LAS VEGAS (March 29, 2014) – Antron Brown and his Matco Tools Top Fuel team would like to extend at winning streak at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday after championship eliminations of the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals.
And they took a step toward that by winning their second straight pole in the Las Vegas Spring race and 35th of his career.
Antron used his last of four qualifying runs to earn his first No. 1 qualifying spot in the past 13 events going back to last year’s U.S. Nationals a few miles from his home in Pittsboro, Ind. His best run was 3.768 seconds at 325.14 mph, which is the fastest through two days of qualifying.
“Our class right now is just incredible,” said Antron, who has owns 42 NHRA titles. “I saw the ignition box come out, the Matco guys went into the (electronic) management box with the clutch flows, the fuel flows and everything started changing and I said ‘Uh-oh, here we go, this is when it gets good.’
The Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with car chief Brad Mason and the Matco crew produced a consistent dragster at Las Vegas and they continue to be the hottest Top Fueler over the past seven Mello Yello events.
After advancing to last spring’s championship round, the Matco team returned in the fall to win the event title.
“We are truly blessed to have the team we have. It’s going to be a fight like this all year long. You don’t have to be the fastest car, you have to be the most efficient car. I think we have our stuff together to go out there on Sunday and get the job done with the Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota car.
“We want to be efficient and efficiency pays off. We just want to be there. We want to run strong each round. So that’s our goal this year, to be more efficient. Our deal is we just want to get better week in and week out.”
TOP FUEL
No. 1 Qualifier: Antron Brown (DSR), 3.768 sec., 325.14 mph
ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 1
CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATIONS
First Round: BROWN vs. Mike Strasburg
QUALIFYING
FRIDAY: 4.579 sec., 166.39 mph, (Session 1); 3.797, 322.96, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 3.816, 320.97, (Session 3); 3.768, 325.14 (Session 4)