Tony Schumacher continued Sunday to thumb his nose at National Hot Rod Ass'n. observers who said he couldn't survive without Alan Johnson.

The defiant U.S. Army dragster driver put new crew chief Mike Green's tune-up against that of Johnson in Sunday's Top Fuel final round at the O'Reilly Super Star Batteries Fall Nationals and won.

On what he called "just a massive day," Schumacher beat No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon, Johnson's current driver, in the Texas Motorplex lane in which few drivers could win all day long. And he seized the points lead with just four more races remaining in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' Countdown to the Championship.

Tony Schumacher continued Sunday to thumb his nose at National Hot Rod Ass'n. observers who said he couldn't survive without Alan Johnson.

The defiant U.S. Army dragster driver put new crew chief Mike Green's tune-up against that of Johnson in Sunday's Top Fuel final round at the O'Reilly Super Star Batteries Fall Nationals and won.

On what he called "just a massive day," Schumacher beat No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon, Johnson's current driver, in the Texas Motorplex lane in which few drivers could win all day long. And he seized the points lead with just four more races remaining in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' Countdown to the Championship.

"It's crunch time," Schumacher had said going into the weekend. And nobody loves the heightened drama, these pressure-packed moments, better than Schumacher. He responded with a 3.944-second pass at 312.86 mph that held off Dixon's 4.232/225.18 in the Al-Anabi Racing dragster.

"Of all the years, this is the most dig-deep, bottom-line, bases-loaded (situation), " Schumacher said before dashing to the airport to catch a flight to Chicago so he still could celebrate son Anthony's eighth birthday Sunday night.

"Mike Green did a heck of a job," Schumacher said. "He said, 'Let's not 'get stuck' in the right lane - let's 'choose' it."

Schumacher was game, saying, "If you can't rise to the occasion, you don't need to be racing a car."

He said the right lane - the one J.R. Todd used to beat him here last year - "wasn't that bad. People who couldn't get down that lane just misjudged it."

What mattered to Schumacher, too, was making sure that Green got the proper recognition. "Mike Green took a lot of abuse at the beginning of the year," he said. "People said, 'Game over. Ha-ha.' But we're making it fun and making sure we enjoy the moment."

Schumacher was making his second straight final-round appearance at the Texas Motorplex, where he earned his first professional victory in 1999 and also won in 2004 and 2005. With this fourth victory here, his 61st overall, and fifth of the season, Schumacher leads Dixon in the standings by 27 points.

He's back on the top of the standings, where he has felt most comfortable. And it's in a version of the U.S. Army Dragster in which he feels comfortable. More than likely, Schumacher said, he'll stick with this chassis throughout the Countdown. "I wouldn't want to sit in any other car."

The Long Grove, Ill., resident is an avid hockey fan who even skates for an adult house-league team during week as time permits. Saturday night, he attended the Dallas Stars game and stayed for the first two periods. But he elected to skip the third, heading back to his hotel to prepare mentally for the day ahead. It was reminiscent of the Schumacher who added to his U.S. Nationals legend at Indianapolis a couple of years ago by keeping to himself and teaching himself to play the guitar.

All he needed to make the day complete was to catch that eight o'clock flight to O'Hare, to eat a piece of birthday cake with the eldest of his three children.

"If you can't be there during the day," he said referring to his son's birthday celebration, "then the least you can do is win."

It was, indeed, "a massive day" for Schumacher. What else would one expect in Texas?

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