Seattle: Antron Brown preview

Antron Brown on Seattle

"We're excited to get to Seattle and keep going rounds. I've never competed at Pacific Raceways, so it will be nice to get another race track under my belt. We opened the (Western) Swing with a good outing at Denver and we just want to keep that going this weekend."

Lee Beard (crew chief) on Seattle

"Our car ran well at Seattle last year and we're hoping to continue that. We're still adjusting to the new 1,000-foot rule. We had good results last weekend at Denver and that was a good start to the Western Swing. It will be nice to get back to tuning the race car at sea level."

Antron Brown Seattle NHRA Notebook

Last weekend near Denver, Brown raced his Matco Tools dragster to his fourth final round appearance of the season and first since winning the Atlanta race in April. Brown made the first three-second pass in NHRA history, qualifying fourth at 3.998 seconds at 287.11 mph. He advanced to the final round where he fell to five-time series champion Tony Schumacher, 4.007 to 4.173. He is now 1-1 against Schumacher in final rounds this season.

Brown enters the 14th race on the 2008 NHRA schedule ranked second in the POWERade Top Fuel standings. The first-year Top Fuel driver has two wins (Houston, Atlanta) in four final round appearances. He also has two poles (Pomona 1, Englishtown). Brown has ranked second since winning the Atlanta race in late April. He has 18 career professional wins and is the only driver in NHRA history to win races in both Top Fuel (two) and Pro Stock Motorcycle (16).

Brown has never competed at Pacific Raceways. The New Jersey native spent 10 seasons competing on his Suzuki in the two-wheeled category, which competes on a part-time basis.

Brown has qualified for 158 consecutive NHRA events. He hasn't missed the cut since his first NHRA race in 1998 (Gainesville). It is the second longest qualifying streak in the professional ranks (Angelle Sampey--173).

Brown became the eighth different driver that crew chief Lee Beard has tuned to the pole and 10th different racer Beard has tuned to a win in Top Fuel or Funny Car. Beard is a two-time winner at the Seattle race, 1990 (Gary Ormsby) and 2001 (Whit Bazemore). He also tuned local favorite Jerry Ruth to the pole at Pacific Raceways in 1980. It was Beard's second career pole as a crew chief.

-credit: dpm