Graduation and a DSR Double-Up!

One week ago, the winner of the NHRA Southern Nationals was Mother Nature. Rain ruled the day on Friday and Saturday and NHRA officials were forced to postpone the event one week. So, instead of attending the rain-delayed Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., I graduated college with an honors degree in business.

I wrapped up my senior year at Lynn University, in Boca Raton, Fla on Tuesday, before getting a few days off to prepare for the graduation ceremony on Saturday. On Friday, my Mom and Don came down to visit me in Boca where I live, before we joined my Dad and step mom, Diane, and my Grandma and Grandpa for a family dinner. Don and I followed along with the race in Georgia through Twitter, Facebook and texts from our DSR team members. Well, Don followed along on texts and I read him what was going on on Twitter. I doubt we’ll see Don with a Twitter account.  

Saturday morning, I was so excited to get back to Lynn’s campus for graduation. But, my mind was also at Atlanta Dragway, excited to see how race day would go for DSR and my other friends at the track. We needed a rebound event from Houston after all seven of our teams struggled and failed to reach a final round at an event since the 2011 season.

I think I may have been the only one out of my classmates checking their phone for racing results every second I could. LOL It was a very proud moment for me walking across that stage and getting my diploma in front of my family, friends and 500 classmates. I was so glad that my entire family was able to attend. It means so much. I also knew that I had the support of all of our Don Schumacher Racing team in Atlanta. Many of our team members have known me most of my school career and some of our longer tenured crew members know me back to my grade school days. Some have even helped me with my homework along the way. I am so thankful for all of the support and congrats I have received from all our great, loyal NHRA fans as well, so thank you all.

After graduation we all hunkered down at the house in Stuart to watch the Southern Nationals on ESPN2. Thankfully, the women’s college softball game didn’t go too long after 8 p.m. It was a pizza and drag racing night for the Schumacher’s.

I knew what had happened, but it’s always fun to get home and relive the race on TV and this time I got to see all our teams and my friends race from afar. All seven of our cars advance past round one at Atlanta Dragway and that set up a few in-house DSR match-ups on E2 with Antron and Spencer and Ron and Johnny. Antron has won four times at Atlanta Ron won there last May flying the NAPA Brakes colors and that’s a very important race for NAPA as NAPA is headquartered in Atlanta. 

Antron got by Spencer and Tony fell to Doug Kalitta, so that set up a battle of the tool cars with AB and Doug and Antron was our final dragster left to try and win the race for us. We used to have the beer wars back in the day, now we have the tool wars and we’re glad the Matco Tools car won to get to the final round against Brandon. It was a rebound race for the Matco team after two straight first round losses.

In Funny Car, we were pretty bummed when Jack fell to Tim Wilkerson in round two. Jack was flying the tribute car to Don’s May 2 Hall of Fame induction and we were really hoping it would go some rounds. I think we’ll get to see that pretty blue car at least one more time this season. Fingers crossed. Thanks to all the fans for the support of Don’s car. It turned out great and congrats to our front office at DSR for making it all happen and surprising Don, which isn’t easy to do.

In our other E2 Funny Car matches, Matt and the yellow bullet Magnetti Mareli car won again, while Johnny Gray bounced back great and stopped Ron and the NAPA Brakes team from winning a second straight race at Atlanta Dragway. 

Matt got by Tim Wilkerson and Johnny edged Cruz Pedregon, the points leader, setting up an all-DSR final round and ensuring us of DSR win No. 204. That gave us the opportunity to double-up for the fourth time in seven races this season.

In the final round, Johnny used a great 4.07 from crew chief Rob Wendland to get by Matt and score his fifth career win, and then AB used a great 3.80 to win for the fifth time at Atlanta when Brandon Bernstein smoked the tires. What a great graduation gift to have a double-up and DSR win No. 205. It’s amazing that of Johnny’s five Funny Car wins, four have been double-ups with Antron.

I’m so excited to get back to the drag strip next weekend at Topeka. We want to send well-wishes to Brandon Bernstein and hope his back is feeling better. We also want to wish every Mom a Happy Mother's Day today! Thanks for reading and I’ll check in after the race at Heartland Park. Have a great week.

Megan

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A Hall of Fame Induction to Remember

It’s been a very exciting and busy few days for us at Schumacher Racing. We started our race week earlier than normal by flying into Atlanta on Wednesday. We were invited to The World of Coca-Cola for the annual NHRA/Coca-Cola partners dinner for all the NHRA champions. Coke invites current and past NHRA champions for an evening of dinner and mingling. My Mom, Don and I were joined by three of our champions, Jack, Mat, and Antron, along with Antron’s wife, Billie Jo. Many other past champions were there like Larry Dixon, Jeg Coughlin, Matt Smith, Eddie Krawiec, Andrew Hines, Jason Line, Greg Anderson and Cruz Pedregon. It’s always a great evening to mingle with the series sponsor of NHRA’s premier division.

On Thursday morning we headed over to Talladega, Ala. for another exciting day. Don found out last June that he was going to be inducted as part of the 2013 class of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame near Talladega Superspeedway. It’s an amazing honor. He joined eleven other NHRA members as part of the Hall. I surprised Don on Thursday morning with a video montage looking back on his years in the NHRA. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the link: YouTube

When we got to Talladega, we headed to a luncheon honoring the Hall of Fame inductees. Don was joined by Rick Hendrick, Dale Inman and Rusty Wallace. We were able to enjoy lunch and than Don and the other inductees had some media obligations to tend to. 

Following lunch, it was time to start getting ready for the black-tie event that evening. I always love being able to get dressed up. We headed over to the Talladega Superdome for the Hall of Fame induction. The night kicked off with a reception before the induction ceremony. During the reception, we surprised Don with a Hall of Fame tribute Funny Car, replicating the 1970 ‘Cuda Funny Car that he won the U.S. Nationals with. That car was to be raced this weekend in Commerce, by Jack Beckman and the Valvoline NextGen/MTS team, but now it will have to wait until next weekend to hit the track.

Don was so shocked and very touched by the surprise paint scheme. It isn’t often we can pull off such a big surprise without him knowing. Kudos to everyone at DSR who worked so hard to get the car done in time. Not only did we wrap a Funny Car, but had a helmet pained for Jack that looks like one of Don’s old helmets, along with a firesuit for Jack and crew shirts for the team. Following the reception, it was time for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Tony introduced Don during the ceremony. Tony gave a great speech about how blessed we are to have Don as a father and how he inspired Tony’s racing career. Than it was Don’s turn for his Hall of Fame induction speech. Don talked about how he started out his career basically him and one other guy traveling to almost 90 races a year including match races. Don lives by a saying “the harder you work, the luckier you get,” and that was the focus of his induction speech.

Following the speeches by all four inductees the ceremony was over and Don was officially a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. It was such a proud night and it was so amazing to see Don be recognized for all his hard work. I loved being able to look around the room during the ceremony and see all our amazing family surrounding us. All of our close friends, family, drivers, crew chiefs and sponsors were able to attend the Hall of Fame induction and support Don. It was a night that none of us will ever be able to forget and we’re so glad more than 60 people were able to join in on Don’s induction.To see photos from the induction ceremony, check out my Facebook page. 

We headed to Commerce on Friday morning, just in time to sit in the rain. The rain didn’t let up on Friday so qualifying was called. They did get in almost one full round of Pro Stock. We arrived to the track on Saturday morning with a forecast giving us a 90% chance of rain today and a 100% chance of rain on Sunday. It was a down pour when we got to the track on Saturday and the race was called by 10 a.m. and rescheduled for next weekend.

Qualifying will take place on Friday, with two runs being made at 2 and 4 p.m. Race day will take place on Saturday with Sunday/Mother’s Day being a fallback day in case of more weather. Races never usually happen on Mother’s Day. This will be the first race day in years that I will be missing because on Saturday, I will be graduating from college at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. An exciting day, but I am also bummed to be missing the race. Hopefully, our teams will be able to earn two Wally trophies as a graduation and early birthday present. Wally’s make excellent gifts! LOL. 

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your weekend and week.

Megan

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Tough Weekend in the Lone-Star State

There were only a few short days between the Four Wide Nationals and our race in Baytown, Texas. A few DSR teams tested on Monday after the Charlotte race before making their way into Texas on Wednesday. Matt Hagan and his team made a pit stop at a Rocky Boots vendor store in Texas on Wednesday before heading to the track. They fired up their Funny Car and Matt signed autographs for the fans and employees. I couldn’t think of a more perfect sponsor for Matt than Rocky Boots.  

On Thursday, Johnny and Matt got the experience of a lifetime, joining fellow Funny Car driver Bob Tasca at NASA’s Johnson Space Center near Clear Lake. They got to tour NASA and even got to try some space food. They raved about what an amazing time they had. What a cool experience for them. I may have to do that next year.

Don and I flew into Houston early on Friday morning, than headed to the track for qualifying. Jack and Antron led Friday’s qualifying efforts for DSR. Antron and the Matco Tools team ended up number four after the two sessions, with Spencer behind them at seven and Tony at No. 14. It was the first time so far this season that the teams had to deal with humid conditions. There were a ton of water grains in the air.

In Funny Car, the Valvoline NextGen team with Jack ended up forth, with Matt sitting at six, Ron No. 11, and Johnny No. 14. We were all very excited to see what Saturday’s qualifying sessions would have in store, but I guess Mother Nature wasn’t.

Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the track Saturday morning to mist, which later turned into rain. By the afternoon we had lightening, thunder and buckets of rain, which cancelled qualifying. There was even marble sized hail in some areas. Leaving the track, it was raining so hard; some people were pulling over because the visibility was so terrible. We were bummed to not have those extra two passes because we knew it would be a challenging track with the humidity and sun. Also, we were supposed to be qualifying live on ESPN2 for the first time in the 13-year NHRA/ESPN relationship. 

We awoke to clear blue skies on Sunday morning and were excited to get to the track and see NHRA’s Safety Safari hard at work prepping the track for first round. That’s a hard working group of men and women. They were at the Baytown track prepping at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We have to give major kudos to Safety Safari for all the hard work they do to keep our race tracks safe and raceable.

First round kicked off with Spencer earning the win against Brandon Bernstein, he was the lone DSR dragster to pass the first round after Tony and Antron lost with tire smoke. We saw lots of pedal fests in both Top Fuel and Funny car on Sunday. It was like drag racing back in the 60s when Don started racing with loss of traction, tire smoke and pedal fests. It was the first time ever that Antron and Tony had lost in the first round at the same race.

Our Funny Car’s fared better than our dragsters in round one with Johnny, Jack and Ron earning the wins. One of our woes of the shortened qualifying was that Ron and Matt had to meet in E1. We try to avoid those in-house matches in the opening round. They also were the last pair of nitro cars to race down the challenging Houston track. It was a much-needed win for the NAPA guys after three straight first round losses. 

Ron and his NAPA team was the lone survivor the second round for DSR, carrying the DSR banner into the semifinals against the wily veteran/tuner Tim Wilkerson . There was a ton of action in the pits as ESPN started covering the event live starting at the semis. Our guys were working extremely hard to get the car turned around in 50 minutes and the teams all did a great job.

I was in awe of the teamwork I saw, guys from our six other DSR teams were in the NAPA pit just in case they needed any last minute assistance and of course we documented everything on social media. ESPN did a great job of utilizing Twitter and fan interaction during the weekend and #NHRALive was even trending on Twitter!

Ron and the NAPA smoked the tires and lost to Tim Wilkerson in the semis and it was a rare early ending for us. Yesterday marked the first time in 39 races (Joliet 2011) that we did not have a car in the finals. We weren’t happy with not having a finalist during the live racing, but that’s the great thing about NHRA racing, you can’t expect to win. We’ll do our best for a rebound at Atlanta next weekend.

After we were done for the day Don and I headed to the airport to fly back to Florida. We have a very busy and exciting week ahead. I have three of my finals for college on Tuesday before heading up to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta for the annual champion’s dinner on Wednesday. Then Thursday, we’re off to Talladega, Ala. for the exciting Hall of Fame inductions. Don will be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame class of 2013. Joining Don in the 2013 class of inductees will be Rick Hendrick, Dale Inman and Rusty Wallace. It’s very exciting and we have some really neat things in store for later in the week, so make sure you’re following along to @ShoeRacing and @MeganFessSchu on Twitter.

We will be back on the track on Friday in Commerce, Ga. at Atlanta Dragway. We hope to see some of you out there at “Georgia’s House of Speed.” Check back next week for more behind-the-scenes scoop from DSR!

Thanks for reading,

Megan

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A 4-Wide Double Up!

We just finished racing Four-Wide at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC, outside of Charlotte. This race track is special because it is the only track we race at with four lanes. In fact, zMax Dragway is the only drag strip with four lanes in the world. Once a year, we get to race four-wide. It is 40,000 horsepower racing down the track and it is truly indescribable. It’s incredible. The fans love it. The attendance on Saturday and Sunday was terrific.

I flew into Charlotte early Friday morning to strong winds and cloudy, gray skies. We thought we may get a round of professional qualifying in, but during Pro Stock Four Wide qualifying the skies opened. Mother Nature dumped buckets of rain on zMax and we were done for the day. That left the teams with only two runs on Saturday to get qualified, which definitely adds pressure.

We woke up Saturday morning to sunny blue skies and cooler temperatures and all of us were eager after the rainout on Friday to get on track and see what the cars would run. We saw a little bit of everything when it came to qualifying on Saturday. All three of our dragsters were able to qualify and three of our Funny Cars.

Unfortunately, Johnny Gray and our Pitch Energy team didn’t make it into the show after a few tough runs. With Johnny not qualifying in Concord, it ended his 38-race qualifying streak. The last time Johnny DNQ’d was at the Chicago race in 2011. Johnny also held the longest qualifying steak of all of our Don Schumacher Racing Funny Cars. Jack qualified third in the Valvoline NextGen Dodge to lead our floppers and Spencer in the Battery Extender team were second to lead our dragsters.

Following qualifying, I grabbed dinner with my Mom, Don and some friends before heading to bed early to get rested up for race day. Eliminations at zMax Dragway began at noon, instead of the normal 11:00 a.m. start time, which gives everyone an extra hour to prepare for the day ahead, and an extra hour of sleep. We kicked off our day at Starbucks, our usual race day tradition. Once we were at the track, we got breakfast and I got some pictures of our guys hard at work for Twitter and Instagram.

Before we knew it we were up on the starting line beginning first round of eliminations. Spencer, Antron, Brandon Bernstein and TJ Zizzo were the third quad of the first round of Top Fuel. Spencer and Brandon turned on the win lights. A big bummer for the Matco Tools team, but luckily they don’t have long to wait for redemption at Houston where Antron scored his first career Top Fuel win back in 2008. Tony and the U.S. Army team were able to get the win light along with Shawn Langdon, that quad closed out the first round of Top Fuel.

In Funny Car, our three Funny Cars were all in the same quad along with Dale Creasy Jr. Dale Creasy Jr. was shut off on the starting line leaving it to our three Don Schumacher Racing teammates to battle it out for the two win lights. Matt and Jack turned on the win lights. The NAPA Auto Parts team of Ron Capps lost. It’s rare to see the NAPA team with three straight first round losses, so they tested today to get their Napa Know How back on track for Houston where they went to the final round last year

In the semis, both Tony and Spencer advanced to the Top Fuel foursome final against Shawn and Brandon. In Funny Car, we had Matt post low ET of the second round and he was up against surprise finalists Chad Head, Blake Alexander and Tim Wilkerson. Matt was looking to end a 27-race winless streak since Pomona 2 of 2011 when he won the Full Throttle Championship.

In the finals, Hector Arana, Jr. and Mike Edwards won in the Pro Stock classes before track prep and nitro finals. Matt scored the runaway win after Chad and Tim lost traction. Matt was so excited and slammed the escape hatch on his yellow and blue Mopar/Magneti Marelli Dodge before doing a funny, shimmy dance on top of the car. That Matt Hagan, he’s a character.

In Top Fuel, Spencer and Tony both threw down 3.77s as Langdon and Brandon smoked the tires. The result was the same as last year as Spencer edged Tony for his second straight Four-Wide victory and first of the season for the Battery Extender team. Fun fact, Spencer won his first ever Top Fuel race five years ago yesterday. Those were win Nos. 202 and 203 for DSR. We’re now just 15 wins shy from tying JFR at 218 wins for the most NHRA wins. Also, now all three of our dragsters are qualified for the Traxxas Shootout and three of our four Funny Cars.

Today, a few of our teams tested (Antron, Johnny and Ron) and after that they all packed up and started their journey to Baytown, Texas for race number two of our first three in a row of the season. We will be racing in Baytown, which is outside of Houston, this weekend at Royal Purple Raceway. Hope you all have a great week and I will check in next week from the Lone Star State.

Thanks for reading,

Megan

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Winning Las Vegas

We just finished our fourth race of this 2013 Mello Yello NHRA season in Las Vegas. Our first of two trips to Sin City. We always begin our weekends in Las Vegas with the NHRA Fan Fest at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino on Thursday nights. This year it was inside the hotel in the Staten Island Room rather than outside on the Brooklyn Bridge. It is always a lot of fun to see the fans come out and get the drivers autographs and take pictures. We had a great turnout, so thanks to all you fans who came on out to see us. The NHRA fans are so great and they were lined up at least 90 minutes before the 6 p.m. autograph session began.

After the NHRA Fan Fest, I went to dinner with some friends at the Sugar Factory, which is near the Paris Hotel. We were able to get an outdoor table and take in the sights and sounds of the Las Vegas strip. Vegas is always an amazing place to people watch. Following dinner, it was off to bed after a long day filled of school and traveling.

Friday we saw warm conditions at the track, probably the warmest so far this year. In the first qualifying session, Johnny Gray’s Pitch Energy Funny Car became a convertible after an explosion caused him to lose the body off of the car. Much like Matt Hagan at Charlotte, that’s the second time that Johnny has lost a body at Las Vegas. It was a brief scary moment, but Johnny was able to get the car to a stopped and was A-ok for Q2 on Friday evening under the lights at The Strip at LVMS. The team worked very hard to get the car ready for the second qualifying session, which ultimately landed them in the number three spot after Friday, with our other floppers landing four through six.

In the second session of Top Fuel qualifying Antron jumped to the number one spot with a great 3.78 second pass. Tony and the U.S. Army team were right behind him running a 3.807. Spencer ended up on the provisional bump spot at No. 12 after smoking the tires on Friday night. Sitting 1-2 in Top Fuel was a nice ending to a very long day at the track. There’s just something about Vegas and delays.

Saturday morning started bright and early, and I was able to get some homework done at the track before qualifying began at 1 p.m. We saw some interesting runs on Saturday. Not much changed in the qualifying order. It was a hot track and we had some long clean ups which made for another long day. Antron and the Matco Tools team were able to hold on to their provisional pole after the qualifying sessions on Saturday. All of our other teams were able to qualify and were able to go into race day without any in-house DSR match-ups.

Following qualifying, it was girls night with my friends Alex, Courtney and Sarah. We grabbed dinner at Fix and then frozen yogurt for dessert. Then it was time for bed to get ready for race day.

We kicked off our race day Sunday with our annual team photo shoot at the top end of the race track. It’s always hard to get all of our drivers and Don at the same place at the same time, but we were able to make it happen, take some pictures and have some laughs before eliminations began. We finally had all our drivers in their 2013 crew shirts for the photo shoot with the Nevada mountains as the backdrop. We’ll share the photos with you later this week.

In the first round, our three dragsters were able to advance. In Funny Car, three of our cars made it through. Ron Capps and the NAPA team lost a very close race to Del Worsham. Johnny, Matt and Jack were able to turn on win lights and head to round two.

The second round supplied lots of tire smoke and also last minute lane swaps. Our three dragsters were able to get by in some close races. Both Spencer and Antron won pedal fests. The three dragster wins lead to a Tony and Spencer semifinal with Tony getting the win. Antron had Terry McMillian in the semis with Antron and the Matco Tools team earning the win light to advance to a second straight final.

In the second round, Jack and Matt had to race each other, with Matt taking the win. Johnny lost in a tire smoking match-up with Cruz Pedregon. In the semifinals in Funny Car, Matt smoked the tires and lost to Courtney Force. Leading her to her second final of the year against Cruz Pedregon. Cruz took a dramatic win in the final round after struggling to back up from the burnout. It was a replay of last year’s Auto Club Finals in November.

In the battle of our DSR teammates, The U.S. Army team was able to deliver a great birthday present to crew chief Mike Green by turning on the win light against Antron. It was cool to see Tony and the team win on Mike’s birthday. Antron’s car dropped a hole at the step and that was what doomed the Matco team in a close race. It was our 201st NHRA event win! 

We stayed around for some winner’s circle activities before heading to the airport to catch our red-eye flight back to Florida. We got back home early this morning and I had to spend this afternoon getting some dental work done. I am exhausted and ready to get a good night sleep before it is back to class bright and early tomorrow morning.

A few of our teams tested after the morning rain blew out of Las Vegas. The other teams left for home and started the long journey back to our race shop in Brownsburg, Ind. We have this weekend off before heading to Charlotte for the Four Wide Nationals. As zMax Dragway at Concord says, it’s better with four! We hope to see you guys out there, at what should be a great race at an even greater facility.

Have a great week and thank you for reading!

Megan

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200 Wins!

I spent the weekend before Gainesville indulging in some much-needed time off during our spring break at Lynn University. My final spring break before graduating in May. I spent my spring break in the Dominican Republic where I got to golf, fish and just get in some R&R. After a few days in paradise it was time to get back to reality. I spent my week leading up to Gainesville in class before heading up to the track on Friday morning with Don. We have a house in Stuart, Fla., a few hours away from Gainesville, so Gainesville Raceway has become a home track for us.

We saw some tricky track conditions on Friday, especially in the first session, but our teams were able to navigate the lanes successfully. Leading DSR's qualifying efforts on Friday was Johnny Gray and his Pitch Energy team. They were qualified second going into Saturday with a great 4.071-second run. In Top Fuel, the Matco Tools team ran the third quickest pass of the by running a 3.812 second run at 321 mph. It's great to see how quickly Antron's team bounced back after Pomona

Saturday we saw even warmer conditions, which lead to another interesting day of qualifying. We started the day with Don presenting the Matco Tools and Valvoline teams their 2012 NHRA championship rings. It was an exciting moment for both of our teams. I am so proud of what all of our teams accomplish and it is cool to see the guys rewarded for their hard work. We saw a lot of emotion for two first-time championship teams. Following the ring presentation it was time for Qs 3 and 4. 

We didn't see too many changes in qualifying on Saturday until the last session or Q4. Antron took the number one spot with a great 3.787 until Doug Kalitta took it away with a little bit better of a pass just one pair later at 3.77-seconds. Tony ended up fifth, with Spencer right behind him in sixth going into race day. In Funny Car, unfortunately all our teams ended up on the same side of the ladder with a DSR vs. DSR match-up, Jack vs. Ron. We try to avoid that especially in the first round, but that's racing! It even happened in the JFR camp with John racing Courtney in E1 on Sunday. 

Following qualifying, I was able to enjoy a nice dinner at Bonefish Grill and some quality time with my Grandparents who came up from Sarasota to see the races. Following that I was able to squeeze in some homework and get some rest for Sunday. I have some big tests this week and needed to get some studying in. 

We awoke on Sunday to really foggy conditions, which thankfully burned off just in time for the start of race day. It was so foggy, you couldn't see the scoreboards from the starting line. We saw some interesting results in the first round. Tony and the U.S. Army team lost as well as Ron Capps and his NAPA team. It's very rare for the Army dragster to smoke the tires at the hit and Ron had to pedal the NAPA Filters FC and that let "Fast Jack" speed around for the win. After the two doubled-up in Phoenix it was a real bummer to see them go out first round. They were both atop Mike Dunn's NHRA Power Rankings.

 In second round, Spencer and Antron won their races setting up another in-house DSR race. Spencer raced against Shawn Langdon and Antron against Steve Torrence. In Funny Car, we had another teammate contest with Jack against Matt. Jack and his Valvoline NextGen team took the close win over Matt's new yellow and blue colors. Johnny Gray won his match-up against Alexis Dejoria with another great run for his Pitch Energy team. The beautiful orange Funny Car was like a bracket car all weekend. We were ensured a finalist in both nitro classes, which gave us a shot at earning our 200th win.

In the semifinals, Antron won in a close race with Spencer 3.77 to 3.79 and Johnny beat Jack, who smoked the tires. Antron was going against the revitalized Clay Millican and Johnny against the 2011 Top Fuel champ Del Worsham, who's back in a Funny Car at Kalitta Motorsports. We were so excited and also nervous for the final round, knowing we could hit that elusive 200-win mark. Only JFR has done it and they have 218 wins. We really wanted to get it out of the way and not have to dwell on it.

Heading up for the final I had butterflies in my stomach. I knew we had two great hot rods, great teams, but faced some stiff competition. We had a bunch of our friends and family in attendance and were really hoping we would be able to get at least one win for them.

After we saw Johnny turn on the win light, our 199th, I knew we just needed one more. Antron made another great run and low ET of the weekend at 3.761, earning DSR's 200th NHRA win, 100 of them being Top Fuel wins. It was an amazing moment that we were so excited to be able to share with our teams, friends and family. Right before Antron staged the car, I took a look back at the starting line and you could feel the excitement and love. Turning on that win light and being able to celebrate with everyone was a moment I won't soon forget. It was as exciting as winning a championship.

I have been a part of 195 of the 200 wins. Five of the wins were from Don's driving career in the 70s. It is hard to put into words what a proud feeling it is to have been able to accomplish such a feat. We have been blessed with the most amazing team members who have worked countless hours to make this possible. To be able to double-up the past two race weekends, and earn 200 wins as an organization is incredible. It was a very fun winner's circle and our front office had 200 red DSR 200th Win hats made up for our entire team.

Thank you fans for all of your messages of support, we appreciate them all and your never-ending support. Gainesville 2013 is a weekend we will never forget.

Here's to 200 more... Hey, it doesn't hurt to be ambitious, right?

Thanks for reading,

Megan

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Doubling-Up in Phoenix!

Our post-Pomona week got off to a rough start with our golden retriever, Comet, passing on Monday. He was such a great dog and passed so quickly, but we were thankful to be able to say our final goodbye once we got home from Pomona. Mom, Don and I were eager to get out to Phoenix for the race. We got into town late Thursday after I completed my school day in Florida. Our teams stayed out West during the week servicing parts from Pomona and preparing for Phoenix, especially the Matco Tools team.

We saw more cool temperatures in Arizona, which led to some great racing and performances. It was chilly all three days, jacket weather. After Antron’s horrific crash last Sunday in Pomona, his Matco Tools team worked hard to get the spare dragster ready for Phoenix. They put in some long hours and all the hard work paid off. After the two sessions of qualifying on Friday Antron earned the provisional pole by running a 3.765 second pass on a brand new race car. Tony was a close second after the first day of qualifying running at 3.768.

In Funny Car, Johnny Gray and the Pitch Energy team posted a 4.034-second pass earning the provisional number one spot. Matt Hagan was second running a great 4.062-second run at 311mph. Johnny’s guys have the tune-up for Phoenix because it’s the second straight year they go the pole at Firebird. It’s also great to see the Mopar FC team returning to form. Matt will be back in the winner’s circle real soon.

On Saturday, Don and I kicked off the day with a trip to Sprinkles Cupcakes to pick up cupcakes for our teams. It is one of our favorite places and a must stop anytime we are near a Sprinkles. After we got to the track it was time to gear up for qualifying after delivering the cupcakes to the trailers, of course. Most of the order stayed status quo except for Top Fuel where Doug Kalitta laid down a great 3.733-second pass to take the No. 1 spot from Antron. We qualifying ended, we were happy that the ladder had no DSR vs. DSR matchups.

We were all anxious and excited for race day on Sunday. After our rough weekend last week in California we were ready for a good, safe, fast and successful race day for DSR. And that it was!

The first round of eliminations on Sunday were wacky to say the least, thankfully, we were able to go five for seven and that’s a pretty good average given the tough competition. All three dragsters won their match-ups. It was great to see Spencer and the Schumacher Battery Extender car win from the No. 16 spot. In Funny Car, things got interesting. Johnny raced Robert Hight in a pedal fest, got the win light but because he touched the wall with the quarter panel of his beautiful orange Funny Car his run was thrown out, giving Hight the win. Jack and his pretty MTS camo Funny Car with the Mail for Wounded Warriors program smoked the tires at the hit and unfortunately lost. It’s been a tough start to ’13 for Jack. Ron and Matt earned win lights in their first round match-ups and they went on to keep getting those win lights.

We saw more pedal fests and interesting racing in the round two. All three dragsters were able to advance with great times in the 3.70s and so did Matt and Ron. We were very excited to have five of our teams in the semifinals. Following Spencer’s tire-smoking loss to Morgan Lucas, Tony turned on the win light with a hole shot win over Antron in a real close race. Ron got the win over Tim Wilkerson laying down a stellar 4.03 and Matt scored the win in a good drag race with John Force. Leading to an all-DSR Funny Car final and which guaranteed win No. 197 for DSR.

In the all-DSR Funny Car final, it was Ron and the NAPA Auto Parts machine turning on the win light with some of that NAPA Know How from Rahn Tobler. After a rough season last year it was great to see Matt bouncing back.

In Top Fuel, Tony beat Morgan in a pedal fest, which was Tony’s 70^th career win. It was a tricky race track all day long so we were so excited that our U.S. Army team was able to earn the win, leading DSR to its 198^th win. We’re now just two wins shy from 200 and that could happen at Gainesville! Following time in the winner’s circle at Firebird we headed to the airport to catch a flight back home to Florida.

Our teams are currently on their journey back to Indy. We have two off weekends before our next race in Gainesville so our guys will be busy at the race shop working on the cars and enjoying some downtime and family time after being gone for two weeks. I am going to head up to Indy early Friday morning to visit the shop and get some work done. Any opportunity I get to head to the race shop, I take. I love being there and being able to see everyone at the shop.  Well, it’s time for me to head to class! Have a great week!

Until next time, be sure to “like” me on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter and Instagram (@MeganFessSchu).

Thanks for reading,

Megan

Kicking off the NHRA Season

Hello again. We just completed our first of 24 races in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello NHRA Season in Pomona, Calif. We were all very eager to get back to the track and to racing after the brief off-season. We all felt very motivated going into Pomona, as the last time we were at this track we were able to take home two championships.

We started qualifying on Thursday and I missed being at the track because of school. Mom and I arrived late Thursday night. That morning Tony and Antron had appearances for the Army and before the first qualifying session at 2:30 p.m., NHRA hosted its first-ever public press conference in the pits at Pomona. We had four of our drivers there, Antron, Tony, Jack and Ron. It was really neat for the fans to get up close and see what normally just the media has access to. After day one, Tony and his U.S. Army team led our three dragsters being the second quickest of the day with a 3.777-second pass at 326 mph. Out of our four Funny Car’s Johnny Gray and his Pitch Energy team led the pack with a great 4.087-second run at 308 mph.

I woke up Friday morning so eager to get to the track and kick off the 2013 season. Testing is fun, but it’s not a national event. I started my day with a girl’s breakfast with my friends Courtney and Sarah before heading to the track. Like Thursday, we only made one qualifying pass. It’s the unique Pomona schedule due to noise.

Tony and his U.S. Army Top Fueler made the quickest run of the day with a 3.758 elapsed time. When Tony went to deploy the parachutes, they had a malfunction and didn’t open, which sent Tony into the sand trap. Fortunately, Tony and the car were very sandy, but just fine. The team worked hard to get the car cleaned up and ready for the two passes on Saturday. Jack led the DSR Funny Cars after day two of qualifying with a great 4.045-second run to give DSR two provisional poles. It was a great run for the Funny Car champ and his Valvoline NextGen Team.

Following qualifying, my friend Alex Baca (now Medina), brought her one-month old baby girl, Frankie Marie, to come visit all her soon-to-be friends. You know Alex as the host of NHRA Now. She is one of my closest friends and I was so excited to be able to meet her new adorable baby. She is a precious little girl. Following some visits from friends at the track. I joined Alex, Frankie and Alex’s husband, Bobby, for a great dinner before bedtime.

I kicked off my Saturday by making a Starbucks run with Don, our race weekend tradition, before heading to the track. Saturday was a pretty exciting day of qualifying. Tony and the U.S. Army team proved that they are Army Strong with a stellar qualifying effort, earning “the Sarge” the top spot going into race day. It was his 72nd career pole.

Jack Beckman and the Valvoline Next Gen/MTS lead our four Funny Cars in qualifying and had the pole, until Courtney Force ran a great 4.036 Saturday afternoon, bumping Jack to No. 2. During qualifying on Saturday, Valvoline presented Jack with a Valvoline-themed surfboard as a gift for winning the ’12 Funny Car World Championship. Jack has always enjoyed surfing having grown up in Southern California. What a thoughtful gift for winning the championship from a great longtime DSR sponsor.

Following the day at the track, I went to ShoGun, an amazing Japanese steakhouse near the track, with my Mom, Don and some family friends. We had a great meal before going to bed to rest up for race day. I love race day as Alan Reinhart always says.

On Sunday morning, my Mom, Don and I met with our team photographer Richard Shute from Auto Imagery for a photo shoot at the top end of the track. Picture are soon to come! After that, it was time for the cars to warm-up and then driver introductions.  Being that it was the first race day of the season, everyone had lots of butterflies and was very eager to get the day going.

Our first round went pretty well. Five of our seven teams advanced with only Spencer and Jack losing close races. It was an ugly round of Funny Car, but we batted .750 in round one of the floppers. The winning teams raced back to the pits and got to work and before we knew it was time for second round.

We had an absolutely terrifying few moment in round two. While racing against David Grubnic, Antron had a horrifying crash. While all of our hearts stopped on the starting line, Antron was able to get out of the canopy on his Matco Tools dragster and he walked away. The team, Don, other DSR team members, and I headed down to top end to see Antron and the destruction. We are thanking the lucky stars that Antron was uninjured and the new Aerodine canopy kept AB safe and sound.

The fact that Antron was able to walk away from the accident unhurt just goes to show how safe our race cars truly are. I cannot put into words the feeling of watching a car crash; it is one of the most scariest, sad and helpless feelings. I was so relieved to be able to see Antron. One of the first things he asked was if he had won the race, and he did. However, NHRA policy states that you must race with the same car all day. The Matco team will focus on getting the spare car ready for the next race. Tony was given a single in the semis to race against Shawn Langdon in the finals. Antron joked with the crew to stop worrying about him and get his backup car ready for the semis. He always seems to know how to say the right thing and make everyone smile.

In round two of Funny Car, Johnny and Ron both won their match-ups. Matt and his Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car smoked the tires and he lost to Courtney Force. In the semis, it was a match-up of the teammates. Johnny had lane choice over Ron, with the NAPA team earning the win running a great 4.03 to Johnny’s 4.05. It was a fantastic drag race. In the finals, Ron met up with Courtney in a rematch of the semifinals last November at Pomona.

In the finals, we unfortunately came up zero for two. Courtney Force turned on the win light against a tire-smoking Napa Know How machine. Courtney is one of my good friends, so as much as I wanted the win, I was excited that she could earn her second career win with all of her friends and family watching at her home track. Tony lost a close final round to Shawn Langdon in a tremendous race 3.72 to 3.74. If today was any indication, it is going to be one crazy, exciting NHRA Mello Yello racing season!

After a very long, exhausting, and emotional day at the track, my Mom, Don and I rushed to the airport to catch a red-eye flight home. On Saturday afternoon, we got a phone call from home that our 12-year-old Golden Retriever, Comet, had an extremely high temperature and was at the emergency vet. We found out Sunday morning that Comet had cancer. We were so eager to get home to him. We went to the vet as soon as it opened this morning and Comet passed away a little bit later. We are so thankful we got to say goodbye. He was the best dog ever, an avid swimmer, who loved everyone he met. We will miss him more than words can explain. Needless to say, it has been a rough 48 hours.

Fortunately for all of us Nitro addicts, we don’t have to wait long for the next race. We will be racing in Chandler, Ariz. this weekend, outside of Phoenix. Hope to see some of you out there. In the meantime, feel free to “like” me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and Instagram (@MeganFessSchu). Have a great week.

Thanks for reading,

Megan           

Gearing up for Pomona

Can you believe that we are just about a week away from the start of the 2013 Mello Yello NHRA season at Pomona? All of us at Don Schumacher Racing can’t wait for the season to begin. After our test session a few weeks ago at PBIR, everyone in the shop has been working very hard to get all of our teams ready for the season-opener, Feb. 14-17, at Pomona.

While the teams have been servicing parts and mounting new bodies, the front office and hospitality staff has been busy finalizing trailer wraps and vinyl on our race cars. That will continue until the teams load up for Pomona this weekend. Most of our teams will leave the shop next Monday and park at Pomona on Wednesday. Both Jack Beckman and Johnny Gray’s teams will test in Las Vegas before Pomona, so they will leave the shop on Saturday and I’m sure most of the guys are eager to leave cold, snowy Indy for sun and warmth out west.

I began my second semester of my senior year of college the week following testing. So I have been busy getting back into the swing of life as a college student. Most of my free time has been spent doing homework and spending time prepping for the start of race season.

While I’ve been studying, Don spent last week in the Bahamas at Cat Island with some of his friends. They were in a Wahoo fishing tournament at Hawk’s Nest Marina. Don and his friends came in forth place with 76 pounds of wahoo, missing third place by less than two pounds of fish. Wahoo is one of Don’s favorite fish to catch as they put up a great fight, have razor sharp teeth and are great eating, but the ocean was very rough with 10 to 15-foot waves during the tournament. That made the fishing challenging, but they still had a great time. Now Don is back to work with Schumacher Electric and DSR getting the teams geared up for Pomona.

Over the weekend we announced that Dickie Venables would be the crew chief on Matt Hagan’s Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car. The team had some great runs during testing at PBIR, so I know they are all eager to get back on track in Pomona. Dickie and Rahn Tobler, crew chief on the NAPA Funny Car, are great friends, so we know they’ll work well together. On Saturday afternoon we announced that we will indeed have three dragsters and Spencer Massey will return for his third season with the team. When we found out that FRAM/Prestone was leaving the sport after the 2012 season we committed to our team that they would be racing in 2013. That team has been a championship contender the past two seasons so we are excited to see what this year will have in store for them as we are confident that with Todd and Phil turning they will making another title run.

I spent Super Bowl Sunday at home with my Mom, Don, family and friends watching the Puppy Bowl and the Super Bowl. We are dog lovers so we always enjoy seeing all the cute dogs in the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. Every year I really enjoy watching the Super Bowl. It is always fun to see the teams compete and also watch all of the commercials, and, of course, the halftime show. This year, we spent much of the game checking out the San Francisco 49ers sidelines for Ron Capps, who was there for KBNR, which is a radio station in the Bay area. Instead of playing the game Where is Waldo, we played, where is Ron? LOL It was a fantastic game all the way down to the punt return to end the game.

I can’t wait to be back at the track in a few short days. I hope everyone has a great week. If you aren’t doing so already be sure to “like” me on Facebook, and “follow” me on Twitter and Instagram (@MeganFessSchu).

Thanks for reading,

Megan

Testing in West Palm Beach

Hello again. We just completed a near week of testing at Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Fla. as the kickoff to the 2013 NHRA season. It was a busy week with the teams making multiple laps daily. It is safe to say that all of us at DSR are getting excited to get the 2013 NHRA Mello Yellow season underway. It’s going to be a great one for the race teams and fans. If you thought last year was exciting, 2013 should be no different. Before I talk about the PRO Winter Warm-Up, I’ll go back to last weekend when I visited the famed Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It was a girls trip along with my friends Courtney Force and Sarah Adams of JFR. You all know Courtney as the 2012 NHRA Rookie of the Year and Sarah is her publicist. We might be rivals on the track, but we’re good friends off it. We had never been to the Chili Bowl before so we were eager to check out another form of auto racing, this time dirt track sprint cars. We all loved it and had a blast checking out a new form of racing. We wore shirts that said, “From the drags to the dirt.” LOL We definitely were not used to having to shield our faces from dirt, for us, its normally tire rubber, smoke, and the potent smell of nitromethane. We had a great weekend in Tulsa seeing the race, having quality girl time and meeting new friends from sprint car racing.  After our weekend was over, we headed back to West Palm Beach to get ready for testing at PBIR.

 DSR began testing on Tuesday, except for the Army car, which started on Wednesday as they tested last month in December. The Matco Tools team debuted their new canopy on Antron’s car to match the Army dragster. Antron had made one pass last year in Tony’s dragster year at PBIR testing. Tuesday also marked the start of Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler as Matt Hagan’s new crew chiefs on the Mopar and Rocky Boots Funny Cars. I went to the track for a half-day Tuesday, before picking up my friend and DSR social media expert, Leah Vaughn at the airport. We were able to sneak in some girl time, get some sun and have a great dinner at Benihana’s before a busy few days at the track.

Leah and I woke up Wednesday morning and headed down to the track for day two of testing. Leah and I spent a lot of time getting content for DSR’s social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We also got content for future projects. So stay tuned race fans! Following a long day at the track I joined my Mom and Don at dinner, hung out with our dogs and got some much needed rest. The weather was great all weekend until yesterday when Mother Nature got the best of us.

On Thursday, the Matco and Mopar teams serviced their parts while the rest of our cars tested. I headed down to the track around lunchtime to bring the teams some food. During the race season, we travel with a kitchen trailer, a chef (Malcolm Clark) and our talented hospitality staff. They prepare amazing meals, but during testing the guys have to settle for sandwiches, chips and pizza. They don’t complain though. Thursday was a mellow day to gear up for night one of the PRO Winter Warm-Up on Friday.

Friday started with another trip to the grocery store for the teams before heading down to PBIR in the late morning. It is about 45 minutes from my house, so I have spent a lot of time in my car this week racking up the miles! LOL I got to the track just in time to see our teams make one to two passes each before the start of the PRO Winter Warm-Up Friday night at 5 p.m. There was a great crowd on hand at PBIR and the great staff at www.bangshift.com continued their live webcast of the Winter Warm-Up for fans not in South Florida. We also filmed and posted TJ’s Track Update on our DSR YouTube channel. We post one every race Sunday or Monday at Indy so be sure to check it out on YouTube.

This is the second year of the PRO Winter Warm-Up and it is a great event for the people of South Florida to be able to see some great racing in a low-key environment. Everyone has fun being able to be matched up side-by-side with no pressure of turning on the win light. In the first round Tony and Antron got to run each other and it was the first time that two canopied cars raced together. Brittany Force also is running the canopy on her JFR dragster and she did great running a 3.79. It was so cool to see the safety advances in our sport and the fans are so receptive to the canopy.

 Tony and his U.S. Army team led the PRO Winter Warm-Up for Top Fuel for DSR running a 3.776 at 325 mph, while Matt Hagan running the Rocky Boots colors led DSR’s Funny Car’s with a great 4.060-second run. Matt also ran 4.03 earlier in testing. With weather conditions in the low 60’s on Friday night we were able to put on a great show under the lights for those at PBIR.

The teams spent Saturday morning servicing and prepping for Saturday’s scheduled sessions at 5 and 7 p.m. The only DSR car that got on the track was Ron Capps and the NAPA team who posted a solid 4.06 until the skies opened early in the afternoon. We were eager to see what the teams had in store after a great opening night with some great times by the Army car, Doug Kalitta, Courtney Force, and Robert Hight in Funny Car, but unfortunately the dreaded “r-word” forced the cancellation of day two of the Winter Warm-up.

During the rain delay, the guys and I spent some time hanging out, catching up and even reading a magazine or two while waiting for the weather to get better. Speaking of magazines, there’s a nice feature on Antron in the February 2013 issue of Road & Track, so check that out. After a few hours of watching it rain, we realized it wasn’t getting any better and they called the activities around 4 p.m.

Today, the teams are gearing up for the trek back to Indy. The guys will head back to the shop to service everything from testing, finishing decaling cars and trailers, and get ready for the 2013 Mello Yellow Season to begin in Pomona, Calif. on Feb. 14. After a great few days testing in Florida, we are all so eager to get back to Pomona and try to defend our championships, which will be very difficult. The depth of competition this year is amazing. It should be a great season in both nitro classes.

For me, I begin the second semester of my senior year at Lynn University on Tuesday. I am excited to begin classes and count down the days till I graduate with my undergraduate degree in Business in May. Along with school, I am also counting down the days till the next time I can be at a race track next month, and I can’t wait to head out to Pomona for the first race of the year. I hope to meet you passionate race fans along the way in 2013, so if you see me at the track, please say hello.

Until next time, be sure to “like” me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram(@MeganFessSchu).

Thanks for reading and I’ll check back in before Pomona.

Megan