Antron Brown raced his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools dragster to the No. 4 qualifying position Saturday evening at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona with an elapsed time of 3.813-seconds.
Brown entered the final day of qualifying at NHRA’s 2009 season-ending bash in the No. 7 position after posting a lap of 3.853 seconds at 313.88 mph on Friday afternoon at Pomona. On Saturday’s first pass, Brown’s bright blue Matco Tools dragster lost traction and slowed to a pass of 4.824 seconds at 149.18 mph. On his final qualifying pass, Brown used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the Matco Tools car to a performance of 3.813 at 316.15 to finish fourth in the 16-car order. Brown also qualified fourth at the Sonoma, Calif. race in July. The Matco Tools car has an average qualifying position of 3.75 in 24 races this season with seven poles. Brown’s DSR teammates, Tony Schumacher and Cory McClenathan, qualified first and seventh, respectively, at Pomona.
“That was a good lap for this DSR Matco Tools car,” Brown said. “We needed that 3.81 and Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) put a great tune-up in the Matco car. We qualified in the top half of the field again and now we’re going to do our best to win this race here at Pomona on Sunday.”
Brown will face off against No. 13 qualifier Urs Erbacher in the opening round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday at Auto Club Raceway. Brown is 1-0 in his career against Erbacher.
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