Valvoline Racing News

David Ragan and Carl Edwards to Attend Concord Boys & Girls Club Fundraising Dinner

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:01:19 EDT

CONCORD, N.C. (March 12, 2010) – The Boys & Girls Club of Cabarrus County will hold their annual “It Just Takes One” fundraising dinner on Tuesday, March 23rd. This year the event will be highlighted by two very special guest speakers from Roush Fenway Racing. David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 UPS Ford and Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion will make a special guest appearance and be the keynote speakers for the dinner.

David Ragan’s sponsor UPS is very involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America through their “Road Code” teen safe driving program. Through the partnership Ragan has had the opportunity to visit various Boys & Girls Club locations throughout the country and talk to teens about safe driving. Ragan ran a special Boys & Girls Club paint scheme in Texas last fall on his UPS Ford and a piece of that car will be shown off in the front of the Club on the night of the event.

“I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve gotten to spend at a few different Boys & Girls Clubs over the past year,” said Ragan. “It’s a great organization and you can tell the kids who are there really enjoy being there. Encouraging kids to live healthy lifestyles at a young age is important and anything I can do to help support that I will.”

“This is an honor, it means a lot to me to see a worth-while organization encourage our youth to be physically and mentally active. I hear their sports programs are second to none. I hope this dinner affords more opportunities for their continued success,” said Edwards.

With the addition of NASCAR drivers David Ragan and Carl Edwards the Boys & Girls Club of Cabarrus County expects this year’s dinner to generate more revenue and exposure for their program than in years past.

“We are thrilled to have such talented athletes agree to participate in our event,” said Development Director of the Boys & Girls Club, Mike Blackwelder. “It has been increasingly difficult to raise money in the current economy. We are confident that this event will help bring additional revenue to the Club to help support its vital programs.” The dinner is scheduled to start at 5:30p.m., with the formal program beginning at 6:15 p.m. The night’s message will focus on healthy life styles for children, something that Carl Edwards, David Ragan and the Boys & Girls Club feel strongly about.

The It Just Takes One Dinner generates a significant amount of revenue for Boys & Girls Club of Cabarrus County. The event begins with a buffet-style dinner served with help from Keystone Club members, followed by a program featuring guest speakers, updates on the Club, and entertainment from Club members. Sponsorship opportunities and individual tickets are still available and must be purchased in advance. Call 704-721-2582 ext.107 or visit the Club’s website, www.bgclubcab.org, for more information or to purchase tickets.

About Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating eight motorsports teams. Four in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; and four in the Nationwide Series with Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Colin Braun, and Paul Menard. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com. Become a fan of Roush Fenway Racing on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/roushfenway. And for sponsorship inquiries please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.

Food City 500 Preview - Carl Edwards

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:58:04 EDT

Carl Edwards on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“In the Cup races at Bristol we’ve had a lot of success in the night races there, but we haven’t been able to get a win during the day races. Bob (Osborne) and I have been talking about that and figuring out a way to be better at these day races at Bristol. We had a terrible day at Atlanta two weeks ago so this is a track we feel like we can come back to and rebound, and hopefully get ourselves back up in the top 10 in points.”

Crew chief Bob Osborne on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
"The key to Bristol is survival. You can have the fastest car there, but you have to keep the fenders on it and race every lap. It is one of the tracks where qualifying well is important because you want to start up front and get a good pit stall. We’ve definitely got the pit crew to keep Carl up front. It’s a challenging track because of how quickly everything happens there for the drivers and crew chiefs."

FAST FACTS
Carl Edwards enters Bristol 20th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings, 47 markers behind 12th place, and 209 points behind the leader. He has earned one top-10 finish this season.
FOR THE RECORD… In 11 starts at the 0.533-mile bullring, Edwards has two wins, three top-five, four top-10 finishes and one pole. His average start is 24.0, and his average finish is 14.1. Edwards has completed 5343 of 5513 (96.9%) laps attempted at Bristol Motor Speedway.
IN THE LOOP… According to NASCAR’s Loop Statistics compiled over the last 11 races at Bristol, Edwards has turned 220 of the track’s fastest laps which is fifth highest, spent 3,196 laps (63.8%) in the top 15 and led a total of 282 laps. Edwards’ driver rating is 12th best among active drivers.
ON THE TRACK…The No. 99 will carry the Scotts Turf Builder paint scheme at Bristol. The No. 99 crew will unload RK-596 for the weekend. Edwards most recently raced this car at Dover in Sept. (finished 11th) and Bristol in August (finished 16th) in 2009.
REWIND, BRISTOL, MARCH 2009… After struggling to find speed during each of the weekend’s practice sessions and qualifying a disappointing 38th, the No. 99 team faced an uphill battle. But true to form, the team surmounted the hurdles and left Bristol Motor Speedway with a 15th-place finish.

Food City 500 Preview - David Ragan

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:54:35 EDT

Ragan on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“Bristol is one of my favorite tracks on the schedule; it’s always a lot of fun. I do like the night race a little more than the Sunday afternoon race, but regardless, 500 laps at Bristol is always a fun time. We’ve gotten some good testing in this week and are ready to get back to the track after the off weekend. We’ve got a good car for this weekend so we’ll look to qualify well since it’s a short track and qualifying position will be important. Hopefully we’ll have a fast good-handling UPS Ford and survive 500 laps and be there at the end.”

Crew chief Donnie Wingo on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“Track position is so important at a place like Bristol. With so many cars on a half-mile surface it can be all too easy to go a lap down or get caught up in a wreck. We’re heading into this weekend coming off an off-weekend and we did some testing this week. We’ve got a fast UPS Ford and we should be good for this weekend. David really enjoys these short tracks and even got a Nationwide win at Bristol last fall.”

FAST FACTS
Ragan has six prior starts in the Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway. His best finish was 10th in the fall of 2008.
Ragan has completed 96.9% of the laps he’s raced at Bristol.
Ragan won the fall Nationwide race at Bristol in 2009.
Ragan has competed twice in the Truck Series at Bristol.

Food City 500 Preview - Greg Biffle

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:50:56 EDT

Biffle on Bristol: “Bristol has to be one of the most exciting tracks we go to especially for the fans. We’ve run well there in the past and I think that if we can qualify up front, we should be able to keep it up there. We’ve had a top-five car every week this season and I don’t see any reason why it would be any different this weekend. We’re taking the car we finished 10th with in Vegas but we should have gotten a top five out with it out there. A win a Bristol would be incredible but if we can get out of there with a solid top five, I’ll be happy.”

Erwin on Bristol: “Qualifying, qualifying, qualifying. Qualifying is crucial at Bristol for two reasons. The first is that pit road at Bristol is different from everywhere else because we pit on the frontstretch and the backstretch and there are no openings in pit wall so the only good pit selections are the two ends of pit road on each side. If you don’t get one of those four, you run the risk of having trouble getting in and out of the pit box because they are so small. The other reason qualifying is so important is obviously for track position. It is extremely difficult to pass at Bristol so track position is everything. If we can qualify well this weekend, then we should have a good run.”

Bristol Notes
• Biffle is currently third in the point standings following his eighth-place finish in Atlanta.
• Biffle is only 59 points out of the lead and holds a 110-point advantage on Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 13th position.
• This weekend in Bristol the No. 16 Ford Fusion will feature a Census 2010 paint scheme for the second of three races with that paint scheme.
• While it costs the government just 42 cents for a postage paid envelope when a household mails back the form, it costs $57 to send a census taker door-to-door to follow up with each household that fails to respond.
• The Census Bureau estimates that if every household completed and mailed back their census form, taxpayers could reduce the cost of taking the census by $1.5 billion.

Food City 500 Preview - Elliott Sadler

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:42:13 EDT

This Sunday’s race will mark Elliott Sadler’s 24th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at
Bristol Motor Speedway
• Sadler scored his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Bristol in 2001 while driving a Ford
• The Virginia-native is currently 25th in the NSCS point standings

Sadler Talks Bristol: “I’m definitely looking forward to Bristol this weekend. The track is one of the best we go to and the racing there is always exciting. This track is special to me since it’s the spot where I grabbed my first career win back in 2001. I was driving a Ford at the time with the Wood Brothers. I’d love nothing more than to get a second win there and one for Richard Petty and this No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion team."

“With this being a .5-mile track, we’ll focus on completely different things this weekend than what we did the first four races of the season. We put a lot of focus on qualifying at Atlanta and that paid off. Once the green flag fell though we really struggled. Now that we’ve had a week off, I’m ready to get back at it. I can’t think of a better place than Bristol to really have a strong showing.”

Crew Chief Wally Rogers On Bristol: “Bristol Motor Speedway is by far one of my favorite tracks we go to. It’s the first short track of the season so its a completely different ballgame. You have a half-mile track with high banking. It’s definitely old school short track racing. It really should be a lot of fun and a good show for the fans."

“A lot of the same old school principles apply today. Aerodynamics will not be as key as they are at other tracks. Our main focus will be getting the No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion to drive good and get the handling just perfect. The August race at Bristol was my first as crew chief with Elliott and this team. We ran well but didn’t have the finish to show for it. But Elliott has had success in the past at Bristol. It would be really great to get him and Richard Petty back to Victory Lane this weekend.”

Chassis History: Crew chief Wally Rogers and the No. 19 Stanley team have prepared Chassis No. 278 for this Sunday’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway. This is a brand new Ford Fusion specifically prepared for this weekend.

For The Fans: Check out Elliott Sadler’s free online community, Efans. Efans (http://efans.elliottsadler.com/) offers race fans unique experiences and sweepstakes. Members can enter to win a chance to attend NASCAR races as Elliott's personal guest or a chance to hunt with Elliott. Efans members can also enjoy exclusive content, photos and access to a "Members Only" message board. Visit Efans or ElliottSadler.com for more information.

Food City 500 Preview - Paul Menard

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:36:40 EDT

• Menard has made five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the .533-mile Tennessee track
• The Eau Claire, Wis.-native holds down ninth in the point standings and leads all four RPM drivers
• Menard has finished inside the top 18 in every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event this season, including a fifth-place result in the series’ last event at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Paul Menard on Bristol: “This is a totally different track than what we’ve been on so far this season. We haven’t been to a short track yet this year, so I’m anxious to see how our short track program has improved. I think that was the weak pointlast season with Yates Racing and I think this Richard Petty Motorsports team has made some pretty big gains. I’m eager to see how that translates on the racetrack."

“Bristol and Martinsville are survival races. It’s so easy to get caught up in somebody else’s mistake and it happens all the time. On top of that, tempers flare up pretty easily at places like Bristol and you could wind up in the middle of something you didn’t start before you know it You’ve got to be smart about who you put yourself around and be there at the end. We’ve had top-20 cars in all four races this year and we’ve been able to capitalize on it. I think sometimes that’s the difference between being 30 in points and ninth. Hopefully this Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Ford Fusion will be good right when we unload and we’ll be able to pick up where we left off in Atlanta.”

Crew Chief Slugger Labbe’s Thoughts on Bristol: “Bristol will be exciting, there’s never any question about that. The biggest question mark heading there this time around will be the tires. Goodyear is bringing a new tire combination and we’ll have to concentrate on figuring out what to do with that tire and what we need to do to ensure our setup is compatible. We have a basic setup, we just need to match it to the tire data. Luckily, the Nationwide teams are also running those tires, so Paul running the Nationwide car should really be beneficial to our program this weekend.”

Chassis History: Crew chief Slugger Labbe and the No. 98 Menards crew have prepared chassis No. 556 for this weekend’s Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. This chassis was used on several occasions last year, but has been completely rebuilt for 2010.

Notes: Pittsburgh Paints, a nationally recognized brand trusted by painting contractors, building owners, architects, designers, and homeowners for over 100 years, will be on the hood of the No. 98 Ford for this week’s event at BMS. Menard holds down ninth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings and has finished inside the top 18 in each of the four races run thus far. This is the first time in his Sprint Cup career he has scored four consecutive top-20 finishes. At this point last season, Menard stood 38th in points.

Food City 500 Preview - AJ Allmendinger

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:27:02 EDT

AJ Allmendinger made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in the spring race at
Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in 2007
This weekend’s event will mark the driver’s sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start
at Bristol where his best finish is 16th (2009)
Allmendinger posted a sixth-place finish at Atlanta two weeks ago, his best finish
so far this season

Allmendinger’s Take On Bristol: “Bristol is really a unique track and like a lot of drivers and people in the sport it’s one of my favorite tracks that we go to. It’s a crazy atmosphere. You have this half-mile track with the stands rising tall all the way around it. Its almost like an ancient coliseum or something. The crowd is always electric too.

“After the way we ran at Atlanta the other weekend, I’m really looking forward to getting back at it. Granted, Mike Shiplett and everyone on this No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion team will have to focus on some completely different things than we had to the first four races, but I’m sure we will be able to build off the last race’s momentum. Bristol is where I qualified my way in to my first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in 2007. To be in such a different place now from where I was then, where I don’t have to worry about whether I’m going to make the race or not, is a huge benefit. The King has three wins here. It’d be awesome for this to be the weekend that the No. 43 gets back to Victory Lane.”

Thoughts From Crew Chief Mike Shiplett: “Bristol is a really fun track. I think everyone always looks forward to heading there. It’s the first short track race of the season so what we’ve focused on the first few races won’t completely apply here. You can almost throw aerodynamics out the window. The focus is purely on handling and what we can do to get this No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion to driving good. We’ll also have to keep an eye on the grip and how the tires are wearing.”

Chassis History: Chassis No. 288 has been prepared by Shiplett and the No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy crew for this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. This Ford Fusion was run as the No. 44 for Richard Petty Motorsports last September at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Allmendinger finished seventh in that event.

Allmendinger Takes Insignia To The Fans: In Atlanta, Allmendinger introduced a new look to the No. 43 Best Buy racing team. Insignia, one of Best Buy’s exclusive consumer electronic products, features a wide selection of HDTVs, Blu-ray players, home theater solutions, GPS, audio products and more. This Saturday at 9:15 am ET, Allmendinger will head to the Bristol campgrounds to give away Insignia HD Radio Portable Players to 43 lucky fans. Stay tuned to @AJDinger and @RPMotorsports on Twitter for further details.

Antron Brown Races MATCO Tools/U.S. Army Dragster To Final Round at Gatornationals

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:46:11 EDT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13, 2010) - Antron Brown and his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools/U.S. Army team used a strong rebound weekend as the 24-time NHRA winner drove to a runner-up finish Sunday afternoon at Gainesville Raceway. Brown improved to fifth place in the NHRA Top Fuel standings with 20 races remaining on the 2010 NHRA schedule.

A day after earning his first No. 1 qualifying award of the season and 22nd of his career with a 1,000-foot blast of 3.803 seconds at 321.04 mph, Brown defeated No. 16 qualifier Todd Paton, young gun Steve Torrence, and 2009 Rookie of the Year runner-up Shawn Langdon, before smoking the tires against seven-time champion and DSR teammate Tony Schumacher in the final round.

At the site where Brown made his professional NHRA debut in 1998, he used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the Matco Tools/U.S. Army car to a lap of 3.973 seconds at 229.90 mph. Brown's dragster ran 3.038-seconds to half track and broke a pushrod at 600-feet. Paton's car slowed to a run of 7.079 at 94.98. It was Brown's 310th career round win.

Squaring off against the Texas runner Torrence for the second time in two races this season, Brown got the jump at the start to race the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster to the win. The bright blue Matco-backed rail cruised to low elapsed time of the round in the left lane at Gainesville Raceway at 3.812 at 318.92. Torrence trailed slightly at 3.862 at 314.66. Brown is now 4-0 against Torrence.

Competing in the semifinals for the first time this season, Brown and Langdon used almost identical reaction times as the 16-time Pro Stock Motorcycle winner sped to the win in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army rail. Brown powered to a performance of 3.801 seconds at 318.24 mph. It was the quickest pass of the season for Brown, eclipsing his No. 1 qualifying mark of 3.803-seconds. Langdon's car posted a run of 3.909 at 304.74 mph. Brown is now 2-1 in three career races against the two-time NHRA Super Comp champion.

Racing in his 49th career final round and 16th in Top Fuel, Brown was defeated by fellow Matco Tools Racing and U.S. Army Racing teammate Tony Schumacher. The Matco/Army car lost traction early and slowed to a run of 6.637 at 101.17, while Schumacher posted a track-record run of 3.797 at 322.04 in his Mike Green-tuned dragster to score his 62nd career Top Fuel win. Brown is now 7-10 against Schumacher and 2-3 in five career final round matches versus "The Sarge."

"All and all, it was a great weekend for our DSR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "We rebounded from the lowest of lows three weeks ago and we're back on track with this Matco Tools car. We won as we kept the win here in the DSR family and it's still a win for Matco and the Army. We're excited and geared up to go to Charlotte and we don't really know what to expect with the four wide, but we know we have a really strong race car."

The next NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event is the Inaugural Four Wide NHRA Nationals, March 25-28, at zMax Dragway at Concord near Charlotte. Brown competed in the four lane exhibition race at zMax Dragway last September.

Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., consists of six professional NHRA teams: The U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster driven by seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher; the FRAM dragster of Cory McClenathan, and the Matco Tools dragster of Antron Brown. The Funny Car teams are the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge driven by Ron Capps, the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge piloted by Jack Beckman, and the DieHard/shelor.com Dodge driven by NHRA rookie Matt Hagan. Craig Treble rides the DSR Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle. Since 1998, Don Schumacher Racing teams have won 139 national events in 266 final rounds, and eight world championships.

Wilk Runs The Table at the Gators

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:40:46 EDT

When old is new, and new is new, and both old and new run like new, good things can happen. Tim Wilkerson brought out a brand new 2010 Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang here in Gainesville, and under that sleek beautiful body he placed a reinvented version of his 2008 chassis, featuring a new front half. This combination worked like a charm. At the end of the weekend, under sunny skies in Florida, Wilkerson and his LRS team had vanquished Jeff Arend, Matt Hagan, Tony Pedregon, and their alliance partner Bob Tasca to take home the Wally in Gator Country.

The 2010 Mustang body has been in the works since last year, but the reemergence of the old 2008 chassis now seems like a brilliant strategy. That car ran "easier" according to Wilkerson, and despite the fact it was involved in Daniel Wilkerson's spectacular 2009 crash in Memphis, it was repaired and brought back to do battle just three races into the 2010 season.

"That car just loves to run right down the track, and when we found out it could be front-halved and saved, we sent it off to be fixed," Wilkerson said. "We brought it out here without a run on it, and man the thing just fell back in love with me like 2008. Boom, right down the track. It's a joy to tune, it's really forgiving, and it obviously hasn't lost its magic, if you know what I mean. I love this car."

To get to this point, Wilkerson went three-for-three during qualifying (one session was rained out on Friday) including the maiden voyage of this new chassis/body package on Friday afternoon. In succession, he posted a 4.136, then a 4.128, followed by a 4.114 to land 9th on the chart with an ever-improving race car. As soon as the ladder was produced, the first thing the LRS team noted was that Tasca and Wilkerson were on opposite sides of the grid, and confident talk about meeting in the finals was soon spreading through the side-by-side pit areas.

To get started on that project, Wilk had to take on Jeff Arend in round one. Arend is one of the most consistently quick leavers in the game, and Wilkerson figured he'd have to outrun the DHL car by more than a bit to get a win light and grab his first round victory of the season. Indeed, Arend got off the line with a fine .085, grabbing 22-thousandths right away, but Wilkerson's 4.188 left the yellow car behind and Wilk was finally on the board in 2010. At least he knew, at this point, that he wasn't going to go 0-23 on the season.

"We dropped two cylinders on that run, but got the win light anyway, so maybe that was the run we needed to get the ball rolling," Wilkerson said. "Any way you get a win, especially over a guy like Jeff who is a terrific driver, you gladly accept it and move on. The good news was I could see there was just a ton left in the tune-up, and the car had a lot more in it. We had Hagan next, and he was the number one qualifier in a big way, but I thought we had enough up our sleeves to keep them honest. I knew it was going to be tough, but I thought we could step up maybe a little more than they anticipated."

That's exactly what Wilkerson did, running his best lap of the year to take out the top qualifier. Wilk's 4.094 at a big 307.86 mph was more than good enough to grab another win light, and it moved his record on the season to 2-2. It also moved him on to the semifinals against Tony Pedregon.

In that round, Pedregon got a big jump at the tree but this race was over by the 60-foot mark. Wilk streaked to his fifth straight end-to-end clean run, putting a 4.149 on the board, and the Levi, Ray & Shoup contingent was final-round bound. Who would they meet? Just as predicted by both camps since the night before, it would be teammates Tim Wilkerson and Bob Tasca in the final. To get there, Tasca had beaten Jack Beckman, Robert Hight, and Ron Capps; truly a trio of heavy hitters.

"Amazing to come out here with all this new stuff and not only get off the mark with our first round win, but go all the way to the final," Wilkerson said. "And then to meet up with Bob and his team there, well that was just the stuff we've been dreaming about since we joined up at the start of last season. It took us a year and three races, but we finally both got to a final together.

"I knew Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner, and their bunch would put an A-to-B lap together, and we'd have to earn it. I could've promised you there'd be no tire smoke in the other lane on this lap. No way. They had just as good a chance as we had, and I just knew we'd fight it out the whole 1,000 feet. In the end, it was a no-lose deal because the Wally was going to a Ford and coming home to our joint pit area, but I'd be kidding you if I said I didn't want to win. Bob wanted to win, too, but at least we knew one of us was going to."

In the all-Ford final, Wilk got away first and grabbed a 22-thousandths edge at the tree. From that point forward, he never trailed. At the finish line, the LRS Shelby beat the Motorcraft Shelby with a 4.097 to Tasca's 4.192, and a jubilant bunch of LRS team members went airborne at the starting line. It was a veritable fiesta of teal and berry colors.

"Dick Levi was here on Saturday, with a bunch of other LRS people, a lot of corporate clients, and some of his best friends," Wilkerson said. "He's positive he's bad luck on race day, so he never stays to watch us on Sunday but believe me, when things turn out like this we're all thinking of Dick and everyone at LRS. Without Dick Levi, I have no idea what sort of career I'd have had in racing. Maybe I'd just have the service center we own in Springfield, or maybe we'd be out here struggling along on a nickel. With Levi, Ray & Shoup behind us, along with Diversified Yacht Services and people like Ford, Valvoline, Summit, Hedman, and all the other companies that back us, we're able to come out here and fight with the big boys. Every now and then, we win the fight."

Old is new. New is new. All of the above added up to a glorious win at the historic Gatornationals. And with his favorite car back in the trailer, Wilk thinks there just might be more days like this in 2010.

Schumacher Takes Out Teammate In Finals, Moves Into Points Lead

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:37:48 EDT

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 14, 2010 - U.S. Army Top Fuel driver Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher beat his U.S. Army Racing teammate, Antron Brown, in the finals of the 41st annual Tire Kingdom Gatornationals here Sunday at Gainesville Raceway.

Schumacher posted a 3.797-second run at 322.04 mph to Brown's tire smoking 6.632-second pass at 101.17 mph and thus captured his first victory of the 2010 season. "Just like our Army Strong Soldiers, we were not going to accept defeat," said a jubilant Schumacher afterwards. "Yet again, I had a great race car thanks to my hard-working Army team. Those guys just don't make mistakes."

After recording his 62nd career win, Schumacher jumped from fourth-place in the standings to first. He now leads Cory McClenathan by 11 points as the NHRA tour takes a week off before heading to zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C. for the Four-Wide Nationals.

"It's so early in the season to be worrying about points, but it's still nice to know we're leading," added the seven-time world champion. "We're going to have to keep improving with each race because the competition is so intense. There's some close racing going on right now."

Before getting the best of Brown, Schumacher had to wade through treacherous waters in the form of Terry McMillen, Doug Foley and Larry Dixon. Against Dixon, he set the national speed record for 1,000 feet at 324.98 mph.

"Again, Mike Green (his crew chief) and the guys have made the Army car one fast hot rod," said Schumacher. "When I get in the car for each run, I have plenty of confidence we're going to go from A to B in quick fashion. I like having that feeling."

While Schumacher took huge strides as connected to the points standings, so did Brown despite his final round loss. The Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster pilot, who had qualified number one, moved from ninth to fifth.

"I'm happy that Antron did well this weekend," related Schumacher. "He really went through a lot the last few weeks after the crash in Phoenix. He seems to be back on track in every which way."

Over on the U.S. Army NASCAR Racing side, driver Ryan Newman had a rare weekend off. He will take his #39 Chevrolet to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway next Sunday for the Food City 500.