BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Feb. 22, 2017) – Antron Brown is spending the week prior to this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park with more than 1,700 of his closest friends and supporters – Matco Tools distributors – at the annual Matco Tools Expo in New Orleans.
Brown attends each year and was on hand early this week to unveil the 2017 Matco Tools dragster featuring the names of distributors that will ride with him on each lap this season in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
“It’s great to be able to go to the Expo each year, talk to our distributors and just spend time with them,” Brown said. “So many of them come out to the races to see our team and it’s important for me to see them in this environment.”
The Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason have won the last two Top Fuel championships and have won three in the past five years.
The competition level in Top Fuel is at an all-time high and Brown knows what it takes to win.
“In Pomona we saw a lot of 3.6-second runs. That level is here to stay. We’ll just have to keep pushing hard. If you want to win, you have to run in the .60s. With that being said, you go to work, keep your head down, you know what you’ve got to do, and I feel confident and love the guys I have in my corner and I know Brian, Mark and this whole Matco Tools/U.S. Army team know how to get it down the track.”
Brown has three career event titles at Wild Horse Pass in four final round appearances.
“We did our preseason testing in Phoenix before we went to Pomona, but it could be a totally different racetrack from what we saw in testing so Brian and Mark will be ready. I’m looking forward to it. I felt like we had the car to win in Pomona and got to the semifinals so we are looking forward to getting the job done this weekend.”
ANTRON BROWN: Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
Last event (Feb. 9-12 at Pomona): Qualified No. 3, lost in semifinals to Doug Kalitta
2016 Phoenix: Qualified No. 2, lost in second round to eventual event winner Leah Pritchett
Career at Phoenix: Wins 3 (2009, 2012, 2014); Runner-ups 1 (2011); Poles 0
Pts Events Wins Rup Semi Qtr 1st rd Poles DNQ W/L
2017 3rd 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2-1
2016 1st 24 7 4 6 6 2 3 0 55-17
CAREER 359 61 47 75 93 80 47 3 625-295
Best Time, Speed: 3.679 sec., (2016, Brainerd; and first below 3.7, 2015, Brainerd); 331.12 mph (2015, Brainerd)
2017 NHRA Countdown to the Championship Standings
(Official after Pomona 1; 1 of 24 events; wins in parenthesis; DSR drivers in CAPS)
TOP FUEL
- LEAH PRITCHETT (1) 122 —-
- Doug Kalitta 105 -17
- ANTRON BROWN 79 -43
- TONY SCHUMACHER 70 -52
- Brittany Force 57 -65
- Troy Coughlin Jr. 54 -68
- Steve Torrence 53 -69
- Terry McMillen 48 -74
- Scott Palmer 32 -90
- Shawn Reed 32 -90