{"id":38456,"date":"2022-04-19T21:43:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T02:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=38456"},"modified":"2022-04-19T22:22:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T03:22:34","slug":"tony-schumacher-looking-for-one-more-special-memory-at-houston-raceway-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/19\/tony-schumacher-looking-for-one-more-special-memory-at-houston-raceway-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Schumacher looking for one more special memory at Houston Raceway Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike Haag, Raceday San Antonio<\/em><\/p>\n

BAYTOWN, Texas \u2013 When it comes to special racing moments NHRA Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher has had many of them at Houston Raceway Park.<\/p>\n

Schumacher, who is an eight-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion and the winningest driver in NHRA history with 85 wins, is a three-time winner at the legendary track just outside of Houston.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If Schumacher closes out the NHRA SpringNationals with a victory on Sunday, he could finish with the most Top Fuel wins in the history of Houston Raceway Park and that would be another great memory for him to look back on one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston\u2019s a powerful track, so I\u2019m looking forward to this weekend,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cIt\u2019s the last year and it\u2019s going to be a sold-out show, so that\u2019s going to be exciting. It\u2019s a beautiful place and we\u2019ve had some great success there and I just love racing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time he raced at Houston Raceway Park in 2020, Schumacher scored a dramatic victory over Steve Torrence in the final round that was the second-quickest side-by-side run in NHRA history. Schumacher’s run of 3.669-seconds at 330.63 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Okuma\/Sandvik Coromant Toyota dragster just edged past Torrence’s 3.687, 330.07 mph run.<\/p>\n

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Tony Schumacher. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI’m never going to forget,\u201d said Schumacher who also won races here in 2005 and 2009 . \u201cYou know there’s a handful of races that you can put your trophy on a shelf and you look at it and say that it was just outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher, who now resides in Austin, Texas, will compete this weekend in his 11,000-horsepower Manyard Family\/ Scag Power Equipment dragster.<\/p>\n

After running a limited schedule in 2020, Schumacher sat out during the 2021 season but he\u2019s back competing again this year for his father\u2019s race team, Don Schumacher Racing. After four races he is 112 points behind class leader Torrence and is seventh in the standings.<\/p>\n

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Tony Schumacher celebrates after winning his 85th NHRA Top Fuel race at Houston Raceway Park in 2020. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe got a car that even though we’re in seventh in the points is way better than it even looks,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cYou know we’re out there making fantastic early parts of the run and then mowing through the clutch. As we reel that in a little bit, it’s going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher said he and his crew chief Todd Okuhara have been going through an adjustment period as they learn each other\u2019s styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re exactly where we thought we would be,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cI\u2019ve never worked with (crew chief) Todd Okuhara before. They\u2019re new guys for me, I drive a little different. They\u2019re kind of catching up to where I am and I\u2019m catching up to where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the most recent race in Las Vegas, Schumacher advanced to the final quad where he competed against standouts like Torrence, the four-time defending world champ, Las Vegas winner Brittany Force and his former teammate Antron Brown. Schumacher hopes the momentum from that race will carry over to the Houston event.<\/p>\n

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Tony Schumacher at the 2020 NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park. Photo courtesy of the NHRA<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe race is going to be great,\u201d Schumacher said. \u201cWe want the perfect moment to the perfect race and what we hope for is that Vegas kind of finale where you look into the finals and the semifinals and it’s four bad to the bone cars\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher added, \u201cI’m going to walk away from that race with great memories and hope to God that this track stays open. I hope they find a way to come up with a new plan because it has just been a great track for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be one round of NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series qualifying at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, April 22 and the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, April 23 at 1 and 4:15 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on Sunday, April 24. For ticketks call 281-383-7223 or visit www.HoustonRaceway.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Haag, Raceday San Antonio BAYTOWN, Texas \u2013 When it comes to special racing moments NHRA Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher has had many of them at Houston Raceway Park. Schumacher, who is an eight-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion and the winningest driver in NHRA history with 85 wins, is a three-time winner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[738,6,194,217],"class_list":["post-38456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","tag-houston-raceway-park","tag-nhra","tag-nhra-springnationals","tag-tony-schumacher"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022_Tony_Schumacher_Action.webp?fit=1024%2C683","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-a0g","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38456"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38462,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38456\/revisions\/38462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}