Joliet: Antron Brown final report

BROWN SUFFERS RARE EARLY DEFEAT AT JOLIET JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2008) -- It was bound to happen. In his 10th Top Fuel start the opening round bug bit Antron Brown and his David Powers-owned Matco Tools team. The 18-time NHRA winner's blue ...

BROWN SUFFERS RARE EARLY DEFEAT AT JOLIET

JOLIET, Ill. (June 8, 2008) -- It was bound to happen. In his 10th Top Fuel start the opening round bug bit Antron Brown and his David Powers-owned Matco Tools team. The 18-time NHRA winner's blue Matco Tools dragster overpowered the hot Route 66 Raceway drag strip on Sunday morning as Brown posted an early exit. Brown now ranks third in the NHRA Top Fuel standings following 10 of 24 races.

Brown, a two-time winner this season, carded his second best qualifying outing of the season when he raced the Matco Tools/Valvoline rail to the No. 2 qualifying position with a run of 4.516 seconds on Friday evening. That matched Brown up with No. 15 qualifier and local racer T.J. Zizzo. The drivers used nearly identical reaction times, but the Matco Tools/Go Fast dragster lost traction almost immediately and slowed to a run of 7.549 seconds at 122.47 mph. Zizzo sped to a run of 4.668 at 313.07 to earn the trip to the second round of eliminations. It was Brown's first opening-round loss of the 2008 season. Tony Schumacher, a Matco Tools Racing driver, remains the only Top Fuel racer to have not lost in the first round this season. Brown has a round record of 18-8 this season.

"We came out today and went after it," Brown said. "The weather was a little tricky today with the heat. We saw our teammate Hot Rod (Fuller) throw down that great 4.54, but we fell short. So, we'll go back to the shop and regroup for E-Town (Englishtown, N.J.), my home track. We're looking forward to getting back into attack mode."