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Antron Brown Reading Friday report

Don Schumacher Racing press release

ANTRON BROWN CAPTURES PROVISIONAL POLE FOR AUTO-PLUS® NHRA NATIONALS

Antron Brown
Antron Brown

Photo by: Ted Rossino

MOHNTON, Pa., September 30, 2011 – Behind the wheel of his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, Antron Brown scorched the Southeastern Pennsylvania earth tonight en route to grabbing the provisional number-one qualifying position for Sunday’s 27th-annual Auto-Plus® NHRA Nationals here at Maple Grove Raceway.

A 3.797-second lap at a track-record 324.44 miles per hour in today’s second session propelled the 35-year-old New Jersey native to the top of the field, ahead of Larry Dixon and Don Schumacher Racing teammate Spencer Massey.

“We went out there tonight to improve on our numbers, which we did,” he said, referring to a first-session pass of 3.825 at 322.11 mph. “That was a great performance by my guys today," said Brown. "We went out and did what we had to do.

“We're trying to get every point we can in an effort to get back up into first-place in the standings."

He moved to within six points – less than one round – of Massey who leads in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship. Massey, last week in Texas, broke Brown’s three-race winning streak while defeating him in a semifinal match.

"It's a tight deal right now," said the Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster pilot. "We have to approach every lap with equal importance, be it in qualifying or in final eliminations. There's a lot of racing still remaining. My guys are working really hard and we want to do it.

According to Brown, with the Matco Tools team safely in the field for Sunday’s race, Saturday they plan to go after a national elapsed-time record (3.770 seconds) and potential 20-bonus points.

“Tomorrow, if we get to run (a possibility of rain is in the forecast), we’re going to push it,” he said. “Those 20 points are huge and this track is so good we’ll take a shot at it.”

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