His elapsed time wasn't enough to place him any higher than third in the lineup, as cousin Scott Kalitta took No. 1 honors with a track-record e.t. of 4.472 seconds at 333.74 mph in the Mac Tools/Jesse James Dragster, and Brandon Bernstein was second with the Budweiser/Lucas Oil car at 4.479/333.66. Dave Grubnic's No. 7 position put team owner Connie Kalitta's three cars in the top half of the ladder.

If Saturday belonged to the Kalitta clan, Sunday belonged to Schumacher.

The Team Kalitta troika lost in the second round. Moreover, Doug Kalitta dropped from second to third in the standings and Scott Kalitta fell out of the top 10, while Grubnic remained fourth.

Scott Kalitta, leading a Top Fuel field for the first time since the 1999 Dallas race, had said winning his first round of the season was "next on my to-do list." He got past Steve Chrisman in the opener, but he was Schumacher's Round 2 victim as both cars experienced mechanical problems halfway through the quarter-mile run.

Team owner Connie Kalitta talks it over with Doug Kalitta's crew chief, Rahn Tobler

Doug Kalitta's triumph last August at Brainerd was the most recent for Kalitta Racing. Since then, the team has made the finals, set low e.t. or top speed or been No. 1 qualifier (or recorded a combination of feats) at every race except the one at Reading. This year, the Kalitta cars have locked down the top qualifying position at every race: Doug at Pomona, Grubnic at Phoenix and Gainesville and Scott at Las Vegas.

Doug reached the finals of the first two events and lost to Schumacher and Bernstein. So the Kalitta team has put on a shock-and-awe campaign but is losing the war to Schumacher and the U.S. Army-sponsored platoon.

Schumacher, getting off to the quick start this year like Larry Dixon did in his last two seasons on the way to series championships, beat Dixon and the Miller Lite Dragster in the final round of what he called "a very hard day." Schumacher took the U.S. Army Dragster for a winning ride of 4.525 seconds at 331.53 miles an hour against Dixon's 4.571/323.97.

Schumacher, of Mount Prospect, Ill., earned $40,000 and continued dominating the point standings. He has a 110-point lead over Bernstein in the Top Fuel standings. It was the Army team's second victory in a row and third in four events.

Greg Anderson was victim of an odd occurrence in the first qualifying session. A piece of debris covered the staging beams in Anderson's lane. That prevented the timers from starting. Without a recorded elapsed time and speed, officials discarded the pass.

Anderson won for the second straight race and the third this season in the Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am. The reigning Pro Stock champion has won nine of the last 14 events, dating back to last July in Seattle. This victory over nemesis Kurt Johnson, worth $25,000, meant the Charlotte, N.C., resident has been No. 1 in points for the last 17 races and 22 of the last 26.

Anderson's Grand Am recorded a 6.849-second pass at 201.31 against Johnson's 6.908/200.08 in the ACDelco Chevy Cavalier.

So while winning has been nothing new to Schumacher and Anderson, it was an almost-new sensation for Burkart.

Megateam owner Don Schumacher -- who has his son's dragster, two Funny Cars and two Pro Stock Motorcycles in his stable -- missed scoring a double victory when Burkart used a 5.029-second run at 264.03 mph to defeat Whit Bazemore (5.452/189.50) and the Matco Tools Dodge Stratus in the Funny Car final.