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MOHNTON, Pa., September 26 - With world championship dreams still dancing in his head, U.S. Army NHRA driver Tony Schumacher will travel to Maple Grove Raceway this weekend for the rescheduled Toyo Tires Nationals.
Schumacher heads back to the Keystone State fresh off a semifinal round appearance at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals outside of Dallas last weekend. He now trails leader Doug Kalitta by just 33 points in the standings.
By cutting 21 more points off of Kalitta’s lead in the standings last Sunday, Schumacher has moved to within two final elimination rounds of first-place with but four races to go in the 2006 season.
“It’s clearly getting down to crunch time,” he offered. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on by going as many rounds as we can on race day. Of course, we have to maintain our qualifying efforts as well. We need every point that we can get our hands on.”
While Schumacher is in hot pursuit of Kalitta and his third straight NHRA POWERade world championship, he can’t disregard a surging Brandon Bernstein who holds third-place in the order.
“He’s right there with us,” added the Chicago native. “He’s only seven points behind me and 40 behind Kalitta. This is definitely a three-horse race at the moment.”
Having captured three consecutive events at Maple Grove Raceway, Schumacher sees the U.S. Army team once again rising to the occasion this weekend.
“I can only say that failure is not an option,” he said.
U.S. ARMY NHRA TEAM STILL CHASING WORLD TITLE
MOHNTON, Pa., September 26 - With world championship dreams still dancing in his head, U.S. Army NHRA driver Tony Schumacher will travel to Maple Grove Raceway this weekend for the rescheduled Toyo Tires Nationals.
Schumacher heads back to the Keystone State fresh off a semifinal round appearance at the O’Reilly Fall Nationals outside of Dallas last weekend. He now trails leader Doug Kalitta by just 33 points in the standings.
By cutting 21 more points off of Kalitta’s lead in the standings last Sunday, Schumacher has moved to within two final elimination rounds of first-place with but four races to go in the 2006 season.
“It’s clearly getting down to crunch time,” he offered. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on by going as many rounds as we can on race day. Of course, we have to maintain our qualifying efforts as well. We need every point that we can get our hands on.”
While Schumacher is in hot pursuit of Kalitta and his third straight NHRA POWERade world championship, he can’t disregard a surging Brandon Bernstein who holds third-place in the order.
“He’s right there with us,” added the Chicago native. “He’s only seven points behind me and 40 behind Kalitta. This is definitely a three-horse race at the moment.”
Having captured three consecutive events at Maple Grove Raceway, Schumacher sees the U.S. Army team once again rising to the occasion this weekend.
“I can only say that failure is not an option,” he said.