Tony Schumacher won the main event at National Hot Rod Association ACDelco Nationals at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday in convincing fashion
Schumacher secured the Top Fuel title one day prior by qualifying, but he tacked on his 15th win of a historic season by topping Rod Fuller in the finals with a run of 314.53 mph.
“Every race we have won it’s getting harder and harder to do it because the bar is so high,” said Schumacher. “I had a good car and we won. It was perfect, just perfect. Its how it’s been all year long.’‘
Cruz Pedregon, Jeg Coughlin, Tony Schumacher and Chris Rivas were among the winners Sunday in the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip.
Pedregon took the points lead in the Funny Car race after his pass of 304.67 mph topped Robert Hight in the finals.
By merely qualifying at the ACDelco NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, Schumacher and crew chief Alan Johnson clinched the championship but, as has been the case this entire season, they were not content to merely get there – they did it in style, qualifying No. 1 for the eighth time this season.
It’s been a season of amazing dominance and history for the team, which, with two racedays remaining, already had won 14 of 22 events and accumulated a class-record 71 round wins. In the process, Schumacher also surpassed legendary Top Fuel pilot Joe Amato’s 52 career wins to become the class’ most prolific winner, capturing his 55th title three weeks ago in Richmond, Va.
Schumacher never spent a day out of first place, kicking off the season by winning the Winternationals in Pomona with a final-round conquest of Doug Kalitta that began one of the most amazing seasons in NHRA history.
“We’ve always been known as a pressure team and to come out with no pressure on, and win the first race of the year against Doug Kalitta, I said, ‘That’s going to set the tone for the year’ and we came out swinging and haven’t let our guard down,” said Schumacher. “The six championships were all done in different ways; my first championship, back in 1999, was done by winning one race at the end of the year and this year was just sheer domination.”
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