Eight-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher’s late-season push in the Okuma/JCM Racing dragster continued Sunday afternoon at the Texas NHRA FallNationals, where he charged to a semifinal finish. The most recent winner on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour, Schumacher went into the weekend ranked sixth in the Top Fuel points standings. After his semifinal loss to points leader Justin Ashley, Schumacher is fifth going into the final two races of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
Schumacher’s promising performance at Dallas kicked off in the first qualifying session on Friday when he made the third-quickest pass of the round, a 3.762 E.T. at 324.93 mph, to earn one bonus point. He drove into tire smoke in the night session, ending the day in the No. 9 spot. The Austin, Texas, resident came back on Saturday and nearly repeated his Q1 performance with a 3.768 E.T. at 328.83 mph. He was consistent in the final qualifying session, running a 3.782 E.T. at 325.85 mph.
Qualified ninth, Schumacher paired up with teammate Ida Zetterström in the first round of eliminations on Sunday, guaranteeing a JCM Racing entry would advance to the quarterfinals. In a first-time matchup for the eight-time world champion and the Rookie of the Year contender, Schumacher moved first and raced to a 3.801-second pass at 322.27 mph to get the win. Zetterström was on a good run until her machine hazed the tires.
That sent Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in Texas Motorplex history, to a second-round match against two-time world champion and No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force. Schumacher left first again and drove the Okuma machine to a 3.797 E.T. to defeat Force and her 3.790 E.T. on a holeshot. He advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time this season, meeting up with Justin Ashley. Schumacher cut his best reaction time of the day, but it wasn’t enough to leave on the notoriously quick Ashley. Schumacher crossed the finish line second with a 3.817 E.T. at 323.93 mph to Ashley’s 3.806 E.T.
“Those are painful ones, man,” said Schumacher, who put himself back in title contention with his recent St. Louis victory. “We should have won that round. We can’t let the points leader get extra rounds like that. We had a hell of a race car all day long and it was just getting hot. We were losing power somewhere. We need to find it. We need to find a way to make power in situations like that because that was a damaging run. Hell of a race, though. The fans got to win that one, surely. But I wanted that cowboy hat. I wanted my seventh Dallas win. Love this place. We had all the friends and family here, but we’ve got two races to go. It ain’t over yet.”
Schumacher and the JCM Racing team will move on to the penultimate race of the season, the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals, Nov. 1 – 3, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
This story was originally published on October 14, 2024. 
