Bristol: Antron Brown Saturday notes

BROWN DRIVES MATCO TOOLS RAIL TO NO. 4 SPOT AT BRISTOL

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 17, 2008) -- Antron Brown drove his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to the No. 4 qualifying position Saturday afternoon at Bristol Dragway. The two-time Top Fuel winner used the top speed of qualifying, 330.15, to clock a run of 4.542 seconds on Friday evening.

Brown used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to race the Matco Tools/Valvoline dragster to a run of 4.639 seconds at 309.29 mph on Saturday's first qualifying attempt. That kept Brown in the No. 4 qualifying position. On his final pass, the Matco/iLocate GPS rail dropped a cylinder early in the run and carded a pass of 4.646 at 311.70 to finish fourth in the 16-car order. It is the third time Brown has qualified fourth this season. He has now qualified for 153 consecutive races. He also has earned top speed of the meet honors at the last two events, Atlanta and St. Louis.

"This Matco Tools team continues to plug away and get the job done," Brown said. "We had some great support from our local Bristol Matco distributors. We want to keep things going strong on Sunday and keep going rounds. We have a car capable of winning the race and that's our goal."

Brown will match-up against No. 13 qualifier Morgan Lucas in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at Noon (ET) on Sunday. They have yet to meet during eliminations this season. Brown's teammate, Rod Fuller, qualified ninth with a run of 4.584 seconds.

-credit: dpm