Brown secures fifth starting position for Sunday's race

April 02

Driving his Aaron’s Dream Machine/Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, Antron Brown took the fifth starting spot here Saturday for tomorrow’s SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Brown rode his Friday pass of 3.939 seconds/311.34 miles per hour into the final-race-day order. He fell in just behind his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Tony Schumacher, who had the same elapsed time, but a faster speed.

The New Jersey native set up a meeting with 12^th-place qualifier, Morgan Lucas, in the first round of eliminations beginning at 11 a.m. PDT.

“We have all the power we need and we will fine tune our clutch application for tomorrow’s cooler weather for a shot to win the race,” said Brown. “We’re excited about the opportunity to get our first victory of the year.”

Brown’s dragster had traction issues on Saturday given the hot temperatures that baked The Strip. Track temperatures rose to almost 130 degrees by the final qualifying session.

“It’s been a little rough out there,” said Brown. “A lot of guys have had trouble putting power onto the track. But, with the weather changing for tomorrow, everything is going to change including the grip issue.”

The former Pro Stock Motorcycle racer will use much of his Saturday evening to analyze his driving talents prior to taking on Lucas.

“I like to look at the computer breakdown of the car performance as well as the video of my runs to see where I have made my mistakes,” said Brown. “I want to be able to use that evaluation to help learn for the next race.”

In what will be his 220^th professional race, Brown will be seeking his 26^th career win. To date in 2011, he has posted semifinal round and quarterfinal round finishes.