Streaks: Breaking and Beginning in Commerce.

We just got home from a warm, muggy weekend in Commerce, Ga. after consecutive races in Houston and Atlanta. We had a few days between the two races, which for me was a busy time of studying and finals. I have just a few days of school left before summer vacation. Yeah! Our seven DSR race teams were also very busy. Jack Beckman and Johnny Gray’s teams tested the Monday after Houston. Our track guru Tommy Johnson, Jr. actually made five laps in the Service Central car to gear up for Atlanta and the testing paid off.

Spencer Massey and his FRAM/Prestone team made a stop at an alligator farm in Georgia and had a blast checking out all the gators at Kliebert Gator and Turtle Farm. Matt Hagan, Tony Schumacher and Don all went to the Coca-Cola Champion’s Dinner at the World of Coke in Atlanta. All current and past NHRA champions are invited. On Thursday, Tony and his crew chief Mike Green went golfing, and Tony scored his first hole-in-one on a Par 3. Now that’s an accomplishment. As exciting as Tony’s hole in one was, NAPA Funny Car driver Ron Capps,  got to throw out the first pitch at Turner Field before the  Phillies/Braves game on May 3. Ron threw a good pitch, but the Braves mascot dropped the ball. The night before, some of our hospitality staff and Spencer’s crew went to the Wednesday night Braves/Phillies game and saw Chipper Jones hit the walk off home run. They also went to the World of Coke and got to taste all the different flavors of Coke from around the world. That same night, Capps went to the Seether, Bush, Nickelback concert and Ron was hanging out with Gavin Rossdale who is married to Gwen Stefani. I feel like I write for US Weekly. LOL

On Friday Tony ran a 3.815 and got the pole, which was the first career number one qualifier at Atlanta Dragway for my brother. The three DSR dragsters qualified one, four and five for another strong qualifying outing for our dragsters. Our Funny Cars also ran well as Ron Capps and the special NAPA Brakes car got the No. 2 spot behind Robert Hight and that hot AAA Ford for JFR.

The highlight of my Friday was when our social media specialist Leah Vaughn, Ted Yerzyk from our front office and I made a quick afternoon Starbucks run. There’s a Starbucks with a drive thru less than a mile from the track and on a hot, muggy day, it was very quenching. After qualifying, Friday night was pretty boring, I went to bed. LOL

Saturday was another hot, muggy, sweaty day in the Peach State. Nobody improved, but all seven of our cars qualified for the first time since Gainesville in March and that made us all happy. Leah and I made another Starbucks run between sessions and we had big order given the warm weather. There were a lot of iced drinks for us to bring back to track.

Leah and I have been really working hard on our DSR TV segments (YouTube) so we have a lot of video clips logged for you guys to enjoy in the future. We did stuff with our crew guys to let you fans into the lives and duties of our team members. It’s a lot of fun and I hope you guys enjoy it. We did a great segment with Antron’s wife, Billie Jo, about what it’s like being the wife of a driver, while raising three kids under the age of 10. Billie Jo is an amazing, busy women and she’s now on Twitter too, be sure to give her a follow (@BillieB16).

Saturday evening Don and I joined our friend Brett Underwood, from Drag Racing Action magazine, and Steve and Greg LaVallee from the FRAM/Prestone account for dinner and we all shared a nice dinner and fun stories.

As Alan Reinhart always texts on Sunday mornings, “I LOVE RACEDAY.” It was an interesting Sunday for DSR. Four of our seven cars advanced past round one. The one surprise was Antron Brown and the Matco Tools car lost for the first time in 33 races at Indy in 2010. Antron was ahead, but the Matco car lost traction and fell to Doug Kalitta who then beat Spencer and the Prestone car in round two. Kalitta was a DSR beater today. It was a great run for Antron and only Angelle at 46, Bob Glidden at 40 and Tony at 35 races have won more consecutive first rounds. Thankfully, the Army team got some revenge and took out Dougie in the semis.

For our Funny Cars, it was Ron Capps and the NAPA Auto Parts car carrying the banner for our floppers. Rahn Tobler’s wife, Ellen, told Rahn she wanted a win for her birthday, and guess what she got? The NAPA car had been to the final round at the last two races in Charlotte and Houston and the third time was the charm. After taking out teammate Matt Hagan in round two, the NAPA car was marching along as a 4-teen bracket car all weekend long. Capps and team took out Jeff Arend in the semifinals leading to another DSR vs. JFR final round, this time DSR taking the win! It was our first Funny Car win in seven races. It was such a great win because NAPA headquarters are about 70 miles away in Atlanta and our great friend from NAPA Mike Rearden and his wife Jan got experience their first win at an NHRA race and celebrate with Ron and Rahn. My 21^st birthday is in 17 days, I joked around with Capps, thanking him and the team for the awesome early birthday gift! LOL Capps also moved into a second-place tie with Mike Neff in the points.

Most of the teams will head back to the shop tomorrow, Tony and the U.S. Army team will be making some test runs. For me, it’s time to hit the books, I have two more finals on Tuesday and then I am officially done with my junior year. I am very excited for summer and to get a break from school before starting my senior year in August. Don is heading to Cat Island in the Bahamas with Ted Yerzyk and Will Truitt from our front office for a few days of fishing. I’m sure they will have a great time, and hopefully catch lots of fish. Our next race is in Topeka, Kansas, May 18-20. Spencer Massey won there last year and would love to repeat it again. Till next time, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@MeganFessSchu) and ‘like’ me on Facebook. 

Have a great week,

Megan

"Blowing Up and Heating Up on the NHRA Tour"

It was a busy off week for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR). Matt Hagan’s huge explosion at the Four-Wide Nationals went viral and in a very big way. More than 30 million people viewed it worldwide. Matt did interviews with the news show Right This Minute as well as BBC in England. Good Morning America and The Today Show aired the explosion as well. It was fantastic exposure for Aaron’s as the Lucky Dog was viewed worldwide. Anytime we can try to attract new followers to our sport it is a positive. Coming off of strong TV ratings for the Four-Wides, it was great momentum for our sport. 

Friday marked the start of back-to-back races. Houston and Atlanta are the first consecutive races that we’ve had since February with Pomona and Phoenix. We started off the two-race swing in Baytown, Texas outside of Houston and my Friday started at school with an early morning class before catching a flight to Houston and arriving to the track before first round of qualifying. When I got to the track I filmed a segment of DSR-TV with Matt Hagan finding out his thoughts on his explosion going global. We then did a social media chat with RonCapps on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to the fans for all the great questions. 

Qualifying on Friday went pretty well, Antron Brown and his team struggled a bit, and went into Saturday not qualified, along with Jack Beckman. Ron Capps ran the best of DSR’s Funny Cars with a 4.107-second run, which had him qualified number one, before Cruz Pedregon took it away at 4.103. It was another strong showing for Rahn Tobler and the NAPA car.

We woke up on Saturday to humidity, sunshine and wind; which lead to an interesting day of qualifying and bad hair. With his run in the third qualifying session Antron Brown was able to get into the field without a problem at 3.845-seconds. Between the two qualifying sessions I filmed another episode of DSR-TV, this time with my friend (and Spencer Massey’s girlfriend) Karen. It was fun to be able to work with one of my good friend’s and get more experience in front of a camera. I’m really enjoying it and hopefully you guys will like our segments on the DSR YouTube page. Following that, the nervous butterflies kicked in as Jack and his Valvoline NextGen team were not in the show with one shot left. Unfortunately they failed to make the 16-car field after Jack lost traction and had to pedal the car. They finished 17th. Jack and Todd Smith spent Monday testing, before heading to Commerce, Ga. for the race this weekend. Johnny Gray’s Service Central car also tested at Houston today. It’s going to be hot at Atlanta. Weather.com says 90s. Ugh…

Sunday morning started with Don and my routine Starbucks stop before heading out to Royal Purple Raceway. Once we got to the track we got to visit with Angelle Sampey and her family. We were so excited to meet her gorgeous daughter, Ava, who is now 13-months-old. It was Ava’s first trip to the track and Angelle hadn’t been to a race since giving birth. She was there with her husband, Seth, and her parents. The fans still love Angelle and she’ll always be a great part of the DSR family. Following that, it was time to get ready for first round. DSR dragsters went three for three in first round, with Tony capturing his 600 round win. It was a great milestone as he became just the fifth driver to accomplish that in NHRA history. Congrats to Tony, Mike Green and the entire U.S. Army team.   

Ron Capps was DSR’s lone Funny Car survivor after first round ultimately leading us to a runner-up finish after racing Mike Neff in the final round. JFR is on a roll, they are six for six so far this season. We at DSR are very anxious for our first Funny Car win of the season as we continue to climb towards that 200^th win. Hopefully we will collect that Funny Car Wally real soon. Spencer Massey and Antron Brown met up in the second round and it seems as though those two are constantly racing one another, after racing each other in all three rounds at the Four-Wide. Antron and the Matco boys got the win in a very close race by just a few thousandths of-a-second, leading them to their fifth final of the season and to a runner up finish in Top Fuel. Tony and his U.S. Army dragster lost to Morgan Lucas in the second round. Interesting stat, Morgan Lucas has been the only driver to beat a DSR dragster this season other than a DSR car. That Geico team is running on mean. Aaron Brooks and Morgan are doing so great. Competition in both classes is so close and intense right now and that makes for lots of nerves on race day, but very exciting racing for the fans. I cannot wait to see what the race brings DSR this upcoming weekend at Atlanta Dragway in the hot weather. DSR doubled-up there last year with Antron and Jack.
   

I flew home last night and it was back to school mode for me until the race this weekend. I started my day with a Financial Management exam at 7 a.m., followed by classes and homework. Finals start Thursday, so I have a busy week of studying ahead. I hope you all have a great week. I will touch base after Commerce! Feel free to keep up with me at www.Facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage or follow me on Twitter (@MeganFessSchu). Thanks for reading!

Till next week,

Megan

"Four-Wide Spectacular at 330MPH"

This weekend the NHRA visited Concord, N.C. for 
the Four Wide Nationals at the “Bellagio of drag strips,” zMax Dragway at Concord. 
For those who have not experienced four-wide it is hard to put into 
words. Four-wide is sensory-overload to the max. You think experiencing two nitro cars going down the track is intense? Double that and you have four-wide. It is probably one of the craziest things to ever witness. There’s so much action happening at once, it’s a lot to take 
in. You just don’t know what to focus on. There is lots of added noise, extra nitro methane in the air and an 
amazing amount of ground-shaking horsepower. Four-wide also provides 
the drivers and teams with added challenges. Instead of racing one 
other team, they are racing three other teams. The Christmas tree is set up differently so that always throws the drivers for a little bit of a loop. Overall, for the avid NHRA fan, witnessing four-wide racing is definitely one thing that needs to be checked off their bucket list.
   

My Friday began the same as most; I had class in the morning, before 
hopping on an airplane and heading to Charlotte. I got to the track right before first round. On Friday Antron Brown took some time from his jam-packed weekend to do a social media chat. It’s something we started doing with Spencer at Phoenix and we’ve continued from there. We take questions from fans via Facebook and Twitter and the drivers respond. AB loves talking to 
his fans any chance he gets. Our Friday at the track started out with a
bang, literally. Matt Hagan and his Aaron’s Funny Car had a huge explosion in the first qualifying session. It was insane, and thankfully no one was hurt and the team worked very hard to get the car and a new 
body put together for the second session later that day. They
definitely had an unlucky Friday the 13th. Matt definitely has a love-hate relationship with lane two at zMax. He’s had two explosions there and ran the 3.995 in the same lane, crazy. A lot of attention has been put on the changes made with Ron Capps and Jack Beckman’s teams and they were able to make some excellent runs on Friday and that is really a tribute to the teamwork at DSR and all the hard work that Rahn Tobler and all the teams have contributed.
 

Saturday was a busy day for us at DSR. Our NAPA hospitality area hosted a 
pancake breakfast for Doug Herbert’s B.R.A.K.E.S Foundation. Everyone was welcome to come into our NAPA hospitality area and enjoy pancakes, and a good time with all DSR drivers and many other drivers in our 
sport. You should have heard Antron and John Force going back and forth about John being Antron’s “real” dad. It was hysterical. Following that I worked with DSR media relations guru Jeff Wolf on developing
DSR-TV. DSR-TV will be something we work on all season long this year. 
Our goal is to provide a behind the scene look through short segments, hosted by me. Keep an eye on our social media pages for more from Houston. Racing-wise we had a relatively stressful day of qualifying. Both Johnny Gray and Matt Hagan went into the final qualifying session
not qualified. Thankfully Johnny Gray and his Service Central team were
able to make a solid run at 4.11 and get in the show. Unfortunately Matt Hagan and the Aaron’s team did not make the show; they really had a rough weekend. They ran 4.205, the same as Jeff Arend, but Matt lost out on a slower speed. A tough break for that team. They will test here in Concord today to work out all the bugs and they will be back in Houston ready for action. 

After leaving the track my friends and I went out to dinner for Alex Baca’s birthday. You probably know her as the host from NHRA Now or former driver David Baca’s daughter. It is always fun to spend time with friends away from the track and Alex is a hoot.

On Sunday we woke up to cloudy skies and cooler than expected 
temperatures. The weather stuck around until after first round. DSR had a stellar first round. We went three for three in Top Fuel with Tony 
being the first dragster to go 330-mph at 1,000-feet. Following his run Spencer Massey also ran 330.55, just a tick faster and securing a 
new national speed record for the Prestone/FRAM team. All three DSR funny cars also won first round. Second round in 
the four-wide is also considered the semi finals. Ron Capps was our
lone DSR funny car in the final round and he lost to Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon. It was a crazy close race, Robert and Cruz ran 4.07 and Ron 4.08. That’s how four-wide racing is.

It was a busy day for Ron. The NAPA team really wanted to win for their honorary team 
member, NASCAR driver Martin Truex, Jr and his No. 56 NAPA team who spent 
Sunday with the team learning all about Ron’s Funny Car. Martin won the pole at Ft. Worth, Texas on Friday and raced this NAPA Toyota to a sixth-place finish at the Cup race on Saturday night and then made it to the track for his first NHRA race.
   

All three dragsters won again and had to race Doug Kalitta in the 
TF final of the four-wide. Spencer Massey took the win, followed the Sarge and Antron. What an amazing finish for our dragsters with DSR going 1-2-3. In the finals the FRAM/Prestone team set another speed record, this time at a jaw-dropping 332-mph. Wow! Third time this weekend they reset the speed record and also their third win of the season. Three wins in five races for the FRAM team and four final rounds in five races for the Matco team. The DSR dragsters are on fire. 
   

After some time in the winner’s circle, it was time to head to the 
airport and fly home to FL. My Monday started with classes and catching up on homework. I swear the smile still has not left my face from our 
awesome race weekend. Johnny Gray, Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman’s teams are testing today in Concord to gear up for Houston, 
which is in about 10 days. We go back-to-back with Houston, then Atlanta, so our team’s want to be “on point” as Antron would say.

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for all the tweets and Facebook posts to me and DSR. The support is much appreciated and humbling. Also, thanks to 
everyone who came up to me and introduced themselves from Facebook and 
Twitter. I enjoyed getting to meet you all, if you ever see me at the 
track please feel free to introduce yourself. Well, time for more 
homework, until next time you can keep up with me on Facebook 
(www.Facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage) or on Twitter 
(@MeganFessSchu)



Have a great week!



Megan

Our Winning Ways in Vegas!

After two off weekends, I was more than ready to head back to the race track at Las Vegas for our spring visit to Sin City. Thursday started off for me in a classroom in Florida and I ended the evening in Las Vegas. I had two classes Thursday morning before rushing to the airport to catch a flight to Vegas. We made it in perfect time to get unpacked and head to the NHRA Fan Fest at New York New York. All seven DSR drivers signed autographs along with many of the top stars in NHRA racing. There was a great turnout as usual from the great NHRA fans in Las Vegas.

Friday morning was a busy one for our drivers. ESPN booked segments with many NHRA drivers to ask random questions about each race market that will be aired on the broadcast throughout the season. Friday morning was mother/daughter bonding time for me and mom with shopping and lunch before afternoon qualifying. It was hot out during qualifying and it made for an interesting two sessions, overall most of our teams did pretty well.

Saturday was another hot, windy day at The Strip at LVMS. The downer of the day was that the NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car of Ron Capps didn't make the show. The NAPA team struggled all weekend long and just couldn't get ahold of the track. The other six DSR teams made the show for Sunday's final eliminations. There will be a lot of work back at the shop before Charlotte as crew chief Tim Richards resigned following qualifying. We thank Tim and Kim Richards for the great job they did tuning Ron Capps and the NAPA team to two wins last season.

This weekend in Las Vegas, we have had Berry Weiss from A & E's Storage Wars at the track filming with Antron Brown for an upcoming episode of the popular show on A&E. Barry is a huge drag racing and motorsports fan. It was so much fun having him out at the track with us, he is a great guy. The crew from Storage Wars filmed both Saturday and Sunday and Barry was such a hit. He took so many pictures and signed a ton of autographs and was great with the fans. I can't wait to see the show air.

Saturday night I watched the Kansas/Ohio State NCAA Final Four basketball game with my mom and Don. My Mom and Uncle both went to Kansas; my whole family is huge KU fans! We were pumped to see KU take the win and cannot wait to watch them play tonight against Kentucky. It should be a great game.

Sunday morning began with Don and me stopping by an ice cream shop at our hotel for some ice cream for breakfast. Don and I started the tradition of ice cream for breakfast at a race in Las Vegas many years ago and who doesn't love having ice cream any time of the day. DSR had some stout first round match-ups and we were lucky to go six for six in the first round. Lady luck was on our side and the DSR drivers were on their game with three holeshot wins.

Tony and Antron raced each other in the second round, with Antron and the Aaron's Dream Machine dragster taking the win. Tony and AB have raced at three of four races this year. Ultimately our race day led us to an all-DSR Top Fuel final for the third time this year. It was Spencer vs. Antron with Spencer and his FRAM dragster taking the win just like at Pomona in February. It is crazy how amazing competition is in both Funny Car and Top Fuel is right now. Along with having Berry Weiss from Storage Wars out supporting DSR this weekend, we also were joined by former Bachelor star Jake Pavelka and model/actress Ashley Vickers on Sunday. They have become good friends of Spencer and the entire FRAM/DSR team. It was a star-studded cast for DSR at Las Vegas.

After the race Sunday we got to spend some time in the winner's circle with the FRAM team, than it was time to head to the airport to catch a flight back to Florida. I spent most of the flight doing homework and preparing myself for the school week ahead. I got home at about 4 a.m. and was back in the classroom for my first class of the day by 8 a.m. Oh the joys of life as a college student! LOL

Overall, I had a fantastic time in Las Vegas, it was a great time with my friends and family and I was super happy to see DSR bring home another Wally. That's win number 177 for DSR. We have an off-weekend this upcoming weekend, which will give the teams time to prepare for the Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC. It's also Easter weekend, so from all of us at DSR, have a happy Easter!

I have to run, time to get some homework done before the Kansas/Kentucky basketball game. Rock Chalk Jaywawks, go KU! I will check in again soon, I hope everyone has a great week!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, or "like" me on Facebook. By the way, thanks to all the fans for the support. I hit 1,000 Twitter followers over the weekend.

Until next time,

Megan

Keeping Up With Don Schumacher Racing

Hello Everyone.

I believe it is safe to say that the word to be used to describe our weekend at the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals presented by NAPA Filters is wacky!

Friday in Gainesville was the nicest day of the three-day race weekend. Mother Nature again wreaked havoc on an NHRA race. It was not a typical Florida weekend. The opening day of qualifying wasn’t too bad for the seven DSR teams. Spencer Massey and the FRAM TF team struggled on Friday but they were able to regroup and get in the show Saturday morning.

The highlight of Friday was finding out that Don was nominated to be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala. Don had no idea that was even a possibility for him, he was so touched to be recognized for all the hard work he puts into DSR and drag racing. It was very humbling for Don and really caught him by surprise. Saturday brought us a weather change with cloudy skies and lots of 
wind. It wasn’t a good hair day. LOL The cloud cover caused cool temperatures and fast race conditions. There were some great runs on both Saturday and Sunday. We had an ouch moment when Ron Capps special NAPA Filters FC scraped the wall and took most of the word “Filters” off the left side of his Dodge Charger. The body was fine, but it left a bunch of the DSR employees scrambling.

We need to thank JFR for helping us with black vinyl and Ted, who manages our in-house vinyl program, worked with a local printer in Gainesville to reprint the word Filters for Ron’s car. It was a great show of teamwork by the NHRA community and we installed the Filters decal in the staging lanes before Q4.

Sunday brought unfavorable weather conditions. We woke up to more overcast skies and cooler temperatures. It’s not what you expect from Florida, but it was an NHRA event in Florida. We had on and off rain showers all day and just enough rain to stop the action, but never any hard rain. Six of our seven cars advanced to the second round and our only loss was to another DSR car when Johnny Gray defeated Matt Hagan and his new Mopar paint scheme. After round two, Mother Nature never would cooperate and NHRA officials were forced to postpone the event until Monday morning at 10 a.m. It was the Monday Nationals, but for all the marbles. 




Unfortunately, in the end, Monday didn’t bring the result DSR was aiming for, another Wally trophy. Jack Beckman lost in the semifinals to Robert Hight after a controversial red-light start. It was Jack’s first red light since the 2009 Winternationals. Johnny Gray won his semifinal match, which was great at his sponsor’s race and he had to face the hottest Funny Car in Robert Hight in the final round. We saw the sun come out, finally, between rounds and that threw all the crew chiefs for a loop before the money round. It was a pedal fest in Funny Car and the JFR team got the upper hand with Hight taking the win. The Force cars are off to a strong start.

In Top Fuel, Tony beat a tire-smoking Shawn Langdon to advance to a second straight final round for the Army team. That matched up the Nos. 1 and 2 qualifiers with Morgan Lucas. Wow, that Geico team is doing great and they got their first win in more than a year. What an incredible performance from Morgan and Aaron Brooks running 3.74 three straight runs.

A lot has been made out of the fact that the Army TF team has been winless since Las Vegas 2 of 2010, but we’re very confident they’ll win soon. They’ve been to two straight finals and will cash in soon. It’s amazing how tight the competition is in Top Fuel right now. It’s going to be crazy intense in both nitro classes this season.

After the race was over it was time for me to jet back to school for a 6 p.m. class. We made it back in perfect timing to make my evening class. I’m pretty sure I was the only person in my class with remnants of tire rubber on my face. LOL. 

It was a long weekend for DSR but one of the best parts of the weekend was that Gainesville has become a second home race for us. It used to be Joliet, but now it’s Joliet and Gainesville. My Mom and Don have a house four hours away in Stuart, Fla., which is close to West Palm Beach. A lot of our friends and family came out to the track for their nitro fix this weekend. It is always fun for us to share the sport we love with people we care about.

All our teams are heading back to the DSR race shop in 
Brownsburg, Ind. for two weeks before our next race in Las Vegas. March 30-April 1. Don and Rahn Tobler, crew chief on Jack Beckman’s car, are headed to the Bahamas to do some fishing for a few days. Don likes to spend some quality time with his tuners on the water. Don loves sport fishing.

For me it’s back to the grind of school after a week off for spring break. I will check in again soon. In the meantime feel free to follow me on Twitter (@MeganFessSchu) or “like” me 
on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage).


Thanks for reading,

Megan

Keeping Up With Don Schumacher Racing

Happy Sunday Funday!

Is anyone else experiencing nitro withdrawals after two off weekends in a row? I surely am. School has kept me plenty busy with midterm exams and lots of work these past few weeks. Friday marked the start of my spring break for us at Lynn University. Friday night my Mom and I went to Miami to see the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show, Immortal, with Paul & Suzi Brown, very close family friends of ours. It was an amazing show! A week earlier, Antron Brown, Rahn Tobler and some of Spencer Massey’s crew members saw it in Indy and loved it too. Don left for Costa Rica on Thursday for a weekend fishing trip with our friends the Comstock’s from MTS. He has never been to Costa Rica, so I know he was excited to fish in a new country. I have this week off of school so I am very excited spend time at my parent’s house in Stuart, Fla. and rest up before this weekend’s Tire Kingdom Gatornationals presented by NAPA Filters. #sponsorplugs. It is nice to have some quality time with my mom and of course our four dogs! I have a malti-poo named Teddy, who lives at school with me, and my parents have a golden retriever named Comet, and two malti-poo’s, Nitro and Lucky. We are huge animal lovers.



Everyone at DSR has been hard at work these past two weeks. Antron Brown and Matt Hagan went to Las Vegas this past week with Ted Yerzyk and Julie Mosher from the DSR front office for the 2012 Matco Tools Expo. The Expo was at Caesar’s Palace and it was the first of three trips to Vegas this year for them. I sure hope they paced themselves on the slot machines. Matt and Antron enjoyed getting to spend time with all the great people at Matco. There were more than 1,000 Matco Tools distributors there and the support for Antron and all the DSR race teams is fantastic. Matco is one of the longest tenured DSR sponsors.

We’ve received a lot of questions about new 2012 DSR merchandise and there is some new apparel posted on our website (www.shoeracing) the rest should be posted within the next few days. Thanks for your patience as they’ve been working hard on getting it ready for you guys online and for our merchandise trailer at the Gatornationals. There’s also some really cool stuff on our DSR eBay store (shoe_racing). Kyle Cunningham also keeps great memorabilia on our eBay store if you’re a collector.

After Jack Beckman’s incident in Pomona and Johnny Gray tapping the wall in Phoenix, both of those Funny Car bodies had to be repaired at Aerodine before heading up to Michigan to be touched up at SD Enterprises. All seven of our DSR teams have been 
servicing parts from Pomona and Phoenix and gearing up for Gainesville. The Gatornationals is a very historic race and one that all teams want to win. Everyone wants a “Wally” trophy from the Gators. Our hospitality trailers will be heading to Florida 
on Monday followed by the race teams on Wednesday. The teams will park and setup at the track on Thursday, but first they need to finish up some last minute decal needs and load everything up in the trailers.



Tonight, Antron Brown will be on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED Channel. Dave will interview AB live from the DSR shop in Brownsburg. Be sure to check it out to see the “Brothaman” and our shop. Following that, Antron will be heading to Charlotte to do a media tour to promote the Four-Wide Nationals in April before heading down to Gainesville on Thursday morning. Matt Hagan will be doing a media tour in Jacksonville, 
Fla. with NHRA on Wednesday to help promote the Gators. It’s exciting that NHRA and the tracks want to use our drivers to help grow the sport.

Wednesday night (March 7th) Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman, along with some other NHRA drivers, are going to be featured in the Harlem Globetrotters game in Gainesville on the campus of the University of Florida. The U.S. Army dragster show car also will be on display at the game. I just wonder if any drivers will get clowned on by the Globetrotters during the game. 

On Thursday night all the DSR drivers (except Antron who has a Matco function at the track) will be at the Gainesville Ale House from 7-9 p.m. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by and see us. Matt Hagan will be running a Mopar body, very similar to the one he raced at Denver and Indy last year, and Ron Capps a special one-off NAPA Filters body. Ron won at Sonoma in NAPA Filters colors last summer, so hopefully it will bring the NAPA team some good luck at Gainesville. Spencer will be running the FRAM orange colors again starting again this weekend, so make sure you check out all the new DSR paint schemes. Maybe there’s a “Best Appearing Car” award in our future.

 

I hope everyone has a great week. I can’t wait to head to Gainesville on Friday morning and I’m hoping for another winning weekend for DSR. It’s time to get a 2012 Funny Car win. I’ll be sure to check in next week, in the meantime feel free to follow me on Twitter (@MeganFessSchu) or “like” me on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage).



Thanks for reading,

Megan

Keeping Up With Don Schumacher Racing

Hello from Arizona! What a weekend it was for DSR. I was a little apprehensive to come to this track again after my last two visits. When we were here last fall Spencer Massey and Ron Capps failed to qualify. The year before that Antron Brown was in a terrible crash, but thankfully walked away. I was very eager to have some positive memories here.

Friday began earlier than normal for me at 5 a.m. getting organized and ready for an early class in the morning before rushing to the airport to catch a flight to Phoenix. I made it to the track with perfect timing, right as Funny Cars started their first qualifying session on Friday afternoon at Firebird Int’l Raceway near Phoenix. For me, the highlight of Friday was seeing the Service Central Funny Car of Johnny Gray, flying the colors of Big O Tires, running a 4.07-second elapsed time which earned them number one qualifier for the race. It was great to see Johnny and that team continue their hot streak from last fall and to see Johnny get his second career pole. I’m learning my DSR driver stats!

My Saturday morning started with Don and me making a trip to Sprinkles cupcakes. We brought four-dozen cupcakes for our teams to enjoy. Most of us at DSR have a sweet tooth and love our cupcakes. Needless to say, not a single cupcake went to waste. Sprinkles cupcakes really are a slice of heaven. We had two qualifying sessions on Saturday and overall were happy with our qualifying results for our teams. The best part was that none of our teams had to race each other first round like Matt and Ron did at Pomona. Don and I were able to leave the track in time to head back to the hotel and relax for a little bit. Don enjoyed a cigar and spending some time with my Mom by the pool while I got to work on a few hours of homework. The joy of college. LOL. Later that night we joined Tracy and Bob Stange from Strange Engineering for dinner, which provided lots of laughs as it usually does. Strange Engineering makes the rear ends for all of our teams and Don and Bob have been friends for decades. They’re both from Chicago. Following dinner, I had to do a little bit of homework before bed. Midterms start Tuesday, so that means a busy week ahead.

Race day is my favorite day of the week. When I woke up Sunday I just had the feeling it was going to be another great day for DSR. Don was given a photo album on Sunday morning filled with tons of pictures from his own racing career way back in the 70s. Most were black and white prints. He told us story after story. It was so cool so see pictures from back then and how much the sport has developed. I always start eliminations by riding to the staging lanes with Spencer Massey’s FRAM/Prestone team. We play music from my iPod and I try to get the guys pumped up and ready for action. When I wasn’t watching eliminations or tweeting, I was in the trailer studying for those dreaded midterms.

We were out of Funny Car competition after Jack Beckman’s loss to Mike Neff in the semifinals. Those darn JFR cars have been tough to beat at these first two races. Spencer Massey lost to Antron Brown in the second round after a rematch of last week’s final round from Pomona. Our three dragsters continue to run great and the Army and Matco Tools teams made it a second straight all-DSR Top Fuel final round. Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher had an amazing race to the finish line with Antron scoring the narrow win. As much as I would have liked to see Tony get his first win after a long dry spell, 24 races, seeing Antron win after his accident two years ago really made me happy. It was time for all of us to make new memories here at Firebird and this was exactly what the Matco Tools team needed. I know that Tony and the U.S. Army team will be getting a win sometime in the near future, that car is so consistent that their day will come real soon, maybe at Gainesville in two weeks where they won two years ago. I cannot even begin to explain how proud I am of every single DSR team so far this season. The guys constantly inspire me to always give everything I do my best and I never stop learning from them. Sunday's victory marked DSR's 176 win since it was formed in 1999, when I was just seven-years-old. My how time flies. Five of those wins belong to Don. One of his old photos was from the Winternationals winner’s circle along with two other Don’s, Garlits (Top Fuel) and Nicholson (Pro Stock). It’s really neat to see that stuff, I shared some of the pictures on my Facebook page, so if you haven’t checked them out yet you should.

Since today is President’s Day and I don’t have classes we decided to have a family day in Scottsdale, Ariz. My Mom, Don and I did a little bit of shopping and had lunch at Houston’s. After lunch we headed to the airport, which is where I am now. I have a plane flight of studying ahead of me. No sleeping on this flight for me. It’s almost time for my flight so I have to run but I hope you all have a great week! I’ll check in later in the week and let you know how the midterms went. Feel to keep in touch with me via Twitter (@MeganFessSchu) or “like” me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage).

Megan

Keeping Up With Don Schumacher Racing

Happy Monday! What a weekend it has been. I am so happy that the 2012 NHRA season has officially begun! I got back from Pomona early this morning and was in class bright and early at 8 am on this Monday morning. Needless to say I will definitely sleep well tonight. Overall, I had a great time in Pomona, Calif. for the first race of the year and I am very excited to see what the rest of this NHRA season has in store for us.

Don and I had to miss qualifying on Thursday due to my school schedule. I hate having to miss any part of a race but school takes priority. I had classes all day on Thursday and then we rushed to catch a flight out of Miami. We didn’t get to Pomona until after midnight. It was a long day of school and traveling. Our teams were so anxious for their runs on Thursday. It is the first time since our test session last month in West Palm Beach that our teams get to make runs and show what they had learned during the off season and at the PBIR test.

Don had a PRO board meeting first thing Friday morning, which gave me the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep before heading to the track. I was so excited to get to the track and see some of my friends I hadn’t seen since the end of 2011 season in November. One of my favorite parts about going to the races besides supporting our teams is all the people I have been lucky enough to have met over the years.

Everyone in drag racing is like family so Pomona is always very exciting for everyone to get to see each other after being apart during the winter. It was a gorgeous warm California day on Friday and we had one qualifying session, which is the norm for Pomona. After qualifying was over my Mom, Don and I went to dinner at this little Italian restaurant with some of our closest friends. Dinner was spent telling stories, catching up and having a great time.

We woke up Saturday morning to a complete weather swing. It was cold. We were supposed to have two runs on Saturday but after the first qualifying session of the day, we had some rain which turned into lots of rain and the fourth qualifying session was cancelled. During the rain delay my friend Courtney McClenathan, Cory Mac’s daughter, brought over Sprinkles cupcakes for us. We spent time reading magazines in the trailer hoping the rain would go away. It didn’t, but thankfully all of our teams were qualified before the rain came down. Unfortunately it led to a Matt Hagan vs. Ron Capps match-up in the first round on Sunday. We wish our teams didn’t have to race each other until the later rounds.

Sunday morning started out with temperatures in the 40’s and rain. Thankfully the rain stopped and racing was able to start about 30 minutes late right around 11:30 a.m. Don and I started the day with a photo shoot before enjoying some breakfast and getting ready for the first race-day of 2012. I love race day! The first race day of the year is always very exciting and nerve-wrecking because everyone is still getting used to being back in the swing of things. Overall, race day went very well for DSR but not without a few interesting moments. During Jack Beckman’s run in round 2 against Gary Densham, Jack’s car took a hard right turn, causing Jack to get in front of Gary which caused them to almost hit each other at 290 mph. Luckily neither were hurt and there was only minor damage to the bodies on both cars. It could have been a lot worse.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the all-DSR top fuel final. We could not have asked for any better way to start our new season. Antron Brown in the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster raced Spencer Massey in the FRAM/Prestone car, with Spencer getting the win light in a record-setting weekend. It was an excellent race but the FRAM/Prestone was on a roll Sunday, they set a new speed record (328.62 mph) during their semifinal win over Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team.

After the win light, I headed down to the top end of the track with the guys to congratulate Spencer and get the racecar before heading to the winner’s circle for pictures. Spencer and his team came in second in points last year, so starting off the year with a victory was very exciting and will provide them with lots of motivation for Phoenix. As soon as winner circle pictures were over Mom, Don and I raced to the airport to catch a flight back to Florida, so I could get back in time for school this morning. I spent the flight catching up on homework and preparing for my week ahead. I have classes all week, before I hop a flight after my class Friday morning and head to Phoenix, Ariz. for the next race this upcoming weekend. I hope everyone has a fabulous week and I will be posting another blog next week. In the meantime feel free to follow me on Twitter (@MeganFessSchu) or ‘like” me on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/MeganFesselSchumacherFanPage).

Megan

Keeping up with Don Schumacher Racing

Hello again,

It is crazy to believe that one week from today we will be in Pomona, Calif. for the first NHRA race of the new season. Everyone is really excited to see what this season has in store for us! It is a crazy busy time for everyone at DSR making sure everything is ready for the teams to leave on Friday and Monday. Our hospitality crews will head out West on Friday and the Service Central Funny Car team will make some test runs on Monday at Las Vegas. The other 6 teams will be making their way to California on Monday.

Since testing, almost all of my time has been devoted to getting back in school mode. I am taking six classes this semester, which is one more than the ‘average’ five classes you take during a normal semester. I am trying to adjust to the extra workload and also trying to become as prepared for the semester as possible before the added craziness of race season begins. I cannot wait for the season to start! I am so excited to fly to Pomona next Thursday night and kick off 2012.

Don flew to the Bahamas the Sunday after testing and spent a few days there with DSR crew chiefs Mike Green (U.S. Army TF) and Phil Shuler (FRAM TF). Don had a great time with them and really enjoyed spending time with them away from the track. They spent their time traversing the water of the southern Bahamas catching as many fish as they could. They caught some nice Wahoo, the biggest being 65-pounds. When Tommy Delago, Matt Hagan’s crew chief, went fishing with Don, they caught a 100-pound Wahoo, so Tommy D is in the lead for biggest fish caught by a DSR crew chief. Everyone at DSR is competitive in all that they do, that’s a fact.

Since the team’s got back from testing, it’s been non-stop at the shop in Brownsburg. The teams had to service after making a lot of runs at PBIR, and get everything race-ready for the Winternationals. It’s a musical with the sound of impact guns, wrenches and the piercing blower dyno. The graphics/vinyl room has been going round the clock it seems like. We’re still installing trailer wraps and various decals on most of the cars and even on our new Dodge Durango tow vehicles. Everyone is working very hard to make sure everything will be perfect for Pomona.

Well, it’s time to get ready for class. I’ll check-in next week from Pomona. Have a great Super Bowl weekend and enjoy the big game which is being played about 20 minutes away from the DSR shop in Indy. I plan on spending the weekend relaxing, watching the big football game on Sunday and anxiously awaiting next Thursday!

Hope everyone has a great day,

Megan

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Keeping up with Don Schumacher Racing

Happy Sunday. Sunday Funday or in this case, Sunday rest day. It has been an exhausting, but very productive five days for all seven of the Don Schumacher Racing teams. We just finished testing at Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Fla. Overall, all DSR teams had a very good test session and learned lots of useful information for this upcoming season that, we hope, leads to two DSR championships.

Thursday was a relatively quiet day for the teams as the U.S. Army and FRAM dragsters took the day off and the guys spent the day servicing the cars. After making 10 runs over two days, the guys need to get caught up in the various areas of the race car, clutch, supercharger, cylinder heads, rods and pistons, tires, etc. Since they weren’t making test laps, Tony Schumacher and crew chief Mike Green hit the links for a round of golf.

While most of our teams took it easy, the NAPA Auto Parts team of Ron Capps and crew chief Tim Richards were playing catch-up since Ron missed Tuesday filming the 2012 NAPA Know How commercials in Charlotte. They made four runs and the teams of Matt Hagan, Johnny Gray and Antron Brown made one pass as they spent most of the day servicing. I also took advantage of the somewhat quiet day of testing and spent the afternoon with my mom. It was a good mother-daughter bonding afternoon.

FRIDAY

One of my favorite parts of testing is the PRO Winter Warm-Up. PRO stands for the Professional Racers Organization and the group represents concerns of the race teams to NHRA. This is the second year that PRO has had a two-day open test session in South Florida, which is great because the NHRA pros only visit the Sunshine State once a year for the Gatornationals in March at Gainesville.

The gates to PBIR open to the public as the fans get to watch two sessions of side-by-side runs. All of our teams made one or two test runs Friday morning and then spent a few hours servicing the cars to make them race-ready for Friday night. I spent most of my time at the track on Friday night trying to post information for my Twitter and Facebook followers. If you’re not following me, what’s wrong with you?! JK or just kidding in text-speak. Since not everyone could be at the track in person, I wanted our great NHRA fans to get as close to the action as they can. A neat thing about testing at PBIR is that a lot of our friends and family get to join in on the fun. It’s always fun for Don and me to get to share our love for the sport with others.

My favorite moment from Friday night was when Spencer Massey and the FRAM team and Antron Brown sporting the Aaron’s Dream Machine colors squared off. Spencer won beating Antron by a slim margin. Spencer ran 3.812 seconds at 322.27 mph to nip Antron’s 3.815 at 324.20 mph. If this is any indication of the season to come, it is going to be a close, action-packed season. The U.S. Army car ran a great 3.810 and then in the first session, Antron was low of the night at 3.794-seconds on his second run. Another favorite moment was seeing “Fast Jack” Beckman and the Valvoline NextGen Funny Car running a 4.037 at 312.25. That was a personal-best for Jack and crew chief Rahn Tobler. “Tob” as we call him wins our best-dressed award for our crew chiefs. He’s very fashion savvy.

SATURDAY

Approximately 5,000 people came out to PBIR on Saturday night. It was such an amazing sight to see the stands completely packed with fans. We appreciate everyone coming out to see us run. Saturday started off relatively slow for DSR. Some of our Funny Cars made one or two runs in the morning, but really focused on being prepared for the two runs that took place at night. I went out to the track in the morning to watch some of the Funny Cars run and bring our guys lunch. Then I took a time out from the track to grab some lunch with my mom and Don. It was a nice to get some family time.

Once back at the track it was full speed ahead for all the teams. Our guys have worked their butts off this week and their hard work has definitely paid off. Overall, we ran very well on Saturday night. Johnny Gray and the Service Central team had the best run for the DSR floppers with a 4.085 at 311.99 mph. Out of the three DSR dragsters, Spencer Massey and the FRAM team had the quickest run of 3.792 seconds at 309.84 mph on the second run. After the PRO Winter Warm-up was completed, Don filmed a few interviews to be used by Freightliner. They provide our teams with tractors that haul our race and tech trailers. We had a videographer at the track for three days to acquire b-roll footage of the drivers and teams for our sponsors.

It is crazy to believe that there is only two plus weeks until we will be back racing in Pomona, Calif. for the first race of the season, the Winternationals, Feb. 9-12. Our teams have a lot of work ahead of them servicing all the parts they used during testing, analyzing all the new data they learned, and preparing for the new season to begin. Don left for a quick fishing trip with Mike Green, crew chief of the U.S. Army dragster and Phil Shuler co-crew chief of the FRAM dragster. I will keep you all posted on how their trip goes and we’ll see if they catch a bigger wahoo than Tommy D, Matt Hagan’s crew chief did with Don.

Not only will the teams be busy, but the front office as well. All the finishing touches have to be done to the races cars so they look nice and pretty for Pomona. We also have to finish wrapping trailers and race team awnings. It will be a busy two weeks before Pomona at DSR headquarters in Brownsburg and the Super Bowl is Indy, so Indy will be the focus of the sports world for a good week. It should be a lot of fun. I just hope Mother Nature cooperates.

Life is about to get a little bit busier for me as well. Besides keeping you up-to-date on what is going on at DSR, my second semester of my junior year in college begins tomorrow at Lynn University. I have been on my winter break for the past few weeks, but its time to get back to reality. Ugh… LOL Hitting the books and then in a few weeks hitting the race track for the Pomona and Phoenix races. Feel free to keep up with us on Facebook (facebook.com/shoeracing and facebook.com/meganfesselschumacherfanpage) and on Twitter (@shoeracing and @MeganFessSchu).

Thanks again for reading!

Megan