Indy ORP: Antron Brown Sunday notes

BROWN DRIVES MATCO TOOLS RAIL TO NO. 8 QUALIFYING POSITION AT U.S. NATIONALS

CLERMONT, Ind. (Aug. 31, 2008) -- Antron Brown powered his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to the No. 8 qualifying position Saturday afternoon at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. The first-year Top Fuel standout used a qualifying-best elapsed time of 3.878-seconds on Saturday evening to earn the No. 8 qualifying position.

Brown carded his best qualifying numbers on Saturday evening when he used Lee Beard horsepower to clock a pass of 3.878 seconds at 309.91 mph. The two-time Top Fuel winner (Houston, Atlanta), made two outstanding runs on Sunday afternoon at O.R.P. Brown posted the second quickest pass of Sunday's first qualifying session at 3.909 at 306.95. He concluded qualifying by turning in a lap of 3.908 at 308.50. It is the first time that Brown has qualified eighth this season and the 16th time in 18 races that the two-time U.S. Nationals winner has qualified in the top half of the 16-car order. There were 20 dragster attempting to make the Top Fuel field at the 54th annual U.S. Nationals.

"I feel very ecstatic going into race day," Brown said. "I'm very confident with the way our Matco Tools Iron Eagle dragster is running. We have a great shot to bring it home on Monday. We just want to stay poised and take it round by round."

Brown will match-up against No. 9 qualifier David Grubnic in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at 11 a.m. (ET) on Monday. They will likely be the first pair of cars to compete for the U.S. Nationals title. Brown is 2-0 against Grubnic this season.

-credit: dpm