Houston Team Exide Preview

Team Exide continues race to Championship

Park Ridge, IL (October 26): Coming off of their first career victory, Tony Schumacher and Team Exide will ride their excitement into Baytown, TX for the Matco Tools SuperNationals presented by Racing Champions at Houston Raceway Park October 28-31.

Schumacher and Team Exide have made a strong statement to fellow competitors that their Dan Olson-tuned dragster is among the best in the field and will not give up the Winston Championship points chase without a fierce battle. Schumacher, the holder of the four fastest speeds in NHRA history and the new national speed record, likes his chances at the Baytown, TX track.

"At the first Houston event of the year, we went to the Finals and smoked our tires," said Schumacher, "we had the car to beat and we found a way to lose."

"Now that we have the pressure of the first win off our backs, we can concentrate on going rounds for the Championship points."

As many teams used the week between to test in Dallas, Team Exide used the time to prepare the car and do routine maintenance for this weekends event. "Dan's got this car running great. There is no reason for us to test at this point," said Schumacher before he left for Houston.

Asked about his win in Dallas and how that would effect the race in Houston, Schumacher commented, "It's great that we got our win, but at this point we are just another car that is NOT qualified for Houston."

Schumacher will also look to keep his Exide dragster in the top half of the field in order to secure more points for the Big Bud Shootout in Pomona. "We are tied with Larry Dixon for fourth right now. Since this is the last race before the Big Bud (Shootout), we really want to work on our qualifying spot."

Schumacher has found that winning his first event has also brought more attention to the Exide dragster and himself. "I had over 100 email messages the next morning. A lot of them were just from fans that found my address," said Schumacher.

"It's all about the fans. I tried to respond to as many as I could. I couldn't have such a great job without them."