Charlotte: Antron Brown Sunday report

ANTRON BROWN ADVANCES TO FINAL ROUND AT FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS, RAIN POSTPONES FINALS UNTIL MONDAY

CONCORD, N.C. (March 28, 2010) - Antron Brown advanced to his second consecutive final round of the 2010 season Sunday afternoon at zMax Dragway at Concord before Mother Nature postponed the final round of the inaugural Four-Wide Nationals near Charlotte. The 24-time NHRA winner and Matco Tools flagship driver will face off against DSR teammate Cory McClenathan, Doug Kalitta and Doug Herbert in the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals.

After racing to the No. 3 qualifying position for the second time in three races at zMax Dragway at Concord (2007) on Saturday afternoon at 3.819-seconds, Brown powered to his 50th career final round appearance. In round one of the Four-Wide Nationals, the former college track star drove to the semifinals after outracing Terry McMillen, David Grubnic and Doug Herbert in his first-round quadrant. Brown was again first to the stripe in the semifinals, outperforming Herbert, two-time series champion Larry Dixon and ultra-quick leaver Shawn Langdon in the round of eight.

As the second quadrant to race on Sunday, Brown scored the wire-to-wire win behind the wheel of his Valvoline/Matco Tools dragster. Brown used the third best reaction time of the round (.059 of-a-second) and a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the blue and white dragster to the third quickest pass of the round at 3.858 seconds at 313.58 mph. Herbert, the local favorite, also advanced to the semifinals on the heels of his lap of 3.936 at 304.12. Grubnic and McMillen were defeated after clocking runs of 5.962 and 6.167-seconds, respectively.

Brown's four-wide match was the first to do battle in the semifinals. The 22-time pole winner used the second best reaction time of the round (.062 of-a-second) to score the holeshot win and advance to his 50th career final round. The Valvoline/Matco Tools/U.S. Army rail posted a lap of 3.840 at 314.31 to get to the 1,000-foot finish line ahead of Herbert's 3.851 at 308.50, Dixon's quickest-but losing 3.818 at 317.42 and Langdon's 3.914 at 308.85. Following the completion of the Funny Car semifinals, the skies opened forcing NHRA official to cancel the rest of Sunday's racing action.

"It was another good race day for our DSR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "We're flying the colors of Valvoline this weekend, along with Matco and the U.S. Army and we're running strong. We qualified well in the No. 3 position and made two nice runs today. It's tricky up there with this four wide, but we got to the final round and we're going to give it our all and see if we can take home that 'Wally" trophy from Charlotte on Monday."

Final eliminations are scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. (ET) on Monday at zMax Dragway at Concord.

-source: dsr