DSR looks to rebound from disappointing Mello Yello event

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Don Schumacher Racing’s seven professional teams in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series have been counting the days for this week’s NHRA Gatornationals after a disappointing showing nearly three weeks ago at the last race near Phoenix.

Phoenix was the first time since 2007 that DSR did not send a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car to the semifinals.

The best news for the organization that last season won an all-time best 27 Mello Yello titles and its 14th NHRA world championship with Antron Brown (Matco Tools/U.S. Army), was that veteran Funny Car driver Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T were the No. 1 qualifiers at the event near Phoenix after winning the opener at Pomona, Calif., and are leading the championship points race heading to the Gatornationals. Capps has three Gators wins.

Capps with crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane return to the Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla., as the defending event winner when they shared the winner’s circle with the Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant dragster team to mark the second of seven times in 2015 when DSR swept the nitro categories.

Former NHRA world champion driver Mark Oswald will be inducted in the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame at a ceremony Thursday at Wyndam Gardens in Gainesville, Fla.

Oswald, 63, who won the NHRA Funny Car title in 1984 with the Candies & Hughes team, is co-crew chief with Brian Corradi for Antron Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army team. The team has won two of the past four world championships including last year’s.

 

Ron Capps spent Sunday at the NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway as the guest of Hendrick Motorsports where he visited with NAPA Racing teammate Chase Elliott, who finished eighth for the second time this season.

Capps and his family visited with Elliott and enjoyed time on pit road. After Capps was introduced at Sunday’s NASCAR drivers meeting, he was interviewed on Fox before the race and on MRN radio coverage during the event. He also found time to chat with longtime friend Jimmie Johnson.

 

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and the U.S. Army team is tied with Joe Amato, Larry Dixon and Don Garlits for the most Top Fuel titles in the Gatornationals with four apiece.

Schumacher and Doug Kalitta (three) are only active drivers with more than one Gators Top Fuel title in the 46-year history of the event.

Tony lost in the final round a year ago to former DSR teammate Spencer Massey and the Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant team.

 

Antron Brown won the 2015 Top Fuel world championship, his second in four years with the Matco Tools/U.S. Army team with crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald.

But he did not win in the last three races of 2015 and is 0-for-2 this year.

That could be a good sign: He finished 2014 without winning in the last three races and started last year without winning until the fifth event … and they went on to win seven of the last 19.

At Gainesville, he has raced in final rounds twice over the past five years and was knocked out a year ago by Massey in the semifinals. Brown’s only win at the track was in 2013.

　

Shawn Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel world champion, joined DSR for the last six races of 2015 and is a full-time member of the team this year in the Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant dragster.

He is looking to make his first final round in the Gatornationals where he has competed seven times in Top Fuel.

 

Two-time Funny Car world champion Matt Hagan (Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots), 2012 Funny Car world champ Jack Beckman (Infinite Hero Foundation) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Make-A-Wish) also are seeking to advance to the first final round of their careers at Gainesville.

Adam Sinclair
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