Qualified: No. 2 (3.725 E.T. at 327.03 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 4.161 E.T. at 276.92 MPH defeated by Scott Palmer 3.782 E.T. at 325.61 MPH, Dom Lagana 3.796 E.T. at 320.51 MPH
Race Recap:
Fresh off a runner-up finish from the previous event on the NHRA tour, Antron Brown looked prime for another long day of racing after qualifying second for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. The two-time event winner had first choice of lane in his round-one quad and his quick reflexes launched him off the starting line first, but his machine quickly started to lose traction. He pedaled it, but the winningest Top Fuel driver in zMAX Dragway history was not able to make up the difference and catch up to his opponents.
Quotable:
“This is definitely not what we wanted to happen. One weekend you do good, and the next weekend it knocks you back. We qualified really well and set ourselves up good. This race is over. We have to lick our wounds and move on to the next race in Atlanta next weekend. It’s a race track we’ve had a lot of success at. We’re going to put the work in. We’re going to stay here and test on Monday and get this Matco Tools/Toyota car where we’re comfortable with it. We thought we had it where we wanted it and it bit us this weekend. It just got going slow early and I tried to make it up and it didn’t like that. It did some fast shake and brought the tires up. But that’s what drag racing is all about. It sometimes shakes you down, but what makes a champion is how you bounce back and rebound from it. We’ll stay focused and stay on it.”