Schumacher's unlikely comeback a jaw dropper
By Bill Stephens
NHRA Pomona Championship Recap
POMONA, Calif. -- "I have the best tuner in the sport. I'm not worried in the least. We're not out of it yet and before the year is over, if there's anyone out there who isn't a believer, they will be."
Those were the words of Tony Schumacher six months ago as his 2006 Top Fuel season appeared to be spinning deeper and deeper into an uncontrollable nose dive. The driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster, tuned by the incredibly talented Alan Johnson, was winless over the course of the season's first half, had fallen nearly 17 rounds of racing behind points leader and teammate Melanie Troxel, and showed no signs of the ground-shaking performance that had powered him to his third POWERade title in 2005.
On Sunday, Schumacher completed the most dramatic and unlikely comeback in NHRA history -- regardless of class -- when he defeated Troxel in the final round at Pomona Raceway at the Los Angeles County Fairplex with a staggeringly quick elapsed time of 4.428 seconds. It was the second-quickest elapsed time in NHRA history and a national record, and therein lies the most phenomenal aspect of this entire scenario. Without setting the national record, Schumacher would have lost the title to Doug Kalitta.
There have been extremely close championship clinchers in the Top Fuel history books. The two most famous are Dick Lahaie's nail-biting finish to the 1987 season, when his semifinal victory at the NHRA Finals gave him his first and only title as a driver. Joe Amato's pressure-packed final round win in 1990 over the late Gary Ormsby when Ormsby fouled out is another one of the all-time great payoffs to a Top Fuel title chase.
But Schumacher has now become the benchmark for championship comebacks. No driver has ever had to overcome such an enormous points deficit to win the title, and never has a driver successfully set a national record in the final race -- let alone the final round -- to complete a come-from-behind championship charge.
"We never quit," a jubilant Schumacher said after the race. "This one is for each and every member of the U.S. Army because they never quit either, and I hope this championship makes them feel as proud as our team feels having them riding with us."
The Funny Car championship wasn't wrapped up with quite as many pyrotechnics, but it was close.
John Force's victory over Ron Capps in the second round on Sunday was as much a competitive metaphor as drag races can be. The championship fight was a seat-squirmer for much of the season between Force and Capps -- with a late-season incursion from Force teammate Robert Hight. But when Force defeated Capps in Round 2, the sport's winningest driver added his 14th championship to a career résumé that defies comparison.
It was a year in which Force guided his three daughters, Ashley, Brittany and Courtney, through a full slate of sportsman racing, oversaw oldest daughter Ashley's successful licensing for the Funny Car class for an anticipated professional debut next year, and committed to the demands of starring in a network reality show on A&E, "Driving Force."
The 57-year-old legend had way too much on his plate in the opinion of many, and winning an unprecedented 14th POWERade championship was truly questionable.
"I've been so up and down emotionally all weekend, but this is a great way to end the year," Force said. "Our three Fords finished one, two and four in the points, and that's flat-out awesome. For Castrol, Ford and the Auto Club, and all the others, this is for you. The old man isn't done yet."
Force beat one of the sport's fastest-rising stars, Jack Beckman, in the Pomona final on a hole shot, but Beckman thundered to an elapsed-time national record in the losing effort (4.662).
Although Greg Anderson outran his teammate Jason Line in the Pro Stock final, the real story this year was Line's late-season domination paced by national records for both elapsed time and speed as he closed out the 2006 championship two weeks ago in Las Vegas. Anderson and Line clearly drove the two most formidable cars in the category all year and there was little solace to be found among the Pro Stock class at large from Anderson's three-year title streak finally being halted.
The Summit Racing-sponsored team owned by Ken Black will go into the 2007 campaign as the unrivaled favorites to win it all again.
It was in the prerace preview last Friday that we predicted the championship in Pro Stock Motorcycle could be decided by starting-line miscues committed by points leader Andrew Hines or second-place Antron Brown. Hines did his part to make that prediction come true but Brown couldn't do his.
Hines was 0.019 of a second too quick on the Christmas Tree in his first-round matchup with eventual race runner-up Tom Bradford. That left the door wide open for Brown to slip past Hines for the championship. But in the second round, Brown was upended by Craig Treble, who went on to win the race, thus relegating Brown to a second-place points finish.
Andrew now joins his brother, Matt, and Angelle Sampey as the only PSM racers to win three consecutive championships. And at the tender age of 23, one would have to surmise that Hines has more than a few POWERade championships waiting for him down the road.
Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com.