Said Toliver, "I think when it's your day it's your day. I was never nervous. Keith Adams was nerrrr-vous, but he got it done. (retired veteran crew chief) Dale Armstrong once told me to trust and believe in your race car when you go up there to race. That's what I did today."

Schumacher trusted his U.S. Army Dragster as he won the Top Fuel trophy, taking advantage of Doug Kalitta's freak mechanical failure in the final. Anderson still wasn't sure what to make of his new Jerry Haas- designed Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am, but he defeated Pro Stock nemesis Warren Johnson to become the only reigning pro champion to stay alive past the second round of eliminations.

Schumacher put his faith in The Sarge, the powerful U.S. Army Dragster, and it delivered his first victory at Pomona Raceway and his first points lead since September 2000.

His solo pass of 4.659 seconds at 243.55 miles an hour in brought him $40,000. But it was anticlimactic. First Kalitta's Mac Tools Dragster broke on the starting line after his burnout. After that, a wayward blower belt spoiled Schumacher's bid for a perfect 4.4-second showing for the entire weekend. Schumacher shut his motor off just past half- track and still it managed a 4.6.

The Schumacher-Kalitta final-round match-up promised excitement. Their two dragsters officially are the quickest on the planet, and the pairing was a rematch of last November's Budweiser Shootout. Kalitta won that in the quickest side-by-side race in NHRA history.

But the Mac Tools car appeared at first to have a fuel-line or fuel- system problem. Leaking fuel caught fire beneath the car as Kalitta was about to begin the staging process, and fire shot from a right-side header. Co-crew chiefs Connie Kalitta and Rahn Tobler confirmed that no one was hurt, although crew member Shawn Dill got

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a hot flash to the face, stumbled and fell. (He was examined and released from the track medical facility.)

Tobler speculated that the trouble might have been a broken crankshaft. Kalitta Motorsports team manager Jim Oberhofer called it simply "a mechanical failure" and said the crew would "tear everything apart to be sure exactly what happened, but you can bet it will never happen again."

Tobler said, "It developed a pretty good oil leak on the front. Dougie was on the radio, telling us about it. He was complaining about the vibration. I don't think I would have let him leave the starting line, anyway." Doug Kalitta said he knew because of the shaking on the burnout that he wouldn't be able to make the run but was hoping he could stage the car and keep his fingers crossed for Schumacher to red-light.

But The Sarge was flawless -- until the end of the final run. And that was good enough for Schumacher. He knows he might not drive another car as powerful as this Army Dragster. "What a machine," he said of his car that was the quickest until the final qualifying session, then ran consistent 4.4-second runs all day.

"It's fun to have a car so fast that big-team owners come up to you and say, 'Quit 40-ing us to death.' You just say, 'Sorry, I can't. I have nothing to do with it. Whenever you push the pedal down, that's what's going to happen. It puts a lot of pressure on you. I think it was third round before my legs stopped shaking," he said.

An Army colonel gave Schumacher the shirt he was wearing under his firesuit. It bore the emblem of the Army's elite Rangers, along with a saying: Never shall I fail my comrades. "We've got an awesome machine," Schumacher said, "and I don't want to be the weak link. I don't want to be the one everybody comes up to and says, 'Hey, man, you tried.' Oh, that is not acceptable."