Tony Schumacher set both ends of the 1,000-foot Gainesville Raceway record to ensure an esoteric stat in Friday's rain-delayed first day of qualifying for the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals.
 
"All three No. 1 qualifiers are last year's [series] champions," Schumacher said, musing about the feat he shared with Funny Car's Robert Hight and Pro Stock's Mike Edwards.
 
"That," the U.S. Army Dragster driver said, "is a great stat that on Sunday I will never think about."
 

Tony Schumacher set both ends of the 1,000-foot Gainesville Raceway record to ensure an esoteric stat in Friday's rain-delayed first day of qualifying for the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals.
 
"All three No. 1 qualifiers are last year's [series] champions," Schumacher said, musing about the feat he shared with Funny Car's Robert Hight and Pro Stock's Mike Edwards.
 
"That," the U.S. Army Dragster driver said, "is a great stat that on Sunday I will never think about."
 
Schumacher narrowly beat out Shawn Langdon by six-thousandths of a second for the provisional top qualifying spot that will be his second straight if it holds up Saturday. He ran a 3.823-second pass at 318.02 mph to top Langdon's 3.829 / 317.12 in the Lucas Oil / Dixie Chopper Dragster.
 
"We were pretty darn lucky that we got at least one run today," Schumacher said, adding that it would be frustrating to head into Saturday with no current data.
 
He's fourth in the standings, seeking his first victory of the young season.
 
"We ran well in both Pomona (Calif.) and Phoenix, so we're quite capable of going home with the trophy," he said.
 
Just the same, he said this season will produce "some first-time winners."
 
Earlier in the day, he and Brown helped the U.S. Army introduce its School Challenge Program, which offers teams of students mission, mental, and physical challenges.
 
"It was a lot of fun to coach the kids," Schumacher said. "You could see they were all quite motivated to be successful."
 
Ditto for the seven-time and reigning series champion.
 
"This is Gainesville. This is a great crowd. This is the trophy we all look forward to putting in our trophy cases," Schumacher said.
 
He has three -- from 2004, 2007, and 2008. A fourth Gainesville victory would tie him with Larry Dixon and retired Joe Amato for most in the class at the historic racetrack.
 
Schumacher is ready, too, to atone for his quarterfinal loss at Phoenix to eager Steve Torrence. "I got beat by a kid who ran his quickest ever," he said, repeating his mantra that even if he remains No. 1 in the order, no opponent should be overlooked.
 
If no more Top Fuel drivers make runs Saturday, the Nos. 1 and 2 on the grid will have bye runs in Sunday's opening round of eliminations. Bobby Lagana, an International Hot Rod Association Nitro Jam winner at Florida's Palm Beach International Raceway earlier this season, anchors the field at No. 14.