W
Ward Burton
Guest
Tony Schumacher kicked off the inaugural NHRA POWERade Countdown to Championship by taking his sixth win in the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
Schumacher defeated Larry Dixon in the finals with a 4.575 blast (331.94 mph) to Dixon’s 4.748 (268.44 mph). With the win, he went from trailing series point leader Rod Fuller by 184 points to leading Dixon by 31 markers thanks to the new championship format.
"I want to stay in first right up to the beginning of the Countdown to One," Schumacher said. "I want to be the one being chased."
It was the 40th career win for Schumacher and it moved him into a second place tie with Dixon on the all-time win list behind Joe Amato's 52.
Dixon, who is a three-time U.S. Nationals winner, gave Schumacher’s U.S. Army dragster a run for the money up until the 400-foot mark when his Sky Tel dragster dropped a cylinder.
In Funny Car, Mike Ashley was able to make up for his semifinal loss in yesterday’s Skoal Showdown by winning his third race of the season after he defeated Robert Hight in the finals with a 4.894 at 323.74 mph run.
Ashley’s win was special as it was his first in the U.S. Nationals, but more importantly the weekend was in memory his friends Donnie and Holly Faulkner's baby son, Eric Blake, who was stillborn on May 24, 2007. Ashley’s Torco Race Fuels Dodge Charger ran a special Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation paint scheme through out the event.
"It was very, very emotional and I knew when I decided to do this tribute car that it would add a bunch of pressure to the day," Ashley said. "I just wouldn't allow myself to think about what it all meant too much. I just did the best I could all weekend for Donnie and Holly.
"This is the Super Bowl of drag racing. To win Indy is unreal but then you add to it the recognition we can bring to the Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation and it makes it stratospheric. This is a day I'll always remember and appreciate."
To benefit the foundation, the special car will now head to the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, to be held January 12-20, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Even though he scored the win, Ashley remains second in the standings, 21 behind Hight. Ashley entered the event as the sixth seed and trailed Hight by 40 points.
Dave Connolly denied Greg Anderson of his history making fifth consecutive U.S. Nationals Pro Stock win by running a 6.710 at 206.32 mph. Right out of the gate Anderson was quickest at the light, but after that his Pontiac GTO (6.729 at 205.79 mph) couldn’t catch the Chevrolet Cobalt of Connolly.
"I can never remember having a car that has the field covered by four hundredths of a second," Connolly said. "It's a real tribute to [team owner] Victor Cagnazzi and the organization he's put together."
It marked the second consecutive event win, and fifth of the season, for Connolly and it moved him into the championship points lead by 14 over Anderson.
"To win back-to-back races for the first time it seems like we're peaking at the perfect place in the schedule, especially with the Countdown starting," Connolly said. "It's just an awesome feeling right now."
Although John Force and J.R. Todd were two of four Countdown drivers that failed to make the field, they both still sit sixth in the points in their respective class.
The Countdown to the Championship will continue at Memphis Motorsports Park for the O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals on September 14-16.