NHRA

Reading: Tony Schumacher Saturday notes

"THE SARGE" RETAINS TOP SPOT READING, Pa., August 16 - U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher claimed his sixth pole of the year here today following final qualifying for Sunday's Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove ...

Published: Aug 16, 2008, 8:54 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

"THE SARGE" RETAINS TOP SPOT

READING, Pa., August 16 - U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher claimed his sixth pole of the year here today following final qualifying for Sunday's Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

Schumacher's 3.816-second pass from Friday night was good enough to earn him a second straight bye in the first round of eliminations on race day. The Chicago-area resident will get the winner of the Hillary Will-Brandon Bernstein first round match up in the quarterfinals.

"Like last weekend, it's nice that we were able to get the bye run," offered the five-time world champion. "But, just like we did in Brainerd (Minn.), we'll still have to go out and put up a good number even though we're not racing anyone. You always want lane choice in the next round."

This was Schumacher's 53rd career pole and his sixth at Maple Grove Raceway. On Sunday, he'll be seeking his fifth consecutive victory, which would tie his own record from 2005.

"We're not looking that far ahead, I can tell you," he added. "First and foremost, we're going to have to deal with a tough customer in either Hillary or Brandon. We better have our game faces on."

Should Schumacher grab his 10th win of the season it would tie a personal record from the 2004 campaign.

"Again, we're talking about numbers that will fall into place as long as we take care of business," he said. "As always, it will be a round at a time proposition for the U.S. Army team."

Schumacher entered the 17th event of the season holding a commanding lead in the standings. But, he knows that gap will close dramatically in just a few short weeks upon the start of the Countdown to One.

"We're definitely gearing up for the playoffs," he said. "However, we've got a couple of races to go before it all begins. Our goal is to go out and perform well here in Reading as well as in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend."

-credit: dsr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Reading: Saturday qualifying report

Next article Reading: Jeg Coughlin Jr Friday notes

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

F1-level excess: How Manuel Reuter won the ITC title with Opel 30 years ago

DTM

DTM DTM 30 min

F1-level excess: How Manuel Reuter won the ITC title with Opel 30 years ago

Toto Wolff dismisses Helmut Marko's Russell theory: "He still has what it takes"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

52 min

Toto Wolff dismisses Helmut Marko's Russell theory: "He still has what it takes"

5 things you never knew about the Automobile Club de l’Ouest

Sponsored

Sponsored 1 h

5 things you never knew about the Automobile Club de l’Ouest

Jorge Martin hopeful of racing in Malaysia after "not complete" fracture diagnosis

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

1 h

Jorge Martin hopeful of racing in Malaysia after "not complete" fracture diagnosis

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts