Antron Brown powered his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools dragster to the provisional No. 1 qualifying postion Friday evening at Houston Raceway Park as he looks to earn a second straight pole at the O’Reilly Spring Nationals. Brown’s elapsed time of 3.803-seconds paced the Top Fuel field on the opening day of qualifying at the Houston-area track.
Brown entered the fifth race on the 2010 NHRA schedule ranked fifth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings. On his first qualifying attempt on a beautiful afternoon at Houston Raceway Park, Brown’s bright blue Matco Tools/U.S. Army rail overpowered the 103-degree race track and slowed to a lap of 7.339 seconds at 85.77 mph. Only Brown’s DSR teammate and current points leader Cory McClenathan made a full lap in the FRAM dragster in the right lane in the first qualifying session.
On Friday’s second attempt, the Matco Tools/U.S. Army car was in the second pair of cars to blast down the H.R.P. strip. Racing out of the left lane, Brown used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to card the quickest run of the day at 3.803 seconds at 317.64 mph. Brown has two career poles at the Houston race and was the top qualifier at the Gainesville, Fla. race last month. He has 22 career No. 1
qualifying awards. Brown’s U.S. Army Racing teammate Tony Schumacher finished fifth at 3.848-seconds.
“We raced out of the right lane on the first run and we were just too fast with the tune-up early,” Brown said. “Running out of the left lane for the second run, we saw (John) Force run that stout 4.02 and we knew that the conditions were sporty. We were two pair behind John and I know Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) were trying to run a high 3.70. When the car left, it really carried the front wheels a lot higher and farther than it normally does. When we got back to the pit and looked at the computer, we knew it was on the edge and it would be tough to run quicker than that. We figured that would be about all the track would hold. That’s a great boost for our team. We’re running well, but we’ve been falling short in the final rounds and we really want to get a race win.”
Professional nitro qualifying resumes on Saturday afternoon at 12:15 and 3 p.m. (CT) at Houston Raceway Park with Top Fuel followed by Funny Car. Brown earned the pole at the Houston race last year at 3.819-seconds and won his first career Top Fuel race at H.R.P. two years ago.
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