TOP FUEL

(Jim Colraine photo)

“We have a great race car with the U.S. Army team, but we know there are a lot of great race cars out here,” said Tony Schumacher, who is looking to win his first title since 2009. “I’m happiest for the fans, because they are getting to see a great show every week. Right now, (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) have put a great car underneath me. And, we’re just living the dream. We have three wins in the Countdown with two more races coming up, so that gives us a shot at winning five. We don’t want to leave anything on the table. I can’t tell you how blessed we feel, to get through the rounds we did today starting with Bob Vandergriff. Steve Torrence gave us everything we could handle and those match-ups with Doug Kalitta are always presser packed. Winning that semifinal may have been the biggest round win we’ve had in a long time. Coming up against Brittany in the final, I knew we were going to be challenged.”