Schumacher topped Rod Fuller, Doug Kalitta, Hillary Will and Doug Herbert en route to his 13th Top Fuel win of the season and second since the playoffs began.
Schumacher’s made a pass of 309.91 mph to top Herbert in the final and build his points lead to 166 over second-place Cory McClenathan.
Schumacher’s record round-win and event-win streaks may have ended with a final-round loss to J.R. Todd in Dallas, but his final-round streak is alive and kicking after advancing to his ninth straight final round in a season which has the rest of the class nearly ready to run for second. “The Sarge” left first next to Norwalk winner Herbert in the final round, and the U.S. Army dragster increased its lead over Herbert’s SnaponFranchise.com/B.R.A.K.E.S. rail at every increment, 3.880 to 3.979.
“I think I did a good job of driving and Alan [Johnson] did a great job of tuning,” said Schumacher. “When we smoked the tires [in the semifinals], Alan knew exactly what it was before we got back to the pits, and it got right down the track in the final. We needed that point lead. Of all the records this year, the one I don’t want to set is losing the biggest points lead.”
“I’ve always enjoyed coming to Memphis. We’ve won it before; we’ve crashed a few times. We’ve always performed well here, even when we’ve gotten beat.”
Schumacher was good when he had to be and opportunistic when both he and Hillary Will smoked the hides in the semifinals. Schumacher, who made the quickest runs in both Saturday qualifying trials, was quick but not the quickest of either of the first two rounds with 3.88s in close wins against Rod Fuller and Doug Kalitta. When he spun the tires in the semifinals, so did Will, and the result was a win light in the U.S. Army team’s lane, 4.22 to 4.47.
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