NHRA Winternationals
Event 1 of 24 (Pomona I)
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona
Pomona, California
February 8-11, 2019
Note: The majority of Sunday’s elimination rounds were postponed until Monday due to persistent rain
Qualified:No. 3 (3.696 E.T. at 333.08 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.733 E.T. at 329.26 MPH defeated by Leah Pritchett 3.707 E.T. at 325.61 MPH
Race Recap:
After powering to the No. 3 qualifying spot with a stout 3.696 second pass, three-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown started race day with a first-round matchup against teammate Leah Pritchett.
Brown and Pritchett were nearly even leaving the starting line, but Pritchett gained a slight lead almost immediately and held on to take the win with her 3.707 second pass versus Brown’s 3.733 E.T., dashing his hopes for his first NHRA Winternationals Wally trophy.
Quotable:
“The track is tricky the tighter it gets out there. We had a good combination, and we went up there and tried to do a ‘rinse and repeat’ and improve a little bit. We thought we had enough to run a 68 or 67 but the track was so good it nuked the clutch out there on the race track. It slows you down when you go through the clutch like that. The good thing is, we got down a hard race track that a lot of other cars couldn’t. A lot of cars were shaking and everything else. We just had the wrong pick of the litter. We had our teammate and they made a better lap than we did and they got the win. We’re looking good going into Phoenix, our next race. We’re very confident in this Matco Tools Toyota. We have a car that can go down the track every time and can be very competitive and will get better and better each lap. We’re looking forward to getting to that next race and getting back to it.
“I believe we have a car that can run with any car out there. We showed that this weekend. We just got to keep working; work on our shook numbers. Our car is phenomenal from the 330 (foot mark) all the way through the back door, you’ve just got to pick away at it. It’s a long marathon of a race season. Our main focus is when we get to that final leg, the last six races, we have a strong kick and can go out there and contend for a championship.”