Destiny. Big Moments. Crunch Time.
 
They're words that swirl around in Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher's head this time of year. That's understandable -- he has faced Crunch Time, seized Big Moments, fulfilled Destiny.
 
If one were making a video, he would show the U.S. Army Dragster emerging from a gauzy smaze of nitro vapors, staging almost eagerly like an Olympic sprinter poised in the blocks for the 100-meter dash. As the car roars down that narrow, unforgiving ribbon of asphalt at nearly 320 miles an hour, Dan Fogelberg's "Run For The Roses" starts its crescendo:

Destiny. Big Moments. Crunch Time.
 
They're words that swirl around in Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher's head this time of year. That's understandable -- he has faced Crunch Time, seized Big Moments, fulfilled Destiny.
 
If one were making a video, he would show the U.S. Army Dragster emerging from a gauzy smaze of nitro vapors, staging almost eagerly like an Olympic sprinter poised in the blocks for the 100-meter dash. As the car roars down that narrow, unforgiving ribbon of asphalt at nearly 320 miles an hour, Dan Fogelberg's "Run For The Roses" starts its crescendo:
 
"It's breeding and it's training
And it's something unknown
That drives you
And carries you home.
 
And it's run for the roses
As fast as you can.
Your fate is delivered.
Your moment's at hand.
It's the chance of a lifetime
In a lifetime of chance,
And it's high time you joined
In the dance."
 
The Dance. Truly The Chance of  a Lifetime in a Lifetime of Chance. The Countdown.
 
Tony Schumacher certainly isn't the only NHRA driver, or even Top Fuel driver, who's preparing for that moment at hand. The Countdown will start Friday at zMax Dragway at Concord, N.C. with the Carolinas Nationals, the first of six races in a playoff that will snake through the South at Dallas, Memphis, and Richmond before heading west to Las Vegas and the season finale at Pomona, Calif.
 
Schumacher is in third place, behind Antron Brown and Larry Dixon. But for the past five seasons, this has been his time to shine, to dominate. He's not in the catbird seat like he has been for a half-decade, and he's aware of that. But he understands the process as well any. And he said that he's anticipating "just a whole lot of good things coming up."
 
He said, "You're down to six races and a new points deal." His team, he said, is "coming off a huge run. For the past five races, every time I got beat, I kind of snickered and said, ‘That's OK. I'm just supposed to win my 60th event and race Antron or Dixon in the finals.’ (at Indianapolis).

You can joke about it, but then when you're sitting in the finals -- Are you kidding me? There's nothing like it. There's nothing like that big moment. I've been fortunate to have so many huge bottom-of-the-ninth, bases-loaded, full-count moments.
 
"I think the championship, all the accolades and the great stuff you get, there's nothing that compared to just being able to enjoy those big moments, because if you can't even recognize them, it's hard to win them," Schumacher said. "And as Antron and all them guys, you have to figure it out, you have to understand that it's a big moment and you have to prepare for it. There's no questions asked. We are down to six immensely huge races and just a number of big moments coming up.
 
"So we'll see how we handle it," he said. "I think we are one of those teams that will handle it good. And I've got new guys. My guys have given me a lot of confidence, these new guys, and after the team I've had, for the past, you know, almost six years, I've known the greatest that they are in the big moments and they have proven that they can do it when it's time to do it. So I look forward to it."
 
Morgan Lucas, who's ranked seventh among the 10 qualified in the Top Fuel class with his Geico/Lucas Oil Dragster, is just as optimistic as the frontrunners.
 
"Everyone in the playoffs is within 110 points of one another," Lucas said, "so it's really a wide open deal. And that's exciting. We have just as good a chance as the other guys, so there's no reason not to go for it."
 
He said he has met his initial 2009 goals and has new ones between now and the Nov. 15 final day of the season.
 
"Our goals for this season were pretty simple: We wanted to win a few races, get both team cars in the Countdown to One, and have as much fun as possible. We've managed to do all three things and we couldn't be happier," Lucas said. "To me, that makes us a little more dangerous right now, because we're not putting any pressure on ourselves."
 
Lucas said a mouthful there, according to Schumacher. The reigning champion said that Brown will handle the demands of the Countdown with aplomb. And he agreed with Lucas.
 
"The drivers who go out and are having fun will be good in the races. And the ones that are putting pressure on and because they are so close to being a champ now -- six races away with all of the points gone --  those guys are going to crush," Schumacher said. "And it's a matter of being able to suck it up, dig deep at the right time, and smile while you do it. Because some of the guys are going to be able to handle the weight of the world on them, like they are going to see here coming up in Charlotte, and some of them aren't. And we'll know at the end of the weekend."
 
Brown said he and his Matco Tools team "changed our structure a little bit because we have been a pretty conservative team first round in every race that we have been racing. And I think now that we go into the latter part of the year with the last six races for the championship, you'll see our crew chiefs Mark (Oswald) and Brian (Corradi), are going to be a little bit more aggressive. I'm going to be more aggressive myself. We are going to attack each round like it was our last round."
 
He said Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Brandon Bernstein, and Lucas are the hot shoes right now. "All those teams are really, really funning fast right now, and as you can see, we have multiple different winner this is year. Our class has some intense competition. We won our last races by less than two- or three-thousandths of a second."
 
Dixon knows all about the intense competition. He faced Lucas, dangerous rookie Spencer Massey, and Schumacher in the past three final rounds. He has won five times this season in seven final rounds in the Al-Anabi Racing Dragster. So he has been through the fire and come out relatively  un-singed.
 
"Three finals in three races was good. You want to win all of them, but it doesn’t always work out that way," Dixon said. But, he added, "Jason (crew chief McCulloch) and Alan (team owner Johnson) have their hot rod back, and they like the way it's responding. We have a little momentum working entering the Countdown. So the timing is good.
 
"Round-wins," he said, "are the key to success in the Countdown. If you get event wins at the same time, that's great, because you have more round-wins than anyone else. At the end of the day, you have six events and 24 possible rounds. Whoever wins the most rounds out of that will probably win the title.
 
"Making the best run you can and responding to the conditions each time is the key," Dixon said. "If you’re in all 24 of those rounds, you'd be hard to catch, whether you win all of them or not. Entering the Countdown, we only trail Antron, so we only have to go around one guy. So we keep our heads down, gear up and get ready for it. To start the Countdown with four in a row, what happens in the four-race swing might be what you come out with. I like what we're bringing to the table. We'll see if it's enough."
 
Like Schumacher and Dixon, Clay Millican knows what it's like to win championships. He won six of them in the IHRA Top Fuel class.
 
And he said he knows what he wants to do once the Countdown starts: "We have a game plan for it . . . we just hope it works."
 
Said Millican, who at Indianapolis only two weeks ago squeaked into the order at No. 10, "We're coming in after making another round of (mechanical) changes and looking at it like we are starting a brand-new season. We are going to go for it. We have no reason not to.
 
"We don't know what the weather is going to give us, but we are 110 points behind Antron and we might as well start knocking a dent in all of them. In one weekend's time you could make up a whole bunch of those points," he said. "The goal is to go rounds – and take care of it one round at a time."
 
He predicted that "everybody will be going for it. It will be a different kind of weekend than normal (at Concord, N.C.). There are going to be some offensive guys and some defensive guys. We're just going to be offensive."
 
Bernstein has the momentum, not of winning at Indianapolis but of signing a new primary sponsor for 2010.
 
"Our team is pumped," Bernstein said. "Everybody knows that the team is going forward next year, so that's a load off everyone's mind. Also Rob Flynn, our crew chief, along with all the members of our team, have put in a lot of hours chasing a clutch gremlin we've been fighting recently. We think we've turned the corner there and are enthusiastic about a strong performance in Charlotte and a run at the championship."


 

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