Charlotte: Antron Brown Saturday report

ANTRON BROWN RACES TO NO. 3 QUALIFYING SPOT AT FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS   CONCORD, N.C. (March 27, 2010) - Antron Brown made four qualifying runs in the 3.8-second range to qualify third Saturday afternoon at zMax Dragway at Concord. The 24-time NHRA winner raced his Don Schumacher-owned Valvoline/Matco Tools car to a qualifying-best lap of 3.819-seconds on Friday evening to finish third in the 16-car order.

A day after racing to the provisional No. 2 qualifying position at 3.819 seconds at 312.93 mph, Brown made another full lap down the zMax Dragway strip, this time at 3.866 at 299.53. The Valvoline/Matco Tools rail pushed out a head gasket on the run causing a slower elapsed time and speed. On his final qualifying effort, Brown's blue and white rail Valvoline repeated the early run, again going 3.865 at 314.90, his best speed of the weekend. In three tries at zMax Dragway, Brown has never qualified lower than third and has qualified fourth, first and third at the last three races in 2010.   "We made four good runs in qualifying here at zMax (Dragway) this weekend," Brown said. "I'm very comfortable with the staging process in the four wide, which can be tricky. No. 3 is a good spot for us. I think anytime you qualify in the top four, you did well. Now, I just hope Mother Nature plays nice on Sunday and we get to race four wide for real since the field is set because I'm ready to go three rounds on Sunday."   Brown will face off against the No. 14 (Terry McMillen), 6 (David Grubnic) and 11 (Doug Herbert) qualifiers in the first round of eliminations on Sunday at the Four-Wide Nationals at Noon (ET). The first two drivers to the 1,000-foot finish line will advance to the quarterfinals. Brown is 0-1 against McMillen, 4-0 versus Grubnic, and 1-0 against Herbert.

-source: dsr