On the way to his meeting with Brown, Schumacher had a bye run in the opening round before leveling Clay Millican in the quarterfinals.

Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Shawn Langdon put in another solid day's work Sunday at the 40th annual United Association NHRA SuperNationals, racing to his fifth semifinal finish of the year in his Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers dragster to reestablish himself as the top first-year pro in the sport.

"This was a good day and a great way to finish off the three races in a row we just completed," Langdon said. "Of course, we're still anxious to get our first win of the season but when you keep getting to the final four you know your time is going to come. It's not like we're losing in Round 1 and never have a chance. Without winning the race, I'd say we're pretty happy in the Lucas pit right now."

Langdon's teammate and car owner, Morgan Lucas, also regained some measure of reliability at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, winning his 13th elimination-round race of the season en route to a quarterfinal finish to keep the GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster in the championship mix.

"It was disappointing," said Cory McClenathan, of his loss to Langdon. "We made our quickest pass of the year in the FRAM Tough Guard car in the first round and it looked like we had a good chance to do extremely well. (Crew chiefs) Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara are proving that they can make the transition from tuning only Funny Cars to tuning Top Fuel cars with the same talent and ability.

"Langdon has been doing a very good job at the starting lights this year," added McClenathan. "This was his fourth holeshot win this season, and it's always tough to line up against him at the starting lights. He did his job."

"Drag racing is a complete package, from driver to tuner to each crew member," said Shuler. "It's not one person who makes the decisions. That's why it's called a team. We just have to get our game in order and the results will come."

As for the transition from Funny Car to Top Fuel, "I won't say it's easier, but there's aspects that are less of a headache. We don't have to mess with the body, for instance, and they're not quite as finicky."

"We made our quickest pass of the year in E1, so we're happy about that," said Okuhara. "In E2 when the track got hot it was tricky and we backed it down and we got beat. Langdon is really good on the tree."