NHRA Nationals
Event 12 of 24 (Norwalk)
Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park
Norwalk, Ohio
June 21-23, 2019
Qualified: No. 7 (3.742 E.T. at 326.00 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 4.170 E.T. at 263.10 MPH defeated Scott Palmer 5.116 E.T. at 142.60 MPH
E2: 3.981 E.T. at 304.39 MPH defeated by Leah Pritchett 3.821 E.T. at 326.00 MPH
Race Recap:
Antron Brown posted a ‘top half’ qualifying effort at the first three events of the June four-race swing, and that trend carried into the NHRA Norwalk event. As the No. 7 qualifier, Brown drew Scott Palmer in round one of eliminations.
The 2014 Norwalk Top Fuel champion’s swift reflexes gave him the early advantage out of the gate, and when his machine started to lose traction near the 330 mark, he was quick to pedal it and navigated the Matco Tools Toyota to a winning 4.170 E.T. versus Palmer’s 5.116.
Against teammate Leah Pritchett in the quarterfinals, Brown was once again fast to stand on the gas. When the tree lit up, Brown launched ahead of his teammate clocking a .042 reaction time versus her .122, but his lead did not last long. A dropped cylinder early into the run caused him to slow to a 3.981, and he was unable to chase down Pritchett’s session-best 3.821-second run.
Quotable:
“The race, it was a good race. We learned a lot here. The main thing is that we’re growing from each and every run, and we got her backed down enough to where it should’ve gone down the race track. We just dropped a hole at the step, unfortunately. But we’re making big strides where we can be low E.T. of qualifying rounds. We’re getting good qualifying bonus points, and we can run with anybody out there. The thing about it is we keep on learning, and then eventually the tide will change and start going our way. We’re pushing hard, learning, getting better and better. Definitely starting to get our groove, my game’s getting a lot better up there on the starting line, and we’re getting ready to do what we do. This is one of those deals. I wanted to win it here, this is Matco’s home track, but we’ll suck it up and get ready for Epping and hit that race hard.”