Qualified: No. 8 (3.764 E.T. at 318.99 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.785 E.T. at 323.97 MPH defeated by Spencer Massey 3.807 E.T. at 323.43 MPH
Race Recap:
Antron Brown led the DSR Top Fuel tandem in qualifying at the NHRA Carolina Nationals, securing a position in the top half of the field to start race day from eighth and with the advantage of lane choice over Spencer Massey, his round one opponent. Brown clocked a solid .051-second reaction time, but Massey’s .029-second light gave him enough of a starting line advantage to get the win with his 3.807 E.T. over Brown’s quicker 3.785-second pass, resulting in an uber-close side-by-side race with a mere three-inch margin of victory.
Brown will enter St. Louis ranked seventh, where he leads the Camping World Series as the winningest driver in World Wide Technology Raceway history with five event triumphs.
Quotable:
“That’s certainly not what we wanted here at Charlotte today. This Matco Tools team with Toyota and all of our great partners is going to regroup and keep fighting. We won’t let this get us down. The car wore a lot of clutch that run and that’s the first time it wore a bunch of clutch all weekend long. We planned on going out there and running a 3.73 or .74. Hey, Pat Dakin, Spencer Massey, those guys are no joke. That Massey team, that’s a good car. They did a great job. Spencer was on the tree like his old self. We were right where we needed to be with a .51 light. Sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles, but we’ll regroup and get ready for St. Louis next weekend, a track we’ve done well at in the past. We need to focus on St. Louis and come out swinging. We need to keep focused and positive and not get down. We will use this as fuel to drive us to be better.”