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Race report

Schumacher and Brown out early at Baytown's Royal Purple Raceway

Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown lose traction on difficult surface

Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher

NHRA

Track conditions were the great equalizer Sunday in the 26th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston.

Unfortunately for U.S. Army Racing drivers Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown, the surface got the best of them in the first round and derailed their mission to conquer the Houston track once again.

Tony Schumacher
Tony Schumacher

Photo by: NHRA

Despite possessing mental, emotional and physical strength reflective of the more than more than 1 million Army Strong Soldiers they represent, both Schumacher and Brown, like a majority of the field, smoked the tires trying to reach the finish first.

Schumacher, a two-time Houston winner (2005 and 2009), pushed Shawn Langdon early in the run, but he glazed the tires 750 feet down the 1,000-foot strip, and the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster of Don Schumahcer Racing (DSR) wasn’t able to recover.

His run of 4.666 seconds at 169.17 mph couldn’t eclipse Langdon’s pass of 3.846 seconds at 319.98 mph.

“Today was more about breaks than performance,” said Schumacher, who came into Sunday as the 14th qualifier. “The right lane was not the place to be.

It just didn’t have what it took for a 10,000-horsepower car to get down it. We didn’t perform well enough qualifying Friday to get lane choice, and that really hurt us today.

This U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster is too good of a car to go out in the first round. With as tough as the competition is right now, I’m guessing everyone will have a weekend like this at some point.

We struggled a little bit Friday, didn’t get to run on Saturday, and we’re going home earlier than we hoped.”

Brown returned to Houston, the site of his first career Top Fuel victory in 2008, looking to claim his second Top Fuel triumph of the 2013 season.

The reigning Top Fuel champion earned the fourth slot in the ladder with Friday night’s qualifying pass in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster of DSR.

His run Sunday ended quickly after smoking the tires halfway through his match-up with Bob Vandergriff. Brown’s pass of 4.902 seconds at 158.19 mph wasn’t enough to defeat Vandergriff, who reached earned the win light with a run of 4.181 seconds at 260.71 mph.

“We’re really disappointed,” said Brown, who lost in the first round for the second consecutive weekend. “The track got really tricky for everybody.

We went out there and thought we had slowed it down enough to run like a mid to high 3.80, which we were confident would get the job done.

You can’t take Bob Vandergriff or anyone in this class lightly. The car was trying to go way faster than we thought it would go. It left the line and felt like it was trying to go a high 3.70 instead of high 3.80. That’s just what happens sometimes. The track just didn’t come around and we just got beat.”

Vandergriff defeated Langdon in the final to earn his first Top Fuel event victory of the season.

Despite the early exit, Schumacher continues to lead the Top Fuel point standings. He leads Brown by 70 points (510-440).

DSR - US Army

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