Antron Brown, the current NHRA Top Fuel point's leader, powered his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools
dragster to the No. 4 qualifying position Friday evening at O'Reilly Raceway Park to begin
qualifying at the 55th annual U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.
Brown, a five-time winner this season, made the most of his opening qualifying attempt as the
23-time winner used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald to card the fourth
quickest pass of the day. Brown's bright blue Matco Tools/DirecTV car clocked a performance of
3.912 seconds at 306.74 mph. It was the second fastest run of the session for the fastest driver in
1,000-foot racing. Only three cars ran in the 3.8-second range on Friday evening.
"That was a good opening run for our MAR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "That was a long session in
a very long day. I was out here early at O.R.P. for the Army Y.E.S. (Youth and Education Services)
program and we kept on going from there. The highlight was shooting our ESPN segment, Getting Down
With Brown, with my drag racing hero "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. It's awesome to see "Big Daddy" back
here racing at the U.S. Nationals. We're happy with the day and will do our best to improve on
Saturday."
Professional nitro qualifying is scheduled for 1:45 and 7 p.m. (ET) on Saturday at O'Reilly Raceway
Park. Top Fuel will run first followed by Funny Car. Brown raced his Matco Tools dragster to a
semifinal finish at the U.S. Nationals last September after qualifying eighth at 3.878-seconds.
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
