Antron Brown, a New Jersey native, raced his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster to the No. 4 qualifying position Saturday afternoon at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. The 24-time NHRA winner used a qualifying-best elapsed time of 3.819-seconds to finish fourth in the 16-car qualifying order.
The 1994 graduate of Northern Burlington County Regional High School entered the final day of qualifying for the 41st annual SuperNationals in the provisional No. 3 qualifying position after clocking a lap of 3.817 seconds at 315.86 mph on Friday evening at Raceway Park. On Saturday’s first qualifying effort, the Matco Tools/U.S. Army car overpowered the track and slowed to a pass of 5.240 at 130.86. After the session, Brown moved to fourth in the qualifying order. On his final qualifying attempt, Brown used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power to a solid lap of 3.886 at 310.91 to finish in the No. 4 position. He qualified fifth at the Englishtown race last June and has an average qualifying position of 5.45 in 11 races this season.
“We made a couple good runs this weekend and we were really happy with our last run in the heat of the day with the Matco Tools car,” Brown said. “This was an Army Strong run on the U.S. Army’s 235th birthday. Our Matco dragster wants to run really quick, so we have to back it down just a little bit on this hot race track because that’s probably what we’re going to face tomorrow. It’s been a fun weekend being back at home in New Jersey with my grandma and all my family and friends cheering us on. Now, we have to go out and try to get back to the final round here again.”
Brown will face off against No. 13 qualifier Scott Palmer when in the first round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday at Raceway Park. Brown, who ran track at Mercer College in New Jersey, is a two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle winner at the famed New Jersey strip. He has never met Palmer in final eliminations.
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