Charlotte: Toyota Motorsports final report

BROWN CONTINUES STRONG RUN WITH THIRD IN 4-WIDE NATIONALS

CONCORD, N.C. (March 28, 2010) -- For the second consecutive race, Antron Brown advanced to the finals where he eventually placed third in his Matco Tools/Toyota Top Fuel Dragster on Monday in the first-ever 4-Wide points race at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at ZMax Dragway.

The inaugural 4-Wide Nationals was scheduled to conclude on Sunday before in-climate weather pushed back the finals until Monday.

Each of the three sessions was run in groups of four with Brown winning both of his elimination runs prior to the final before being edged by .042 seconds in the final foursome.

Both Larry Dixon and Shawn Langdon were eliminated in the second round -- with Dixon registering the fastest ET of the run with a 3.81 compared to Brown's 3.84, but was beaten on whole shots from both Brown and Doug Herbert. Langdon had won his first round foursome with a 3.90 run. Morgan Lucas went out in the first round in Top Fuel competition.

In Funny Car competition, Cruz Pedregon edged fellow Camry Solara driver Del Worsham to earn the second transferring position in their first round foursome. Pedregon then was eliminated in the second round.

After a weekend off, the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will resume with the O'Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, April 9-11.

NOTES:

- Antron Brown's runner-up finish marked his second finals appearance of the season and is the 51st of his career with 18 of those coming in Top Fuel competition. He also was in the final at Gainesville.

- Larry Dixon's second round speed of 320.66 mph was the fastest run in the elimination rounds.

- All four Toyota-sponsored Top Fuelers are now in the top eight overall and on pace to qualify for the Countdown.

Antron Brown, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "We went out there for the final round in the outside lane and we just tried to do what we thought what was needed. We just fell a little short, but we're already getting ready for Houston. We're just going to keep pushing hard. We have some momentum going after making the finals each of the last two races with a third today and a second at Gainesville. Now we only have one more position to gain and that's the Winner's Circle. Our main focus is to get ready for the countdown. Everyone was a little nervous being the first ones on the race track today after all the rain. Our biggest concern was simply going from A to B. After talking with our crew chiefs, some things didn't go as we thought they would and we didn't go as fast as we wanted. We started twitching around a little bit and the track was tight. We could have probably thrown a little more at it. We really wanted to win this 4-Wide. We just weren't quick enough in that last round. We won every round up to that point, though. We're on the right track and we're going to keep gaining ground on it. I think 4-Wide was pretty interesting because it brought the best out of everybody. I think tried to keep my poise and stay focused. Our team kept on doing what needed to get done to win those rounds. I just tried to stay consistent. I shallow-staged every lap like I always do. We were very consistent as a team and if we can do that the rest of the year, we'll be competing for a championship."

Larry Dixon, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "It was very disappointing; we fixed our car from the first round when we smoked the tires early in the run. In the second round, I had a mental distraction for the slightest instance, and that was enough to cause me to be late on the starting line. That was it; the Al-Anabi team ran the quickest elapsed time of the round, but our car came in third in a four-car race. On the bright side of things, we have a great race car and a great package to take to the next race in Houston where we'll be looking to put the Al-Anabi Toyota team in the winner's circle."

Shawn Langdon, Lucas Oil/Speedco Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: "We were just kind of behind the eight-ball this weekend. We just didn't have the air/fuel ratio right, and fought ourselves in the beginning of the weekend. Our setup was over center and had too much motor for the conditions. We fixed that on our last run, but it made us not know which direction to go with the tune-up. We did the best we could. Once we got our stuff figured out, the engine looked great. We just weren't laying down the kind of good runs everyone else was."

Morgan Lucas, GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil Toyota Top Fuel Dragster: ""We can't make any excuses. We didn't get the tune-up right. We're a better team than this. That's all there is to it at this point. It's time to get back where we need to be. We're going to study our data and get the car back how it was. We're going to focus on getting our stuff for the future ready, and not necessarily right now."

Del Worsham, Al-Anabi Racing Toyota Camry Solara Funny Car: b^0x001cOur car continues to make progress. We had two great qualifying sessions on Saturday and got ourselves into good position for the 4-wide eliminations today (Sunday). At Gainesville, we were consistent but didn't perform as well. This weekend, our performance was there, but our consistency wasn't. So we have to get to a point where the Al-Anabi Toyota performs and is consistent at the same time. We'll stay on it until we get there."

-source: toyota motorsports