History doesn’t have to wait any longer for Tony Schumacher.

The six-time world champion tied Don Garlits' record by winning his eighth US Nationals Top Fuel Dragster championship Monday in the 55th annual edition at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind.

Shumacher, who pilots the U.S. Army dragster for his father at Don Schumacher Racing, beat Larry Dixon in the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster in the finals.

Schumacher clocked a 3.861-second pass, while Dixon came in at 4.208 seconds.

History doesn’t have to wait any longer for Tony Schumacher.

The six-time world champion tied Don Garlits' record by winning his eighth US Nationals Top Fuel Dragster championship Monday in the 55th annual edition at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind.

Shumacher, who pilots the U.S. Army dragster for his father at Don Schumacher Racing, beat Larry Dixon in the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing dragster in the finals.

Schumacher clocked a 3.861-second pass, while Dixon came in at 4.208 seconds.

“This is the big-go, this is Indy, and it’s not really like it used to be,” said Schumacher, who was in his eighth consecutive final round at Indy. “It’s use to be like two or three cars and someone was going to win it. This is tough. There were a lot of cars. You look at second round on and we all ran within a hundredth of a second  of each other. Insane. This was fantastic for the fans, they get to see the greatest show on Earth and to get to come out victorious at the end is fantastic. I can’t believe what we’ve done. To have your name mentioned in the same sentence with Big Daddy Don Garlits at the US Nationals is truly awesome.”

This was Schumacher’s fourth win of the season in five final rounds and the 60th of his career. Schumacher made his debut in 1996. Schumacher’s Indy titles came in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Schumacher remains third in the points behind Antron Brown and Dixon. The Top 10 drivers after the US Nationals advance to the Countdown to 1, the six-race playoff, and their points will be reset for the playoffs in 10-point increments with the first-place drivers in all the Pro categories, receiving a 20-point bonus.

The first race of the Countdown is the NHRA Nationals in Charlotte Sept. 17-20.

Schumacher couldn’t picked a better opponent to face in the final round than Dixon. Dixon’s team is run by Alan Johnson, Schumacher’s old crew chief. Mike Green is now the wrench boss for Schumacher, whose DSR team had to be completely reconfigured with the departure of Johnson.

“I couldn’t asked for anybody else in the other lane in the finals,” Schumacher said. “The fans paid a lot of money to come see something like that and I would’ve paid twice as much to see it. Nobody’s going to go back and asked for a refund after that. I have a huge amount of respect for them (Johnson’s team), and they’re a great team. Those are my guys, we did so much together. To go against someone like that under the pressure and the circumstances we had, that’s the best. It’s what makes me wake up in the morning.”

Beyond all of Schumacher’s accomplishments, this was the Green’s first US Nationals win as a crew chief.

“I’ve won Indy as the assistant crew chief, but not as the crew chief,” Green said. “So, as a crew chief this is the biggest win in my career. I’m just a lucky guy to be able to work on this car sponsored by the U.S. Army and owned by Don Schumacher and driven by this guy (Tony). You give him any kind of car and he can win a race. This is just the start of what we want to finish and that’s win another championship for Tony.”

Tony praised Green.

“Mike Green deserves a lot of credit, no questions asked,” Schumacher said. “His tune-up went down the race track and it gives you the confidence go out there in the final round when you’re running a champion like Larry Dixon, who has my old team. To go out there and do what we do and win the race is because Mike has put me in the position that I have the confidence in the car.”

Another amazing performance also wasn’t lost on Don Schumacher.

“Tony’s the driver and the lucky guy who sits in the seat and he does one whale of a job,” the elder Schumacher said. “But, this is a credit to Mike Green and all the guys what they’ve done. This win is a really special one because of the car that was in the other lane. You can’t forget any of the other ones because there was always a special car in the other lane also. There is a little extra rivalry out there between the Army team and that other team, so this was a special one.” 

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