Antron Brown raced his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster the provisional No. 5 qualifying position Friday evening at Virginia Motorsports Park with an elapsed time of 3.823-seconds.
Brown, who entered the fourth race in the Countdown to 1 ranked third in the NHRA Top Fuel standings, clocked the second quickest pass of Friday’s opening qualifying session. The two-time Top Fuel winner used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to clock a run of 3.823 seconds at 308.57 mph. Hillary Will also ran 3.823-seconds in her Ken Black-owned dragster but earned the top spot as a result of a faster speed, 309.42 mph. Brown’s bright blue dragster overpowered the track on Friday’s second qualifying attempt as the car smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and recorded no time. The 3.823-second pass placed Brown fifth in the 16-car order. Brown hasn’t competed at Virginia Motorsports Park since 1998.
“We made an awesome first run with that 3.82,” Brown said. “That was our second quickest pass to 1,000-feet. We just had too much in it on that night run and we blew the tires off. This Matco bunch will come out on Saturday and try to improve from that 3.82.”
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