Shorter distance, same results

Tony Schumacher drives to another victory as his crew watches from the starting line.

The switch to a 1,000-foot drag strip didn't seem to bother Tony Schumacher or Tim Wilkerson.
The duo, who lead their respective classes in Top Fuel and Funny Car, continued their winning ways this past weekend at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver.
Schumacher, who has dominated Top Fuel the past four seasons, scored his sixth win of the season to extend his lead in the class to 275 points over second-place Antron Brown, who he beat in the final.
""It doesn't matter if it's 1,000 feet, it's still a great race," Schumacher said."You are clicking off only four-tenths of a second earlier, that's the only difference. The car went right down the track every single time. I couldn't have asked for a better race car. It was flawless."
Wilkerson's wasn't bad either. He continued to be the car to beat among the flopper contingent, winning his fourth of the season and his second in the past three races. He leads second-place Robert Hight by 215 points.
"The 1,000-foot deal, I don't know what the fans think about it, but it looked pretty good to me from where I was at," said Wilkerson, who beat Jack Beckman in the final Sunday. "It was pretty good racing the entire weekend, and I want to applaud the NHRA for that.
"We were a little nervous coming into Denver, but we can't get too worked up about it. We just go with what we have. Hopefully, this is a good start for us on the Western Swing. We're excited about going the rest of the way and running (to) 1,000-foot for the next few races."