Schumacher, Prock, J. Coughlin & Herrera Roar to Wins at Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals

BRISTOL, TN – June 10, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Eight-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher picked up his first win in 37 races on Sunday at Bristol Dragway, defeating reigning world champ Doug Kalitta in the final round of the 23rd annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

Austin Prock (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won at the eighth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Schumacher pedaled his way to a run of 4.236-seconds at 259.41 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Waltrip Brewing Co./Leatherwood Distillery dragster, getting past Kalitta’s 4.890 in the finals and claiming his first victory since July of 2022. It’s the 87th career win for the most successful driver in Top Fuel history and also his seventh win at Bristol Dragway, which is tied with Ron Capps for the most in NHRA history.

Schumacher defeated Jasmine Salinas, Shawn Langdon and Clay Millican to reach the final round before extracting some revenge on Kalitta, who beat Schumacher last weekend in the finals at New England Dragway. He moved to fifth in points with the victory as well as the team continues to make big strides in recent weeks.

“We hadn’t gotten past half-track (in qualifying), but we found some things and it’s always great when the crew chief goes, no I’m serious, this is what we found, and you listen and it truly makes sense,” Schumacher said. “When you have a year like we had last year, a lot of things are like, ‘Oh we figured it out, but it doesn’t seem to progress into anything.’ The last couple of days, the last couple of weekends, even, it truly had. We didn’t qualify great, but the tune-up we had on raceday was exactly what we needed. From the first round on, I knew we had a racecar.

“After we get the momentum going, calm and cool, it’s so easy for me to race here. I’ve had so many good moments here, so much success. It just seems like we find a way to the winner’s circle. This is everything you could ask for at the home track for the boss (team owner Joe Maynard).”

Kalitta moved into the points lead over Justin Ashley on Sunday by advancing to the final round for the third time this season and 115th time in his career, defeating Antron Brown, Steve Torrence and Brittany Force.

Funny Car’s Austin Prock finished off a flawless weekend at Thunder Valley, as the points leader picked up his second victory of the season in…