<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/T_Schumacher07.jpg" alt="T_Schumacher07" align="right"borders="0"/>
Richmond - After sitting through a lengthy rain delay and then a brief track power outage, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver, Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher, had to settle for the 13th starting position after the initial day of qualifying here Friday for the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Schumacher coasted down the track in 9.634-seconds which was barely good enough for a bottom half of the field spot.
"Boy, we waited so long to run today and then we couldn't get down the track," offered the Chicago native. "I know the track conditions were challenging with the rain washing away the (tire) rubber, but some teams did manage to get the job done. Unfortunately, we were not one of them."
The defending NHRA POWERade world champion will have two more qualifying sessions on Saturday to try and improve upon his race day starting position.
"We have to move up," he added. "Points are extremely important right now with this Countdown to One deal. We can't leave anything on the table."
Schumacher entered the weekend holding third-place in the standings. He has to be among the top four in points following Sunday's race in order to contend for his fourth straight title.
"We're confident we'll be where we need to be, but we still have to go out and do our respective jobs the next two days," he said. "If you take anything for granted in this sport you're probably going to be asking for huge trouble."
Schumacher 13th after day one
Richmond - After sitting through a lengthy rain delay and then a brief track power outage, U.S. Army Top Fuel driver, Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher, had to settle for the 13th starting position after the initial day of qualifying here Friday for the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Schumacher coasted down the track in 9.634-seconds which was barely good enough for a bottom half of the field spot.
"Boy, we waited so long to run today and then we couldn't get down the track," offered the Chicago native. "I know the track conditions were challenging with the rain washing away the (tire) rubber, but some teams did manage to get the job done. Unfortunately, we were not one of them."
The defending NHRA POWERade world champion will have two more qualifying sessions on Saturday to try and improve upon his race day starting position.
"We have to move up," he added. "Points are extremely important right now with this Countdown to One deal. We can't leave anything on the table."
Schumacher entered the weekend holding third-place in the standings. He has to be among the top four in points following Sunday's race in order to contend for his fourth straight title.
"We're confident we'll be where we need to be, but we still have to go out and do our respective jobs the next two days," he said. "If you take anything for granted in this sport you're probably going to be asking for huge trouble."
