Ideal conditions at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan., Saturday evening suited Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher perfectly.

The eight-time world champion clocked a track record 3.660-second elapsed time at 327.90 mph to capture the No. 1 qualifying position.

"The confidence level is high right now. We struggled the last two races, to be honest with you, even though we pulled a couple of No. 1s off," Schumacher said. "We had to change some clutch discs that we had extreme success with at the beginning of the year and we are just getting it figured out. That (run) there was an impressive one because that just took guts. That took two crew chiefs sitting together and saying 'I have an idea' and 'let's try one'. Sometimes when you have a 16-car field you can do that. We were already qualified good and there's no reason to go and try and run a mid-80. These conditions are so few and far between, the data is not there so it is nice to make that run and put it in the books. These are the conditions you see at the end of the year in Reading (Pa.). Let's just enjoy this and try and go out there and win Topeka. Atlanta avoided us once again so it's payback time in Topeka."

This was the 83rd career No. 1 qualifying position for Schumacher and his third this season. He was also on top of the qualifying ladder at Gainesville, Fla., and Atlanta. He also has one win this season at Gainesville, and three runner-up finishes.

This also was Schumacher's fastest ET to 1,000-feet.

"We knew coming into this morning that this was a dream, that conditions were going to be perfect," Schumacher said. "We were going to see the best side-by-runs ever and that was probably the quickest side-by-run ever. It was a great day to be a fan and a great day to be a driver. Fans are getting their money's worth. Fans came out and got a great show. There will be fans leaving today going 'that money I spent I didn't pay enough, I owe someone more money' and that's what we want."

Schumacher acknowledged that he wished there were even more people in the stands watching.

"There is still room up in those stands, and I wonder to myself we have the greatest sport in the world why aren't those stands not full? What do we have to do? We just went the two quickest runs ever side-by-side and we have space up there. We have to get better at getting people here the first time because they will always come back. Once a fan sees one of these races they are going to come back year after year. Live TV coverage is helping a bunch and what sells the show is good side-by-side racing, not a one lane race track, but a good race where there is a winner and loser and both had to cowboy up, and that's what we gave them (Saturday). I can't wait for (Sunday) and if you can't bring your big boy pants don't come. What we learned today is going to carry over to (Sunday), and our car if it heats up a little bit will perform better. We are one of those cars when the temp on the track rises everybody else gets nervous and we step up."

Leah Pritchett, Schumacher's teammate had a 3.667 elapsed in the lane next to him to qualify second.