Brown reaches second round in 4-Wide Nationals

April 17

Antron Brown, who drives the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, dropped a second round race here Sunday in the VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

Brown, who qualified ninth, placed in the top two during the opening round of eliminations and thus advanced to round two, but was not able to duplicate the feat to move into the third and final round.

“The track was tricky here this weekend,” said the New Jersey native. “It threw us some curveballs, especially, when we were in lane two.

“But, we don’t make any excuses. What’s important is that we’re continuing to make strides with this DSR Matco Tools dragster.”

Brown posted a 3.872-second at 320.05-mile-per-hour lap in the first round to advance with eventual race winner, Del Worsham, but he produced a tire-smoking effort in the quarterfinals, thus abruptly ending his day.

“I have all the faith in the world in my team,” said the 35-year-old Don Schumacher Racing driver who is third in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel Championship points standings. “I truly believe we’re a world-championship contender.”

Brown will stay over an extra day at zMAX Dragway to test for the upcoming 24^th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals April 29-May 1 at Royal Purple Raceway outside of Houston.

“We want to go to Texas with guns blazing,” he offered. “We’ll go out there with a full head of steam. We have always run well there.”