Schumacher’s Streak of Final-Round Appearances Ends with First Run of Eliminations;
Defending Series Champ Brown Powers His Way to Season’s First Event Title

One would think a driver with a crew chief named Green would have a little better luck on St. Patrick’s Day.

Tony Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), whose crew chief is Mike Green, made an uncharacteristically early exit Sunday from the 44^th Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Fla., when an apparent mechanical issue led him to badly smoke his tires just after launching from the starting line in his first-round matchup with Khalid alBalooshi. Continue reading →

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Antron Brown raced to the Top Fuel victory at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals Sunday at historic Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, giving Don Schumacher Racing its 200th team win.

Johnny Gray (Funny Car), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners at the tradition-rich NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event.

One month after walking away from a spectacular high-speed crash at the season-opening race at Pomona, Calif., Brown powered his Matco Tools dragster to a 3.761 second run at 318.77 mph to finish in front of Clay Millican, who posted a 3.813 at 319.67 in his Parts-Plus dragster. It was defending world champion Brown’s 38th career victory and his first of the season.

“It’s a great team effort,” Brown said. “It felt good to bring that win home and hopefully we can put Pomona behind us and keep moving forward.” Continue reading →

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16, 2013) – Qualifying has concluded at the 44th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville, and Don Schumacher Racing’s Pitch Energy Dodge Funny Car driver Johnny Gray is situated pleasingly near the very top of the line-up. As the No. 2 qualifier, the Artesia, N.M.-based Gray will square off with Jeff Arend in the first round of eliminations on Sunday, a challenge he is eagerly anticipating after what is already proving to be a rewarding weekend.

On Friday, the first day of qualifying, Gray powered the stunning Pitch Energy Dodge to an awesome 4.071 at 313.22 mph in the second session to vault all the way up to the No. 2 position and nab top speed honors. Gray’s prime positioning was protected through the remainder of the sessions leading up to raceday, including a rocket-like blast in the third qualifying session when he clocked a best-of-the-round 4.079 at 308.07 mph in his Rob Wendland/Rip Reynolds-tuned hot rod.

“This team is just having a blast out here already, and tomorrow it’s only going to get better,” said Gray, who entered the event fifth in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car points. “We made a pretty nice run yesterday with the Pitch Energy Dodge. It rattled the tires just a little bit, but it made it. We were second-quickest of the day, so we were reasonably happy. But that run here this morning was really, really smooth. It just felt awesome. Tomorrow is a whole new ballgame, but we feel very comfortable this weekend. We have a good racecar, and I suspect we’ll go some rounds with the Pitch Energy Dodge.”

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Veteran Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta raced to the No. 1 qualifying position Saturday at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were No. 1 qualifiers and will lead their categories into Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event.

Kalitta claimed his second straight top qualifying effort of the season and 33rd of his career with a 3.779 second run at 326.32 mph in his 8,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster. Kalitta moved around defending world champ Antron Brown on his final qualifying attempt to claim the No. 1 spot at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.  Kalitta will face rookie Leah Pruett in the first round.

Brown, who briefly held the top spot late Saturday with a 3.787 at 324.20 in his Matco Tools dragster, will start second and face three-time world champ Larry Dixon in the opening round.

“I was surprised when Antron went out there and ran that .78 because everybody was bunched closer than that,” Kalitta said. “Hats off to Jim (Oberhofer, crew chief) and all my guys and the decision they made at the end to get it to run like that. It was nice and straight and planted to the middle of the grove and I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully the conditions will be the same as today and we won’t have to mess with our tune-up much and put a string of runs together tomorrow.” Continue reading →

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Cruz Pedregon raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car Friday at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were qualifying leaders in their categories at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville.

Two-time world champ Pedregon, whose only win at this event came in 1998, powered his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry to the provisional No. 1 position with a performance of 4.047 seconds at 296.05 mph. If the effort holds through Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions (11:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.) it will be his fourth No. 1 at this event and the 51st of his career. Continue reading →