Schumacher, Capps, Edwards Top Thunder Valley

Tony Schumacher celebrates his Top Fuel Win

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Tony Schumacher snapped his 32-race winless drought and Ron Capps scored a record-tying victory in Sundays 12th Annual Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Bristol Dragway.

Mike Edwards also collected a Wally with a dead-heat victory over Allen Johnson to notch his fourth consecutive Bristol victory.

For seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, it has been since the fall race at Las Vegas in 2010 since he last got a win light in the finals, and Sunday’s final round pitted him in a in a battle of two drivers looking to snap long winless streaks, with Kalitta having not been to victory in 38 events.

Taking down Dom Lagana, Spencer Massey and Clay Millican, Schumacher never trailed in any of his rounds, posting the quickest time in the second and third rounds before moving on to his fifth final round of the season against Kalitta, who beat out Khalid alBalooshi Bruce Litton and top qualified Antron Brown to reach his first final round of the year.

Coming into the final with a 7-4 record against Kalitta, Schumacher hit a .023 light to get the jump on Kalitta and pulled out a holeshot victory to earn his 68th career Top Fuel win, besting Kalitta by half a car-length at the line with a 3.819 at 342.28mph over Kalitta’s 3.802.

“I’ll tell you what it was a long time, a long, long time," said Schumacher. “You get used to winning those races — you know, 15 races in a year — you know we’re just not used to that. We had a great car, and more often than not, we got beat by some incredibly talented teams in very close races, so it was tough for us to deal with but at the same time, it is what we do.

“We had the point lead two times early in the season without winning a race. We keep our chin up, we don’t fire people, we motivate and get through the adversity. We lead. That’s what we do, we lead them. We make them believe in themselves. I said it all along, ‘Have faith. We’re going to go out and win these things.’"

Ron Capps

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

The Funny Car final featured a wily veteran going up against a rookie as Alexis DeJoria made her first final round appearance taking on Ron Capps.

Capps has made a resounding resurgence after failing to qualify for the field at Las Vegas back in March. With new crew chief Rahn Tobler calling the shots, Capps has sixth straight top-five qualifying efforts and has made the finals in each of the last five events, beating out Courtney Force, Tony Pedregon and Johnny Gray to face DeJoria, who faced a tough race taking out Mike Neff, Jeff Arend and Jack Beckman.

In the final, Capps experience won out over the rookie as two left the line in a dead heat but DeJoria lost traction halfway through the run, giving Capps an easy victory with a 4.076 at 312.35 mph over DeJoria, who went 5.232/144.15.

The victory give Capps his 35th career Funny Car win, tying him with legendary “Big Daddy" Don Garlits for 16th on the all-time NHRA win list.

“There was a lot of pressure coming in because of the media and fans kept asking for six finals and, ‘Are you going to get in a sixth final?’ Every race that we’ve gone to, it’s just getting stronger and stronger, the bond that I have with Rahn Tobler and this team," Capps said. “Don Schumacher does everything to give us everything that we need, and it’s impressive that Rahn Tobler is able to do what he does with a car. He’s such a perfectionist."

Mike Edwards won Pro Stock

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Defending Pro Stock Bristol winner Mike Edwards made it four in a row in a thrilling victory over no. 1 qualifier and hometown favorite Allen Johnson, posting a holeshot victory for his second win of the year.

Coming into Sunday’s event, Edwards had not made a final round since his last win at Gainesville back in March, and took down Larry Morgan, Jeg Coughlin and Erica Enders to take on Johnson, who made it through with round wins over Shane Gray, Ronnie Humphrey and Jason Line to make his third money round of the year

Entering the final round with a 4-1 edge over Johnson, Edwards nailed a .005 light to get out in front right off the line and needed every inch as Johnson roared back and nearly caught him at the stripe, ending in a dead heat with a margin of victory of .0000 – barely an inch – at the finish with Edwards going 6.674 at 206.16 mph over Johnson’s 6.661/207.05.

“I don’t even know how you can describe something like [the final] in words," Edwards said. “Four zeros for the margin of victory. I just can’t believe it. Sometimes we struggle just a little bit, and then we come to this place [Bristol] and we do well. Sixteen straight round wins is unbelievable. I tell you, I wish we raced them all here. My guys did an awesome job this weekend. We weren’t the fastest car, just the second fastest car, but we got the job done."