Antron Brown, a New Jersey native, drove his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster to the provisonal No. 3 qualifying position on Friday evening at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. The two-time winner at Raceway Park used a Friday evening elapsed time of 3.819-seconds to finish third in the order.
Brown enters the 11th race on the 2010 NHRA schedule ranked fifth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings with three poles and three final round appearances this season. On Friday’s opening qualifying attempt, the Matco Tools/U.S. Army car posted great early numbers but overpowered the track as Brown slowed to a run of 4.209 seconds at 227.65 mph. It was the ninth quickest of the session. On Friday’s evening session, the 24-time NHRA winner used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the bright blue Matco-backed rail to a lap of 3.817 at 315.86 to finish in the provisional No. 3 qualifying position. Brown earned the Top Fuel pole at Raceway Park two years ago and qualified fifth last June at the SuperNationals at 3.871-seconds.
“That was a nice lap for our Matco Tools/U.S. Army car here at DSR,” Brown said. “We were a little aggressive on the first pass. The car wanted to run at (3).70, but the track just wouldn’t hold it. There are only 15 cars here this weekend, so we had to go for it. Sure, we would have liked to have run in the (3).70s, but that (3).81 is a great pass. That puts us solidly in the show for Sunday. I’m glad to be back here in (New) Jersey with all my family and friends and my grandma (Delores Brown) is here with us and she got a bunch of TV time with the group from ESPN2 and she loves to ham it up for the cameras.”
Professional nitro qualifying will continue on Saturday with qualifying sessions scheduled for 1 and 4 p.m. (ET) at Raceway Park. Top Fuel will run first followed by Funny Car. The former Mercer (N.J.) College track star is a two-time Pro Stock Motorcycle winner at the famed Garden State strip (2002, ‘05). He also has three career poles at Raceway Park.
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