ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 1, 2014) – There were only slight slivers of a silver lining for Antron Brown at his hometown track Sunday during the 45th annual NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, N.J.
He was able to maintain the No. 2 spot in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series standings despite losing to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher in the opening round that allowed him to spend the afternoon with his New Jersey family, friends and fans at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
“You always want to do well at your home track,” said Antron, who grew up in nearby Chesterfield. “Nobody likes losing, but you have to take the good with the bad. At least we’ll be able to spend more time with family and friends.”
Antron and the Matco Tools led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were handicapped by qualifying ninth that gave lane choice to Tony, who qualified eighth.
“That’s what we get for the way we qualified,” Antron said. “We’ll get this Matco dragster back to qualifying in the top-five like we’re used to doing.”
In the opening round, Tony’s run of 3.782 seconds at 325.92 mph was more than Antron could overcome in the weaker left lane where his DSR dragster lost traction and slowed to 3.985 (270.37).
“We just overpowered the racetrack. We were in the right lane and ready to go for it. We knew we needed to put a good time up on the scoreboard because we were racing against our teammate.
“We’ll go back to the shop, regroup and get ready for Bristol in a couple weeks. We’ll get back on track and do what we know how to do. We learned a lot this weekend and we’ll keep on growing to be stronger.
TOP FUEL
Winner: Richie Crampton (Morgan Lucas Racing)
No. 1 Qualifier: Doug Kalitta (Kalitta Motorsports) 3.756 sec., 327.03 mph
ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 9
SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS
FIRST ROUND: Tony Schumacher (3.782 sec., 325.92 mph) def. BROWN (3.985, 270.37)
QUALIFYING
FRIDAY: 4.780 sec., 153.89 mph, (Session 1); 3.786, 313.73 (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 5.057, 140.49 (Session 3); 3.790, 319.07 (Session 4)
NHRA MELLO YELLO STANDINGS
(Unofficial through June 1, 2014; DSR drivers in CAPS)
TOP FUEL
driver (wins), points
1. Doug Kalitta (1), 809
2. ANTRON BROWN (3), 706
3. Shawn Langdon, 638
4. SPENCER MASSEY (2), 598
5. Steve Torrence, 580
6. Khalid alBalooshi (1), 503
7. TONY SCHUMACHER (1), 495
8. Brittany Force, 462
9. Richie Crampton, 433
10. J.R. Todd, 392