Next Race

O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Sept. 14-16
Charlotte, NC

RACING WALLPAPERS
 
U.S. Army Racing
Racing Episode 01

Non Flash Content

Get Adobe Flash player

FEATURES
Dragster peeling out

Dragster

The U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster — it has the fastest acceleration on land.

Learn More
NHRA Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher grew up watching his father Don “The Shoe” Schumacher dominate the NHRA Funny Car field. So it was only a matter of time before Tony began racing.

Learn More
Antron Brown

Antron Brown

The Army’s major associate sponsorship of Antron Brown’s dragster continues to keep him on the Army Racing team. Antron originally rode the U.S. Army Suzuki in the Pro Stock Motorcycle Class from 2003 – 2007.

Learn More
Photo of U.S. Army Top Fuel NHRA pit crew

Pit Crew

Meet the team that keeps the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster fueled, lubed and on track to fly.

Learn More
Dragster smoking wheels

Schedule

View the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel Schedule — look fast: you don't want to miss a race.

Learn More
NHRA’s Y.E.S. logo

NHRA Y.E.S. Program

Presented by the U.S. Army, the NHRA's Youth & Education Services (Y.E.S.) program is motorsports' first and only full-time event dedicated to educational programming for high school and college-aged students.

Learn More
Dragster fire from engine

News

Read the NHRA Top Fuel News Archive.

Learn More

RACING EPISODE 04

Maintaining the Lead

Tony Schumacher “I think the preparation starts with knowing the nine guys that build it. A game people, period.”

Ron Freedman, Mechanic “On race day we’ll come back and the supercharger which I work on and the intake, that’ll be off in under a minute. These heads would be off in two minutes. During all this when were taking it apart, John, he’s on the bottom laying down, taking the oil pan off and shoving the piston rack out, and thats done in 3 minutes . So its taken apart in about two and a half to three minutes and it’ll go back together and within a half an hour we’ll have it started back up again”

Kevin Pennell, Crew Chief “This is were all the cars are prepped, we do most of our work right up front here, prepping the cars the week of the race.”

Richie Bean, Setup Plate “Get the fuel pump in, run that cable, get the drive shaft up in the tunnel, block the bleeder brakes, get our exhaust pipes all that stuff situated in the back, run our ducking hoses off the rear brakes, then we’ll install the motor.”

Kevin Pennell, Crew Chief “If you don’t put in the maintenance into it you’ll have failures at the race track.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “When we come back to the shop we unload the car, do all the service work, we’ll completely disassemble it.”

Neal Strausbaugh, Asst. Crew Chief “Theres always something to critique, there's always awh it would have been a little better if we did this or a little better if we did that.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “And then we’ll spend the next few days actually rebuilding all our engines, reversers, clutches, all that stuff.”

Neal Strausbaugh, Asst. Crew Chief “The guys are very much involved in the performance of the race car, not just putting parts on it and taking parts off of it.”

Mike Green, Crew Chief “This ones back together now, we’ll put the body back on it, get it 100% ready, and they’ll load it back in the transporter and it’ll be ready to go to the next race.”