Antron Brown raced his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster to the No. 6 qualifying position Saturday at Texas Motorplex in the second of six races in the Countdown to 1 playoff. Brown’s best qualifying lap at the Billy Meyer-owned facility came on Friday evening at 3.878-seconds.
A day after racing to the provisional No. 6 qualifying position with a pass of 3.878 seconds at 314.61 mph Friday evening under the lights at the 24th annual O’Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals, Brown finished in the No. 6 spot racing under sunny skies and a hot race track in the Lone Star State. On Saturday’s first attempt, Brown raced the Matco Tools/Toyota car to a run of 4.673 at 162.84 to remain sixth in the 16-car order. Brown’s bright blue Matco Tools/SpongeTech rail then raced to a performance of 3.973 at 301.27 on its final qualifying attempt as the Matco Tools flagship driver finished six in the Top Fuel order. There were 19 Top Fuel dragsters attempting to make the cut for the Dallas race this weekend. Brown now has an average qualifying position of 3.5 in 20 races this season with seven poles. Brown has now qualified in the top half of the field at 19 of 20 races with Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald calling the tuning shots for the Matco-backed rail.
“The last run was really good for our MAR Matco Tools team,” Brown said. “That was good for us to get down the race track in the heat. We haven’t raced in hot conditions like we have here at Dallas since the Western Swing at Sonoma (Calif.) and we did okay there. It dropped a hole (cylinder) on that pass and still made a strong pass. It’s all good. We’re excited to go some rounds on Sunday here at Dallas.”
Brown will face off against No. 11 qualifier Terry Haddock in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at 11 a.m. (CT) on Sunday at Texas Motorplex. Brown is 1-0 against Haddock this season. The Matco Tools car raced to a second-round finish at the Dallas race last September.
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