Houston Raceway Park is where Antron Brown picked up his career-first Top Fuel victory in 2008, and he was hoping for another ‘first’ on Sunday at the NHRA SpringNationals as he made a run for his first win as an NHRA team owner.
Brown’s weekend got off to a promising start when he posted two solid runs during qualifying, clocking the fourth-quickest run of Q3 in addition to his 3.704-second Q1 pass which placed him sixth on the Top Fuel elimination ladder. The three-time world champ lined up opposite Clay Millican on Sunday morning, but his machine overpowered the track early into the run while Millican made a clean pass for the win.
“The track was going away a little bit with the sun coming out and we were just pressing hard,” said Brown of his first-round elimination run. “Our car has been really aggressive coming out of the jiggle zone, which is at about 80-feet out and we have to keep working on calming the car down there. It bit us in qualifying for Q2 and we eased it back and had it under control for Q3 and ran a great 3.71, but then it bit us again in the first round. Brian (Corradi), Mark (Oswald), and the boys are working hard and we need more laps. The more laps we make with this Matco Tools car for Toyota and Lucas Oil, the better we’ll get. We’re looking forward to going to Charlotte for the Four-Wide Nationals. We’ll get four qualifying laps, gather more data and R&D, and get ready and see if we can pull off a win at the Four-Wides.”
Earlier in the weekend, Brown announced a partnership with El Paso, Texas-based Western Technical College, and welcomed the first of three Western Tech interns to the AB Motorsports/Justin Ashley pits. The Western Tech crew will join No. 10 ranked Brown and the AB Motorsports team at zMAX Dragway for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, April 29 – May 1.
Qualified: No. 6 (3.704 E.T. at 330.55 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 5.439 E.T. at 136.12 MPH defeated by Clay Millican 3.754 E.T. at 321.42 MPH
NHRA Camping World Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):
| 1 | Brittany Force | 420 | |
| 2 | Steve Torrence | 388 | |
| 3 | Justin Ashley | 367 | |
| 4 | Mike Salinas | 349 | |
| 5 | Clay Millican | 281 | |
| 6 | Austin Prock | 253 | |
| 7 | Tony Schumacher | 227 | |
| 8 | Josh Hart | 220 | |
| 9 | Doug Kalitta | 206 | |
| 10 | Antron Brown | 198 |
AB Motorsports PR
