Brown, a 20-time NHRA winner, enters the 12th race on the 2009 NHRA schedule leading the NHRA Top Fuel standings. The Matco Tools flagship driver used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to power the bright blue Matco Tools car to the second quickest pass of Friday's opening qualifying session. The four-time Top Fuel winner clocked a lap of 4.011 seconds at 289.94 mph in the Matco Tools/SpongeTech dragster. Only Larry Dixon was quicker in the session when the Norwalk race track was 122-degrees.

Friday evening, under the lights at the beautiful Ohio facility, Brown improved on his opening effort. The former college track star used Corradi and Oswald horsepower to blister the Norwalk track in 3.933 at 305.01 to earn the provisional No. 5 qualifying position. Larry Dixon earned the provisional pole at 3.882-seconds. The Matco Tools/Lend America car was the fastest of the day at 305.01. Brown has posted the three fastest speeds this season and has earned top speed of the meet honors five times in 11 races.

"We're solidly in the show with that 3.93 we ran on Friday night," Brown said. "It's all good with our MAR Matco Tools team here at Norwalk. That track is really tricky, but Mark (Oswald) and Brian (Corradi) have a really good handle on things. They've won here before and we're really confident with our hot-track setup. Now, we'll just work on fine-tuning things for race day."

Professional nitro qualifying is scheduled for 1 and 3 p.m. (ET) Saturday afternoon at Summit Racing Motorsports Park. Top Fuel will run first followed by Funny Car. Brown qualified sixth last June at Norwalk at 4.652-seconds and posted a quarterfinal finish. Brown's team owner, Mike Ashley, won the inaugural Norwalk race in 2007 when he outran legend Kenny Bernstein in the final round.

Headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., Mike Ashley Racing fields the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster driven by Antron Brown. MAR proudly represents racing partners Matco Tools, Lend America, DirecTV, Toyota, SpongeTechR Delivery Systerms, Ringer's Gloves, Go Fast! Sports, Goodyear, FRAM, Autolite, Impact! Racing, Connexions Sports and Entertainment, and Forward Sports Marketing (FSM).

Mike Ashley Racing supports Autism Awareness through their support of the Hyperbaric Therapy Center. A 2007 Centers for Disease Control report found that 1 in 150 children in America today have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and an estimated 1.5 million Americans and their families are now affected. Autism is a national health crisis, and Mike Ashley Racing is working to help educate the public about ways they can get involved. Visit the Heal Autism Now website for more information about how you can get involved at http://www.healautismnow.org

Courtesy of Ted Yerzyk