Antron Brown drove his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster to a second round finish at Atlanta Dragway. The 19-time NHRA winner continues to rank second in the NHRA Top Fuel standings following six of 24 races on the 2009 NHRA schedule.
After qualifying the bright blue Matco Tools dragster fifth at 3.867-seconds on Saturday afternoon at the Commerce, Ga. track, Brown edged six-time IHRA champion Clay Millican in round one before falling to six-time series champion Tony Schumacher in round two. Brown now trails Schumacher by 39 points.
In the opening round of eliminations, Brown ran his record to 2-0 against Millican this season by racing the Matco Tools dragster to a wire-to-wire win. Brown used Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald horsepower to card the second quickest pass of the round at 3.854 seconds at 314.97 mph. It was Brown’s third fastest speed this season. The 3.854-second elapsed time earned the Matco team lane choice over Schumacher in round two. Millican, a Matco Tools driver, trailed slightly in his white dragster at 3.920 at 311.56.
Squaring off against the 58-time Top Fuel winner for the ninth time, Brown used the best reaction time of the round, .057 of-a-second, to race the Matco Tools dragster to the early lead. The Matco car shook the tires forcing Brown to pedal the throttle and slow to a lap of 4.800 at 200.50, while Schumacher’s U.S. Army/Matco Tools car labored to a run of 4.029 at 254.23 to advance to the semifinals. Brown is now 1-1 against the Mike Green-tuned Army rail this season. The Matco Tools car is 12-5 in six races this season and Brown has 269 career round wins.
“That was a tough round to lose,” Brown said. “We really wanted to leave here with the ‘Wally’ and the points lead. Our Matco car ran so consistent all weekend long, so that really surprised us that it shook so hard like that. When I saw Tony (Schumacher) have problems, I pedaled it, but we were just too far behind.”
“It’s all good though. We’re still second in the points and less than two rounds out of first place. We’re going to test the Matco dragster on Monday and gear up for St. Louis. We have a very fast and consistent car and I like our chances at St. Louis in a few weeks.”
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