Richmond: Antron Brown Friday notes

BROWN RACES MATCO TOOLS CAR TO PROVISIONAL NO. 4 SPOT FRIDAY AT RICHMOND

PETERSBURG, Va. (Oct. 9, 2009) - Antron Brown drove his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster to the provisional No. 4 qualifying position Friday evening at Virginia Motorsports Park. The seven-time Top Fuel winner posted two solid laps on Friday with a day's best elapsed time of 3.856-seconds.

Brown enters the fourth race in the Countdown to 1, the fourth annual Virginia NHRA Nationals, ranked fourth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings trailing Tony Schumacher by 120 points. On his opening qualifying effort, the 23-time NHRA winner used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the bright blue Matco Tools dragster to a lap of 3.856 seconds at 315.49 mph. It also was the fastest run of the round and earned the MAR Matco Tools team three bonus points. On Friday's second attempt, Brown blasted down the right lane at the Richmond-area track in 3.861 at 312.57 to finish in the provisional No. 4 qualifying position.

"It was a good day for our MAR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "The car repeated and made two really consistent and quick runs. We're happy with that. We got three bonus points and finished in the top half of the field. This is our weekend to get it all going in the right direction here at Richmond and finish up strong in this Countdown (to 1)."

Professional nitro qualifying is scheduled for 12:30 and 3 p.m. (ET) on Saturday afternoon at Virginia Motorsports Park. Top Fuel will run first followed by Funny Car. Last year, Brown qualified the Matco Tools car eighth at the Richmond race at 3.823-seconds.

-credit: mar