KENT, Wash. – Antron Brown took a few days off after winning last Sunday’s Top Fuel title at Sonoma, Calif., to relax and recharge before trying to sweep the three-event Western Swing at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.
It was something he believes it needed to in order to succeed.
“I had a very eventful week,” he said Saturday after earning the No. 5 qualifying position for the NHRA Northwest Nationals. “On Tuesday I got to hang out and chill out with Barry Weiss from “Storage Wars.” I actually stayed at his house on Tuesday night and we had a blast just hanging out.
“We rode motorcycles for a good 40 miles, taking it slow and having a good time. It was great. Tuesday night we cruised Sunset and Hollywood boulevards in Barry’s 1947 dropped-down Cadillac. We ate at the Rainbow Café and saw a couple different movie stars while we were there. It was a really good time.”
But it wasn’t only Brown that needed a little rest and relaxation. His entire Matco Tools team took a break from the grueling Western Swing. After pulling into the track outside of Seattle, the team has traveled just shy of 4,000 miles.
“We got out here in Seattle and enjoyed a great evening with our Matco Tools team,” Brown said. “We had a nice little cookout for the boys.
“It got us refreshed and we got a break from the racetrack because that’s what you have to do when you’re out here on this Western Swing. You have to give the boys a little time to themselves so they can regroup and be refreshed going into this last race.”
The Matco Tools dragster posted three of four consistent runs during qualifying at Pacific Raceways, including the quickest run of the final qualifying session on Saturday that gave them added confidence heading into Sunday’s eliminations.
“Tomorrow could be a big day for us. We are just going to go and do what we always do and that’s attack it round by round.
“We just have to mind our P’s and Q’s. We have a great Matco Tools dragster. We have a lot of confidence going into race day tomorrow. We have to continue digging deep.”
Brown will try to become the first NHRA professional driver to win all three stops on the Swing for a second time. He accomplished that in 2009.
TOP FUEL
No. 1 qualifier: Spencer Massey, DSR, 3.837 sec., 319 mph
Antron Brown, Matco Tools dragster
Provisional qualifying position: No. 5
First round opponent: Clay Millican
FRIDAY QUALIFYING
Session 1: 4.371 sec., 189.18 mph
Session 2: 3.842, 311.63
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
Session 3: 3.889, 301.23
Session 4: 3.851, 316.23
NORTHWEST NATIONALS NITRO SCHEDULE
Sunday: championship eliminations, 11 a.m. (PT)
ON ESPN2
Saturday: 10:30 p.m.-midnight, delay (ET)
Sunday: 6-9 p.m., delay (ET)