Commerce: Antron Brown Friday notes

BROWN EARNS PROVISIONAL NO. 11 SPOT FRIDAY AT ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 25, 2008) -- Antron Brown raced his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to the provisional No. 11 qualifying position Friday evening at Atlanta Dragway at the 28th annual Summit Racing Southern Nationals.

Brown, who enters the Atlanta race ranked third in the Top Fuel standings, opened qualifying on an overcast afternoon in North Georgia by racing his Matco Tools/iLocate dragster to a pass of 4.753 seconds at 298.87 mph. That placed the bright blue Matco-backed rail fifth in the qualifying order. The Matco dragster lost traction on Friday's second attempt and slowed to a pass of 11.320-seconds moving Brown to 11th in the Top Fuel order. The 17-time NHRA winner has advanced to the final round at the last two NHRA events, Houston and Las Vegas. He won his first career Top Fuel race at Houston in late March in just his fourth career start in drag racing's premier division.

"We had some gremlins that bit us today, but we're upbeat," Brown said. "We're No. 11 and in the show and we know we can make it happen on race day like we did at Houston. We have one more day of qualifying left and we'll get this Matco dragster fixed and ready for Sunday."

-credit: dpm