Antron Brown raced his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster to the No. 2 qualifying position Saturday evening at Houston Raceway Park after a rain-filled morning at the 23rd annual O’Reilly Spring Nationals. The 24-time NHRA used a career-best elapsed time of 3.777-seconds to finish second in the 16-car order.
A day after racing to the provisional pole with a lap of 3.803 seconds at 317.64 mph, the Matco Tools flagship driver posted his quickest and fastest pass of the 2010 season to remain atop the 16-car Top Fuel field. Brown used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster to a run of 3.794 at 321.96, a career-best speed, to improve upon Friday’s provisional pole run of 3.803-seconds.
On his final qualifying effort, under the lights in Baytown, Brown blistered the H.R.P. track in 3.777 at 318.09 to clocked his quickest 1,000-foot pass. Brown took the win light next to two-time champion Larry Dixon, who earned the pole with an elapsed time of 3.772-seconds. Brown’s DSR and U.S. Army Racing teammate Tony Schumacher was third at 3.785-seconds.
Brown has qualified fourth, first, third and second at the last four races on the 2010 NHRA schedule. His average qualifying position in five races is 4.2.
“We had an awesome day,” Brown said. “We just missed it on that last run. We were going 285 (mph) at half track and the engine let loose just a tad bit early. We should have had the pole and maybe the quickest pass ever, but it’s all good for our DSR Matco Tools team. We had great Matco support here in Houston and we’re going to go out and race smart, take it one round at at time and try to repeat what we did here two years ago.”
Brown will face off against No. 15 qualifier Spencer Massey in the opening round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (CT) on Sunday at Houston Raceway Park. Brown is 3-3 in six career matches against the 2009 NHRA Rookie of the Year.
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