TOP FUEL

(Steve Gruenwald photo)

Massey moved to third in points after using an outstanding reaction time of 0.20 seconds in the championship round that enabled his slower 3.882-second run to beat Schumacher's 3.873.

"Running Tony Schumacher in the final round, that car has been running extremely strong," said Massey, who set a track record with a speed of 329.02 that his dragster tuned by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler did twice over the weekend.

"We know how well that car can run and Tony can be deadly on the starting line. I had to do whatever I had to do. It worked out. It's just crazy. Just to be able to race against legends and do this, I never want it to end."

His name also became attached to a pair of legends when his 18th career Top Fuel title tied him with Darrell Gwynn and Shirley Muldowney on the all-time win list.

(Adam Cranmer photo)

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher was so close to becoming the only NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel driver to have five Gatornationals wins that he could almost taste victory when he staged the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) in Sunday’s final of the 46th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Florida. Unfortunately, Schumacher’s DSR teammate Spencer Massey was just a tick faster off the starting line and earned the holeshot victory.

Schumacher began the day from the fourth slot on the ladder and defeated Terry McMillen, Clay Millican and number-one qualifier Shawn Langdon.