Tony Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), qualified second and was looking to continue his winning streak over Chris “The Greek” Karamesines. Entering eliminations, Schumacher had a 5-0 all-time record versus the veteran Karamesines and held an advantage of 657-20 in round wins. After a solid launch, Schumacher lost traction and began to pedal his machine back up to speed briefly before seeing Karamesines pull away toward his 21st career round win and first since Bristol in 2011.

“Those are the tough ones,” said Schumacher, who lost in the first round at Summit Racing Motorsport Park for the first time in seven career starts at the facility. “I always say it’s harder to run those guys that are just happy to be in the field. When you are racing a (Doug) Kalitta in first round, you wake up and you’re pumped. ‘The Greek’ is one of those guys that is happy to show up and race. He loves making it through qualifying and then just goes out and tries to run a 3.95 like he did. When he’s in the other lane, you have to go out and run fast. If you make a mistake, you get beat.”