Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team made significant gains throughout qualifying at Rockingham Dragway, but their weekend ended early when Brown encountered tire smoke during the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.
With teams working to get a handle on the unfamiliar racing surface, Brown’s first two qualifying attempts were cut short by dropped cylinders. He opened the weekend with a 6.433-second pass at 100.16 mph before recording a 4.199 at 211.07 during the second session, placing him 13th heading into Saturday.
The AB Motorsports team rebounded during the third qualifying session when Brown clocked his quickest pass of the weekend, a 3.771 at 329.19, to move into the No. 9 position. He followed with another solid run in the final session, posting a 3.801 at 329.91. The effort earned Brown one bonus point and secured the No. 10 starting position for race day.
Brown opened eliminations against Shawn Reed and held a slight advantage at the starting line. His Matco Tools dragster lost traction near half-track, however, slowing to a 3.988 at 267.86. Reed earned the round win with a 3.783 at 327.03.
“It’s not the weekend we were looking or hoping for, for sure, but we made some gains and figured some other things out,” Brown said. “The track here got a little tricky on us, and there wasn’t much qualifying, but we felt really competitive.
“We have four races left, and to get ourselves back in contention, we have to try to win the next two races. We’re going to take it one round at a time, but we know we have a team that’s capable of doing it. We’re going to stay humble and hungry and get after it. That’s all we can do.
“We’re going to St. Louis next weekend, and the main focus is that we have to qualify better and do better,” Brown added. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, keep our heads down and figure out what we need to do.”
Brown and the Matco Tools team will return to competition Oct. 2-4 at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. The event marks the third of six races in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship.
