Waltrip Brewing will sponsor Schumacher at Thunder Valley

BRISTOL, Va. — A local brewery is adding its color to a former world drag racing champion’s car for this weekend’s Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, but at 330 miles per hour it can be hard to read.

Michael Waltrip Brewing has agreed to sponsor Tony Schumacher’s Top Fuel dragster in this weekend’s annual NHRA stop at Bristol Dragway. With six wins in eight final round appearances in 19 Thunder Valley starts, Schumacher is the most successful Top Fuel driver in Bristol history. Doug Herbert recorded six wins in seven finals during his career here.

Waltrip, a former NASCAR star and current FOX TV analyst, and his partners established the business here in 2021. They also operate a location in Concord, NC and have plans to expand further into the Southeast.

“We’re very excited,” MWB CEO Bryan Sperber said ahead of Thursday’s car unveiling ceremony. “Michael and I, when we started the company, it was about making really great beer, having great food, and like Talladega Nights, we want to go fast. I don’t think you can go faster than Tony Schumacher’s Top Fuel car.

“Having eight-time NHRA champion Tony’s name on the side of his car is truly a dream come true. It is amazing. We’re a really young company, so to see our logo on the side of Tony’s car is incredibly exciting. Michael is in Sonoma for Fox on the NASCAR side, but he’s very excited, too.”

About 100 people attended the unveiling ceremony at the brewery on Thursday. The 300-inch wheelbase car features the MWB logo and images of the brand’s Talladega Light and Bristol Sunshine mandarin beer cans on the front half of the car. Shares space with main sponsor Leatherwood Distillery.

This weekend’s arrangement was a business decision for Schumacher’s car owner, Joe Maynard of Clarksville, who recently invested in Michael Waltrip Brewing.

“Now I’m part of Michael Waltrip Brewing and with the distillery and Tony and everything we’re doing, I couldn’t see a better way to bring our teams together and go into the future than to get them together on this car – for this race. — and hopefully get out there and show off a little bit, hopefully.”

Schumacher, 54, appreciates the relationship with someone he got to know from another discipline of racing.

“Michael Waltrip is a legend in my mind. The guy is riot. I’ve been here several times,” Schumacher said. “Joe Maynard, our team owner, it was great working with him to unveil a really cool looking car here in Bristol. I look at him (Waltrip). He’s a really cool guy.”

Schumacher heads to Bristol after reaching the finals last Sunday at the NHRA New England Nationals. He currently sits eighth in the NHRA Mission Foods national standings, one spot ahead of Top Fuel rookie and former NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, who will also be in contention this weekend.

“We’ve been coming here for a long time. I love coming here and the songs you play the best are the ones you want to come back to,” Schumacher said.

He added that their sponsorship combination is setting themselves up well for a victory celebration should they be lucky enough to win Sunday’s final round.

“This car, you can tell our vision is to win because everything about it is celebration — beer and bourbon. We are ready for the weekend,” he said. “If we win, we’ll be back here Sunday night and celebrate.”

Schumacher’s most recent victory at Bristol came in 2018 when he knocked out Californian Mike Salinas in the final round. His first came 20 years ago in 2004 when he defeated Tennessean Clay Millican. He went unbeaten at Bristol from 2008 to 2010, then returned to the winner’s circle at Bristol in 2012.

In that race, he defeated 2023 world champion Doug Kalitta. Twelve years later, that race remains the fastest and closest Top Fuel final lap in the track’s history, and Schumacher’s final lap of .023 remains the best by any Top Fuel winner in 22 races at Bristol.

Schumacher’s win record at Bristol is 39-13. Only Funny Car star Ron Capps has a better record at Bristol with seven wins in eight finals and a round winning record of 40-15.