No offense to the Gainesville Raceway but three-time NHRA Gatornationals champion Tony Schumacher

wouldn’t mind trading in one of his victories at the famed facility for one at a complex he’s yet to win.

“This one here, I'll trade one of those that we can't get done,” Schumacher admitted. “I can't win a round in Englishtown.  I like those lists.  I try not to look at them but when you put out a list where there are only a few people or a handful of people who have won it three times in much longer careers then that's great.”

No offense to the Gainesville Raceway but three-time NHRA Gatornationals champion Tony Schumacher

wouldn’t mind trading in one of his victories at the famed facility for one at a complex he’s yet to win.

“This one here, I'll trade one of those that we can't get done,” Schumacher admitted. “I can't win a round in Englishtown.  I like those lists.  I try not to look at them but when you put out a list where there are only a few people or a handful of people who have won it three times in much longer careers then that's great.”

Schumacher’s on the short list with Joe Amato and Gary Scelzi for winning Gainesville thrice. He’s on an even shorter list of drivers who’ve won 43 times over the course of they’re careers.

“I think if you look at the whole field a lot of people were running real equal to us,” Schumacher explained, speaking on his perceived Sunday Gators domination. “You've almost got to look back on each race over the last couple of years, you get a car out there that's really running good and in the second round you have to run against a car that's the second lowest ET and it's a battle.  We got some breaks today.  We earned it.” 

By the way, the situation was greatly aided when you consider he has a tuner such as Alan Johnson, who knows exactly what to do when the humidity drops 40% between the start and completion of the round.

“Something that was surprising me before the first round, we warmed the car up and I'm not sure if the car was sitting but it was warmed up, velcroed back on and ready to go,” Schumacher said. “I'm sitting in the lounge with my firesuit on and AJ comes running out.  That's always what you want to hear right before you go run.  You've got to change it. 

If you wondered why Schumacher was absent during pre-race activities, he held a good alibi.

“That's why I didn't make it up when they did the champion jacket presentation,” Schumacher said.  “Alan said to stay here because we're going to warm it up again to make sure we don't have a leak again.  We made a huge change, it got better and we had fixed the problem.  All the other ones -- no one took it apart and they all ran quicker.  It was just crazy.  I saw 4.59's and I'm like, ‘oh man, Alan made a change we're going to run a 4.55 and we ran a 4.61. 

“Yeah that's leaving yourself wide open.  If we happen to be one of those other cars then you're done.  We got a little bit of a break there even though you go on with your race and do all that -- it's still a break.”

The two out of three victory start defies the traditional Schumacher late-season domination and early slump.
 
“It's a great first half but it was pointed out that we started out better in 2004, I think by 5 points but whatever,” Schumacher said.  “This is a different car.  I love driving this car.  It's completely different.  It has steel.  I don't feel safer in it by far.  I don't feel like the car has wandered off all over the place.  It's a nice car to drive.  We're getting there -- we're at 90% we're working our way.  We have this new car, it's a little heavier -- we're working our way up towards it.  If you look at it, not in our runs down the race track we're not at attempt with anyone.  We're not at half attempt with anyone.”