Tony Schumacher pocketed $100,000 in a Don Schumacher Racing show of dominance in the Traxxas Top Fuel Shootout Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

And Clay Millican grabbed the tentative No. 1 qualifying position in stunning fashion with a track-record 3.692-second pass that was 10th quickest in Top Fuel history, setting himself up for a shot at $100,000 also in Monday’s eliminations of the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.

For the second time in his career, Schumacher took advantage of a lucrative bonus drag race here in which he said Traxxas “takes the points and gets rid of that and says, ‘Here’s a pile of money. Be a machine.’ It makes it a lot of fun.”

Schumacher defeated Leah Pritchett in Saturday’s final round of the Traxxas Top Fuel Shootout to set a strong baseline for the final two qualifying sessions for Monday’s eliminations.

Schumacher covered the 1,000-foot course in a stunning 3.717 seconds at 328.86 mph in the U.S. Army Dragster to win against Pritchett’s stellar 3.738, 317.05 in the Papa John’s Pizza Dragster in her debut appearance in the Traxxas Shootout.

He advanced past Brittany Force and Antron Brown to win on the same dragstrip where he will be trying Monday to earn his record 10th U.S. National victory. And it played out as Don Schumacher Racing grabbed all four semifinal spots. If he wins Monday, he will break a tie with retired Pro Stock great Bob Glidden for the most triumphs here in any class – and collect another $100,000.  

“It’s the 11th time – two Shootouts and nine wins [at the Labor Day classic] – where that last light has come on for our team. This is a magical place. There’s something special here.”

Racing any of his DSR mates, he said, “makes it harder, honestly. We all have such great cars. And our drivers are hired for pure talent. Every one of those drivers is capable of winning a race. Unfortunately, you know what’s in those cars. You know they’re going to be fast. You know they’re going to be running in the low [3.]70s. You know it’s going to be hard.”

The DSR stranglehold, Schumacher said, “probably was uncomfortable for some other teams to watch it happen like that.”  But he said the pressure to win against his peers is great.

“Believe me, there’s bragging rights in that shop. My dad may own all the cars, but we’re not all best friends,” he said. “We get along fine, and we’re teammates. But when it comes down to it, Leah or Antron winning doesn’t pay my mortgage.”

Schumacher said, “What the fans want to see is two people who know what they’re doing in two cars that are equal on two lanes that are excellent. Then they get their money’s worth. We want to see good, honest battles, monster racing, and a finish that’s worthy of what they’re paying.”

Pritchett took her runner-up status in stride.

"Overall, it was a picture perfect day – except for the last 3.7 seconds," she joked. "The progress this team has made is just phenomenal.

"You always hope to be in the final and then when you get there you want to win. My mindset all weekend was to take it one round at a time and not look ahead,” she said. “I just really want to win this for my team and Don Schumacher for getting us this far so quickly. And having 'Papa John' [Schnatter] here and all of his team from Papa John's Pizza made it even better.”

Adding an element of surrealism to the spectacle, Pritchett said Schnatter "had to get back to [his home in] Louisville, but he had his helicopter hover over the track to watch the final. But maybe this was just practice for Monday when we race in the 'Big Go’ for the U.S. Nationals trophy."

For Millican, his blast to the top of the provisional lineup erased the disappointment he had here last year.

Millican failed to qualify for the 2015 Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.

But the six-time International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel champion put himself in serious contention Saturday night at Lucas Oil Raceway for his long-awaited first NHRA victory.

Millican did it with a jaw-dropping 3.692-second elapsed time (at 316.82 mph) in the Parts Plus / Great Clips / UNOH Dragster that left him “happy and smiling and high fiving myself and yelling on the radio” inside the car.

“It just felt good. It’s the ultimate roller coaster. Hands down, Cedar Point don’t have nothing on that ride right here,” he said, referring to the Northwest Ohio amusement park with thrill rides.

Surprisingly, Millican said, “the car actually quit before the finish line. It hurt a piston. And it probably could’ve gone even quicker – as in a [3.]67, we think, looking at the computer. But forget all that. It did go 3.692, and it’s the first 3.6-second run ever at the U.S. Nationals and that’s something they can’t take away from us.

“No. 1 qualifier could be tomorrow. There are two runs left,” he said with his kid-on-Christmas-Eve enthusiasm. “I’m hoping it’s 110 – 115 degrees tomorrow and we can stay No. 1.”

He said the damaged piston “didn’t surprise Grubby [crew chief Dave Grubnic]. He wanted to make sure it ran really hard early. He said he missed the fuel system just a little bit.

“But it was an incredible run. I knew once I got past 330-foot mark it was on a good run. And when it quit before the finish line, I was like ‘Oh-oh.’ But when I looked up . . . I probably shouldn’t say I looked up to see the 3.69 – but I did. I’m just so proud. Just think about it: we’re a single-car team and we have a bunch of kids and we got the veteran Lance Larsen and Grubby turning the knobs. That was an awesome run. I’m so happy with doing that.”

Was he expecting the 3.692?

“Well Grubby told me he was going to get after it. We were early in the session. He said he was actually looking forward to running early in the session, because we knew they prepped the track and one of the crazy things is, it’s one of those ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’s, but if it stays or not – it was a great run and we know we have a good qualifying spot. So we literally went from DNQ last year to the top of the page right now. We did not get to race here last year, so this is big for us,” Millican said.

“I was like – this thing is on a mission. It was going. I mean we had really good numbers all the way down, and it’s a career best,” he said. “So it’s the best numbers I ever felt, that’s for sure.”