The late Dale Earnhardt Sr. had his Daytona, and for Tony Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in drag racing history, there's Atlanta Dragway.

Sixteen times the U.S. Army-sponsored driver has started the NHRA Southern Nationals, seven times he's reached the final round. Zero times he's taken home the trophy.

After losing Friday's qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA Southern Nationals to rain, Schumacher made the most of the event's abbreviated qualifying with his career No. 82 top qualifying effort with a 3.736-second pass at 325.45 mph.

With a winless streak hovering over a loaded resume of success, Schumacher and crew chief Mike Green decided that decent just wasn't going to cut the mustard this time.

"The first run was a decent run, and we’ve been suffering though too many decent runs," Schumacher said. "We’ve been putting cylinders out. And Mike on that last run he said, ‘I’m making a change, We’ve absolutely got to make a change. You go out and win races and go out and be decent doing it the way that we’re doing it, we’ve got to make a change."

"He goes, ‘It may not make it. Be ready."

The change did Schumacher and company good.

"That thing was just stuck in from the beginning to the end, it was great," Schumacher added. "Good straight run down the race track. Couldn’t be happier going into racing number one. What a big change he had to make, what a great opportunity because there were 16 cars to do it, and he pulled it off man. It’s one thing to have a chance to do it; it’s another thing to have a chance to do it with a team actually capable of pulling it off."

What did Schumacher get for the monumental effort? A first round match against perennial front-runner and No. 16 qualifier Brittany Force with former tuner Alan Johnson lurking in the shadows.

The unseen doesn't faze the seemingly unshakable Schumacher.

“Couldn’t be happier going into racing as No. 1,” Schumacher stated. “This is the only race the trophy doesn’t sit on my shelf. I want to win this one. You go in No. 1, and we’ve got every chance in the world to win.”