INDY FINAL RESULTS
Reigning POWERade Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher surged into the NHRA playoff
points lead Monday with his sixth Mac Tools U.S. Nationals victory in the last
eight years.
Schumacher drove away from runner-up Larry Dixon to take
the stripe with a 4.575 at 331.94 mph to earn a spot in the winner's circle with
emotional Funny Car victor Mike Ashley, new Pro Stock points leader Dave
Connolly, and stunned Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Craig Treble.
Reigning POWERade Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher surged into the NHRA playoff
points lead Monday with his sixth Mac Tools U.S. Nationals victory in the last
eight years.
Schumacher drove away from runner-up Larry Dixon to take
the stripe with a 4.575 at 331.94 mph to earn a spot in the winner's circle with
emotional Funny Car victor Mike Ashley, new Pro Stock points leader Dave
Connolly, and stunned Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Craig Treble.
The
three-time defending world champion is atop the points for the first time all
season and with a 31-point lead over second-place Dixon and a 102-point cushion
over fifth-place Bob Vandergriff -- the top four drivers after the four-race
playoff will advance to the championship round -- he is in excellent position to
move on to the two-race championship round at Las Vegas and Pomona.
"I
guess we're a really good pressure team," Schumacher said. "The guys know they
can rely on each other and it all comes together so well. Alan [Johnson, crew
chief of the U.S. Army dragster] is fantastic. We ran 4.50s all day except for
when it was just too hot there in the semis and we had to do what we needed to
do to get down the track.
The win was Schumacher's 40th, tying him
with Dixon for 10th place on the all-time NHRA POWERade Series wins list and
second on the all-time Top Fuel wins list (Joe Amato, 52).
Running a
special tribute body in memory of good friends Donnie and Holly Faulkner's baby
son Eric Blake Faulkner, who was still-born, Ashley was the emotional favorite
in the Funny Car final.
Fortunately for his supporters, which included
the Faulkner family on the starting line, they didn't have to wait long to see
who would win as Hight's Ford Mustang encountered trouble early in its run.
Ashley might have been tough to beat anyway as he posted a 4.894 at 323.74 mph
in his Torco Dodge Charger to Hight's coasting 8.072 at 104.08 mph.
"It was very, very emotional and I knew when I decided to do this tribute
car that it would add a bunch of pressure to the day," Ashley said. "I just
wouldn't allow myself to think about what it all meant too much. I just did the
best I could all weekend for Donnie and Holly.
"This is the Super Bowl
of drag racing. To win Indy is unreal but then you add to it the recognition we
can bring to the Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation and it makes it stratospheric.
This is a day I'll always remember and appreciate. I'm so proud of my team and
the generosity of Evan Knoll and Jim Jannard and all our other sponsors to step
aside for a race and let us banner this car. What a group I have behind me."
Hight did escape the day as the Countdown to Four points leader in
Funny Car. He's now 21 markers ahead of Ashley, who jumped up to second place --
after starting the day in sixth place -- with his third career win.
The Pro Stock final was the closest of the day as Connolly overcame a slight
.023- to .034-second starting line advantage by Anderson to take the biggest win
of his career by .0088 seconds. Connolly had caught Anderson by the 60-foot
timer and went on to post a 6.710 at 206.32 mph in his Torco Chevy Cobalt to
Anderson's 6.729 at 205.79 mph in his Summit Racing Pontiac.
"I can
never remember having a car that has the field covered by four hundredths of a
second," Connolly said. "It's a real tribute to [team owner] Victor Cagnazzi and
the organization he's put together. To win back-to-back races for the first time
it seems like we're peaking at the perfect place in the schedule, especially
with the Countdown starting. It's just an awesome feeling right now.
"I knew Greg had won 19 rounds in a row at this race going into the final
but I still felt pretty confident. That team has been the class of Pro Stock for
four years so it's remarkable to get in front of them for once. It really hasn't
sunk in yet."
Anderson and Connolly entered the race first and second
in the points with Anderson enjoying a slight 10-point edge. With his win and
superior qualifying effort here, Connolly moved ahead of Anderson by 14 points.
He doesn't have a sponsor, but Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Treble does
have his first U.S. Nationals trophy to go with a No. 2 ranking in the POWERade
points. Treble survived final-round opponent Matt Smith's stout 6.977 at 189.63
mph in the final when Smith fouled out by -.003 seconds on his Buell V-Twin.
Treble posted a game 7.037 at 190.83 mph to take the win.
"I'll take a
win here however I can get it," Treble said. "I was lucky three outta four
rounds today but all I know is that 20 years from now someone will look in the
record books and say, 'Hey, Craig Treble won in 2007.' It's there forever now."
Smith can take some solace in the fact he pumped his lead in the
Countdown to Four up to 51 points. Treble went from the bottom of the eight-car
championship group to the No. 2 position with his win.