Defending champion Tony Schumacher clinched a spot in the Countdown to One championship playoff and moved into second place in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series regular-season Top Fuel points race today with his runner up finish in the 22nd Annual Northwest Nationals here at Pacific Raceways.

Schumacher, in his sixth-consecutive final round at this race, drove his U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster to a 3.990-second run at 300 miles per hour during his final’s loss to points leader Antron Brown, who did the 1,000-foot course in 3.985 seconds at 301.07 mph.

“That was a great race, just a great race,” said Schumacher, who had won the previous three NHRA Northwest Nationals. “Like our soldiers stationed around the globe, we had several missions this weekend, including improving our standing in the points race and having a solid weekend. And, like the brave men and women serving this country, our guys worked as well-coordinated team to achieve these goals; we made progress and gained ground.”

Getting to the finals was a test for the Chicago-area native who had to get by the racers ahead and behind him in the points race. In round one, a rematch from the last two years’ NHRA Northwest Nationals finals, he bested Brandon Bernstein, who came into the race in fourth place, with a 3.935-second pass at 297.88 mph to Bernstein’s 6.533-second at 95.06 mph run.

Schumacher, with a 3.937-second, 297.09-mph pass, defeated Larry Dixon, who ran 5.367 seconds at 126.29 mph, in the second round, moving past him up to second place.

The semi-finals featured a pedal job by Schumacher whose 5.115-second run at 203.86 mph topped Troy Buff’s 11.75-second run at 30.81 mph; Buff’s car broke early in the race.

"Mike (Green, crew chief) and the team did a great job getting our car ready for the finals, especially after the disaster we had in the third round,” he said. “We knew the right lane would be a challenge, but we stepped it up and within eight-thousands-of-a-second. A great race!” 

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