come out here and qualify No. 1 win from the pole is tough to do and not many guys do that.”
“What made this weekend so special was the fact that my parents, A.C. and Gladys, were here to see the win,” Edwards said. “They’ve never been to any of the races that I’ve won before, and you can’t believe how much it means to me for them to see this one.” USA Today
“We managed to leave first today because, and that was a good thing because that Hemi Dodge of Roy and Allen Johnson is really running strong, They are a top-notch team and they’re going to be something to reckon with all year long. I’m not sure that they won’t make a lot of winner’s circles this year because they are running extremely strong.”
Edwards reached his sixth final of the year in the season’s first nine events with a trio of passes within .012-second in his Penhall/K&N/Interstate GXP, defeating Justin Humphreys, Johnny Gray, and engine customer Ron Krisher, who red-lighted. The final-round appearance was Edwards 45th in Pro Stock.
Johnson was dominating on the day, running three straight 6.70s that were either the quickest of the round or second quickest. He opened with a 6.709 to beat Greg Stanfield, 6.703 to best Greg Anderson, and a 6.708 to defeat Atlanta runner-up Rickie Jones and reach his 19th career final.
Tim Nicholson scored his first career win, taking Super Stock honors from Kevin Helms, who was bidding for his second double-eliminator win. Helms, who scored his double in Denver in 2005, returned a short time later to take part in the Stock final, but lost that one, too, to Dan Fletcher, who scored his 67th career win. NHRA
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