Baca's Bud beer run a memorable one

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 28) -- One race after beating three-time series champion and Top Fuel giant Tony Schumacher in Richmond, Va., Mach 1 Air Services racer David Baca once again lined up against the quickest and fastest car in the world with $100,000 of Budweiser money on the line. This time Schumacher exacted his revenge for his regrettable Virginia loss when Baca was disqualified at the starting line for leaving before the green light by a fraction of a second.

After watching Schumacher post a gigantic 4.44-second pass in qualifying, Baca knew he'd need a good light to make up the performance deficit. He simply squeezed the trigger too soon, allowing Schumacher to win with a 4.500-second pass to his 4.597.

"I wanted to take a chunk at the tree, I just bit off too much," Baca said. "Either way, it was a true honor to make the field of the Budweiser Shootout. It's the best eight drivers in our class going all-out for a lot of dough and it was fun to be a part of the festivities. I have to thank Budweiser for all of their support and I look forward to next year."

Baca's pass still counted towards making the field of this weekend's sixth annual ACDelco Nationals and it ended up being his best of the four qualifying sessions. He'll now try to beat another class giant, Brandon Bernstein, in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

"Brandon's running well and he's fighting for his first championship but when the helmet goes on we go to battle," Baca said. "We put as big kink in Schumacher's championship hopes last week so we'll try to do the same to Brandon. It's not personal; we just want to win a race before the year is out for our sponsor Mach 1 Air Services.

"The call me 'the Spoiler' and we're gonna try to live up to that name Sunday."

The elimination rounds of this race will air from 8-11 p.m. ET Sunday night.