Top Fuel point leader Tony Schumacher couldn’t resist telling the story of his friendly exchange with a former team member, now on rival Larry Dixon’s team.

“Every point is important and Brian, who used to be on my team and is now with the Al-Anabi team came to me and said, ‘it would be crazy if we got that one point and we were tied going into that final day and we both smoked the tires in the first round and lost – you’d probably win and we could come back at the end and have a match up.

Schumacher paused and then smiled.

“I told him, ‘Man, I’m gonna be drunk and writing a speech by then, dude. Sorry.”

Top Fuel point leader Tony Schumacher couldn’t resist telling the story of his friendly exchange with a former team member, now on rival Larry Dixon’s team.

“Every point is important and Brian, who used to be on my team and is now with the Al-Anabi team came to me and said, ‘it would be crazy if we got that one point and we were tied going into that final day and we both smoked the tires in the first round and lost – you’d probably win and we could come back at the end and have a match up.

Schumacher paused and then smiled.

“I told him, ‘Man, I’m gonna be drunk and writing a speech by then, dude. Sorry.”

Schumacher lives for those big moments and for him, Auto Club Dragway in Pomona, Ca, has been his big stage. Headed into this weekend’s final race on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing tour, he brought a slim one point lead to the table.

After running a 3.832, 316.52 pass to claim Thursday’s provisional pole position, by out-qualifying Dixon by one spot, he literally doubled his points lead.

Schumacher knows he’s in a position that few expected him to be in at this point in the season considering the uncertainty that surrounded his team after the departure of Alan Johnson at the conclusion of 2008.

“At the beginning of this year, we came to this same track and if you asked to write a script of the story that’s going to surpass the run – I would say that I don’t know what I could do, but a one point lead would be just fine. Here we are.”

Both Schumacher and Dixon have five wins this season and only two round wins prevent the top ranked drivers from being locked into a tie for round wins.

Dixon’s pre-race comments stated that Schumacher’s one point lead might as well be a tie. Schumacher disagrees.

“No it isn’t,” Schumacher contends. “We go out the same round and we win. I’ve been fortunate to win many different ways over the years. I don’t think that’s [a one point win] been in the mix. It’s always been that when we come in here, with the exception of last year that we needed to win to be the champ. I’ve never needed someone else to lose, so I could be champ. I’ve always wanted the ball in my hands for that moment. A perfect storyline would be the two of us in the final round.”

That kind of perfect storyline would almost top the 2006 championship when Schumacher came from behind in the points to beat Doug Kalitta on the final run of the season to take the title.

“I was signing autographs after that run and there were fans walking up to me and asking where they could pay more money because they felt they didn’t pay enough,” Schumacher explained. “That is awesome.”

This weekend, Schumacher believes, could be another one of those scenarios.

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