ENNIS, Texas 7 At this rate, Tony Schumacher could have himself a second NHRA Top Fuel world title before Halloween.

Schumacher and his Alan Johnson-tuned U.S. Army Dragster found their way into victory lane for the eighth time in the 2004 season by winning the division at the O/Reilly Fall Nationals, held outside of Dallas.

Schumacher gave up a slight five-thousandths of a second head start to Dave Grubnic in the Top Fuel final, but he quickly caught and blew past the Australian and went on to win his 19th NHRA race with the quickest elapsed time of the day, a 4.575 at 325.85 mph. Grubnic posted a game 4.623 at 323.97 mph in his attempt to become the first non-North American professional class winner, but he came up well short of Schumacher/s time.

"This was a big day for us," Schumacher said. "I feel good because I have a great team. Even if we started (the points chase) over again right now I/d still feel confident about our chances because if you look at the four races we/ve got left, I/d stack my guys up against any other team. We/ve won at all four places in the past so I feel like we can win any of them again.

Grubnic has raced to five finals in the last eight races but he still remains winless in NHRA competition. Overall, this was his fifth runner-up ending of the year and the seventh of his career.

Schumacher/s win, the 19th of his career in 41 final-round showings, helped him stretch his POWERade championship lead to 217 over Doug Kalitta, a substantial gain of 57 points.

"There are 16 rounds left and we have almost an 11-round cushion over (Doug) Kalitta so it looks good. We/re also looking at our win total. We have eight wins now and the (class) record is nine so maybe we can go after that too."

The other big news of the day came in Pro Stock, with Greg Anderson clinching his second straight series title early in the afternoon/s competition.

The title was secured when Anderson/s teammate Jason Line 7 the runner-up in points by over 600 points 7 was knocked out by Greg Stanfield in the first round. Anderson himself also took an early exit, losing to Kurt Johnson in the next pairing.

"It feels really good to clinch the championship again here in Dallas, although this year was two races earlier on the schedule," said Anderson, a Duluth, Minn. native who now calls Charlotte, N.C. home. "These are some serious records and anytime you can be mentioned alongside John Force you know you must be doing something right."

Sophomore Pro Stock racer Dave Connolly picked up his second career victory at the expense of local hero Bruce Allen of the Dallas suburb of Arlington. The end result was never in doubt as Connolly left first with a large .013 to .079-second headstart and never looked back, crossing the finish line well ahead of Allen with a 6.810 to Allen/s 6.891.

"They were kidding me and saying that everyone I beat is twice my age," said Connolly, who is 21. "But I said I/ve got the edge anyway because Grump (engine builder Bill Jenkins) is probably twice as old as all of them."

Del Worsham remains perfect in Funny Car final rounds this year after scoring his fourth victory of the season over Cruz Pedregon, who falls to 0-4 when there/s been a trophy on the line this year. Worsham was certainly pumped up for the finale, posting a .077-second reaction time to Pedregon/s .097-second launch. He then managed to stay just ahead of his foe as they traversed the quarter-mile, winning with a 4.934 at 315.56 mph to Pedregon/s 4.948 at 307.02 mph.

Pedregon knocked out Gary Scelzi in the quarterfinals and Ron Capps in the first round, while Scelzi took care of Jerry Toliver in the opening frame.

Rob Geiger of NHRA.com contributed to this report.

Sept. 27, 2004