Seattle: Antron Brown Saturday notes

BROWN FINISHES THIRD IN MATCO TOOLS CAR AT SEATTLE

KENT, Wash. (July 19, 2008) -- Antron Brown drove his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to the No. 3 qualifying position Saturday afternoon at Pacific Raceways. The 18-time NHRA winner used a qualifying-best elapsed time of 3.831-seconds to finish third in the 16-car order at the Seattle NHRA race.

Brown, who is making his first careerstart at Pacific Raceways, posted his best qualifying time on Friday evening at the Seattle track when he used a Lee Beard tune-up to power the bright blue Matco Tools rail to a run of 3.831 seconds at 312.06 mph. It is Brown's quickest and fastest run under the new 1,000-foot racing rule. The Matco dragster overpowered the Pacific Raceways strip on Saturday's first attempt, and Brown posted a run of 3.937 at 295.21 on his final qualifying run. It is the first time he will start from the No. 3 position this season. Brown has now qualified for 159 consecutive races.

"This Matco team did well again this weekend," Brown said. "Lee (Beard) and the guys continue to give me a good race car. I'm having fun up here at Seattle for the first time. We were pushing it on the first run today and it was just too aggressive. I'm confident that we'll have a good race car for Sunday and go some rounds."

He will match-up against No. 14 qualifier Bob Vandergriff, Jr. in the first round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday at Pacific Raceways. Brown is 3-0 against the 12-time Top Fuel finalist this season.

-credit: dpm