Tony Schumacher raced to his second straight Top Fuel victory and third in a row in Las Vegas, beating Brandon Bernstein in the SummitRacing.com Nationals with a 3.874-second run at 311.77 mph.
“Most of the guys on this team have not won two races in a row, so that was great for them, and they did it today because I didn’t drive flawlessly,” said Schumacher, who was appearing in his 90th career final. “I did a good job of keeping it straight and all that stuff, but I didn’t drive as well as I did last week, period. Last week, I had a pretty special week, and this week, it was the team. They did a heck of a job. The car ran right down the track every time.
“It was a perfect, perfect run in the final. The final was a big round. He’s gone a whole year without winning a race, and he’s looking for a sponsor, so you know he’s going to dig deep. We weren’t out there just running an average guy. He’s an outstanding driver, and they’re a great race team, so you’ve got to go up there and do your job.”
In the Funny Car final at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, points leader Ron Capps beat Matt Hagan for his third victory of the season, finishing in 4.182 at 297.81 mph. Capps has 408 points, with Hagan second at 302 points.
“I think we got a little complacent,” Capps said. “We had a target on our backs because we were first in points.”
The Pro Stock final was a repeat of the final at the fall event here last year with Coughlin taking on Stanfield, and the end result was the same with Coughlin coming out on top when Stanfield fouled out. Stanfield turned on the red by .021-second, handing the win to Coughlin. Coughlin likely would have been tough to beat, though, running a 6.715. Coughlin now has 43 Pro Stock wins, five of which have come in Las Vegas (three at this event).
“We had to hustle,” Coughlin said. “It was like we were in the hurry up offense all day. But when you are standing in the winners’ circle and the end of the day having a cold one, you did OK.”
Coughlin’s victory pushed him into the top spot of the standings with 430 points, 12 points ahead of second place Jason Fine.
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