CONCORD, N.C. — Tony Schumacher doesn’t feel any pressure to remind his Top Fuel competitors of his accolades and the weight they carry.
“They know who we are,” Schumacher responded, not batting an eye.
The eight-time champion staked his claim as the winningest Top Fuel driver in history years ago and no one has managed to come close to his 86 victories in the NHRA class.
Antron Brown, who has claimed three world titles in the 11,000-horsepower dragster class, is the next active driver on the wins list with 58 triumphs.
Though Schumacher safely owns the bragging rights as the all-time best, that distinguished title hasn’t matched up with the JCM Racing driver’s performance as of late.
Schumacher’s most recent victory was at Washington’s Pacific Raceways on July 31, 2022. Even that was a milestone win in and of itself, as it was his first triumph in nearly two years. Unfortunately, he’s continued to fight the same gremlins in the ensuing seasons.
“I’m getting better. I was out for a few years, then I came back. I’m just doing what I’ve always done,” Schumacher said. “We’re making slight changes…just trying to get to where I can adjust to the cars.”
The dragsters changed a bit during Schumacher’s absence — during 2020 and 2021, when he didn’t have a full-season sponsor — and it’s been quite a process for him to adjust to the new laid-back headers used in the Top Fuel class.
“When you’ve made a million laps like I have, you’re going to make the same correction you always have, but it might not be enough now. So it looks like we’re behind the car when we’re not behind it at all,” Schumacher said.
That’s put him at a slight disadvantage to the younger drivers in the class, who never developed the muscle memory he’s now fighting against behind the wheel.
But “The Sarge” isn’t done yet.
“I’ve always said to try to be a machine,” Schumacher said. “The amount of wins, the amount of races — it’s not part of the equation. You do the same thing every time, and then you find yourself in the finals and then you win.”
To put it simply, he’s still driving the dragster like he knows how to drive it. Time and experience in drag racing have taught him that all the pieces will fall into place eventually.
Schumacher almost put it all together three weeks ago at the rain-postponed finale for the NHRA Winternationals, which was run at Arizona’s Firebird Motorspots Park, but lost to Justin Ashley on the holeshot.
“We’re still trying to find those few hundredths we need, but we will get there. We have an outstanding team, great crew chiefs,” Schumacher said. “In due time, we will have our win and our championships.”
He mentioned that crew chiefs Mike Neff and Jon Schaffer have shifted from throwing the kitchen sink at the dragster to going back to the basics — a simple change that has seemed to help the team’s consistency.
“To win these races you gotta go consistently fast,” Schumacher said.
He’ll be trying to do just that during eliminations for the Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., on Sunday. Schumacher qualified 13th with a 3.766-second run at 320.89 mph.