Qualified: No. 3 (3.832 E.T. at 319.67 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.897 E.T. at 316.82 MPH defeated Richie Crampton 4.057 E.T. at 297.22 MPH
E2: 5.090 E.T. at 155.65 MPH defeated by Steve Torrence 4.232 E.T. at 253.33 MPH
Race Recap:
The No. 3 seeded Matco Tools team made two ‘top three’ runs during qualifying and with the added bonus of lane choice, felt confident in their first-round matchup against Richie Crampton. Brown threw down a session-best 3.897-second pass, ousting Crampton who posted a 4.057 E.T.
In the quarterfinals, Brown faced current points-leader Steve Torrence. The three-time world champion had the better reaction time, but lost traction right at the hit of the throttle. He gave it a pedal, but was immediately back up in smoke, and Torrence was able to reach the end of the track first and nab the round win.
Quotable:
“This is the hottest racetrack we’ve raced on so far this year. We made the necessary changes to slow it down, but the track was still really hot. With that said, we made it down there and we were just a little bit too fast. I’m very proud of my Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota guys. They’ve shown a great work ethic and we keep gaining and getting better and better. One of our goals was to come in here and qualify in the top-five and we did it by qualifying No. 3. We have the same goal for next week, we want to go to Norwalk and qualify in a top-tier spot. We just need to keep working on our whole package and making it better, including myself getting better. We stayed consistent this weekend and I felt pretty good. I’m just looking forward to the next race. I love the way we’re making gains and getting better and better. We dropped the low E.T. of the first round in some really hot and intense conditions. We’re just scratching the surface of what we’re capable of.”