Auto Club Finals: Day 1: Top Fuel: Schumacher strikes first in battle for championship

Above: The first battle went to Tony Schumacher on Thursday.

Tony Schumacher has ruled Top Fuel the past five seasons and he took a step towards a sixth, although ever so slightly.
Schumacher, who brought a precarious one-point lead over two-time champ Larry Dixon coming into this weekend's Auto Club NHRA Finals at Fairplex, doubled that advantage during Thursday's qualifying, taking a two-point advantage with a top time of 3.832 seconds at 316.52 mph. Dixon just missed doing the same, stopping the clocks at 3.833 at 314.31. Doug Kalitta is third at 3.836 with Cory McClenathan, who is third in points, is fourth at 3.838.
If it holds through the weekend, it will give Schumacher a mental advantage over Dixon come race day.
"I just like that I doubled my lead," Schumacher said. "You can't say that very often. It was good. The car was a handful. We have been just missing. But it ran great. It's huge.
"Every point is huge. Even (a former crew member who now works for Dixon's team) said, 'You know what would be crazy, if we got one point (during qualifying) and we were even going to Sunday and we both smoked the tires first round, you'd win, but it would be a blast. We could come back after the race and settle it.' I said, 'Sorry, but I'll be drunk and writing a speech.'
"It's just so big. It is what it is. We're battling."