Tony Schumacher was hopeful his return to driving a Top Fuel dragster full-time would result in an epic 2022 season.

So far this year, if Schumacher didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck.

Schumacher’s latest misfortune came at the Mile-High Nationals in Morrison, Colo., outside of Denver Sunday.

Schumacher’s dragster, running out of the Don Schumacher Racing camp, lost in the first round to Clay Millican.

Millican clocked a 3.906-second run at 282.54 mph to edge Schumacher’s 4.124-second lap at 244.21 mph.

It was the fourth race in a row Schumacher lost in the opening round. Schumacher is 12th in the points standings – 69 points out of 10th.

“I have lived this moment way more than one time,” Tony said. “I have been there, and I have got through adversity. It is about digging, and we will figure it out. It is always frustrating when you lose because you want to win so bad. We have great guys. We have great parts. We have an exciting team and great sponsors. It is just taking a little longer than we wanted, but let’s remember The Run.”

The “Run” came in the final round of the season-ending race in Pomona, Calif., in 2006. Schumacher won the Top Fuel world championship when he beat Melanie Troxel in the finals with a world-record 4.428-second elapsed time. The combination of the victory and the world-record run gave Schumacher the world title by 15 points over Doug Kalitta.

“What made The “Run,” The “Run” if we just led the whole way it would been like 2015. Back in those days we needed that push. We are out here doing our job every day. These guys work as hard as any team out there. So, it is not like we are slacking, or we are not putting in the effort. They will get it done and it is going to be fricking great.”

Up next for Schumacher is the Denso NHRA Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals, July 22-24. Schumacher has two career wins at Sonoma in 2007 and 2008.

“I love Sonoma,” Schumacher said. “I don’t know what car we will have because that one we broke in half (July 16 during qualifying at the Mile-High Nationals). We stood the wheels, and it broke in half. The car had just got done (the week of the Mile-High Nationals). So, we sent it back in a U-Haul and it will get rebuilt. This (the car he raced July 17 at the Mile-High Nationals) was a different car. That was our back-up car, and we might have to run it in Sonoma. The new car had one bend in the front and we front-halved the whole car. 

“I wanted to run the new car (July 17 in Denver) and I wanted to win that round to. Sometimes you have to sit back and take what you get. These guys will figure it out. That was an unfortunate run (in the first round at Denver). We had a broken O-Ring in the manifold and cars don’t like that very much. We were one of the unlucky ones that got the guy next us went down the track.”

Schumacher put the loss in perspective.

“This is a timing thing you can have a great car and a great light and if the other guy has a miraculous run, I have said it a million times, NHRA drag racing is timing,” he said. “You have the right time. The right car. The right place and then the right situation occur. We have had a ton of bad luck and ton of bad things, but it will come. What people do, and I have seen fall apart because of it and start throwing helmets and pointing fingers.

“That’s not what we do here. We build. We lead. The team has always been there, and they are fortunate I have been through this.”