Antron Brown on Norwalk
“I’m excited about Norwalk, let me tell you. Our Matco Tools dragster is running really well. We ran the new tire last weekend and performed great. This is a big race for us. (Larry) Dixon is right on our tails for second place and we want to take it home for all the Matco Tools folks. Norwalk is Matco’s home track, and we want to put this Matco Tools car in the winner’s circle for the third time this season.
Lee Beard (crew chief) on Norwalk
“This is an important race for our team. We want to do well for Matco. There will be a lot of Matco executives at the event and we want to represent them well. We ran well at Norwalk last season and we’re encouraged by how we performed at Englishtown with the new tire. As always, the goal is to win.”
Antron Brown Norwalk NHRA Notebook
Last weekend in Englishtown, N.J., Brown put on a solid showing at his hometown track. The Garden State native earned his 13th career No. 1 qualifying award with a run of 4.502 seconds at 326.24 mph. He clocked low elapsed time of the opening round of eliminations before losing a close match to five-time series champion Tony Schumacher in the quarterfinals. Brown and the Matco Tools team also earned the Pit Crew Challenge Award at the Englishtown race.
Brown enters the 12th race on the 2008 NHRA schedule ranked second in the POWERade Top Fuel standings. The former PSM star has two wins in three final rounds this season. He also has collected poles at Pomona 1 and Englishtown, N.J. and earned low E.T. of the meet honors once and top speed of the meet honors twice.
In his lone start at the Norwalk race, Brown qualified sixth last season on his U.S. Army Suzuki in the PSM category with a lap of 7.005 at 190.65. He was defeated in the opening round by Steve Johnson. Brown won the Columbus, Ohio race in 1999 (def. Dave Schultz) and was a three-time finalist at National Trail Raceway.
Brown has qualified for 156 consecutive NHRA events. He hasn’t missed the cut since the Gainesville race in 1998 after being disqualified for bad fuel at his first career race. It is the second longest qualifying streak in the professional ranks (Angelle Sampey—172).
Brown became the eighth different driver that crew chief Lee Beard has tuned to the pole and 10th different racer Beard has tuned to a win in Top Fuel or Funny Car. Beard won two races (1996, ’98) and earned four poles (1986, ’89, ’02, ’05) at National Trail Raceway near Columbus.
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