Antron Brown drove his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster to the provisional No. 4 qualifying
position Friday evening at Virginia Motorsports Park. The seven-time Top Fuel winner posted two
solid laps on Friday with a day's best elapsed time of 3.856-seconds.
Brown enters the fourth race in the Countdown to 1, the fourth annual Virginia NHRA Nationals,
ranked fourth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings trailing Tony Schumacher by 120 points. On his opening
qualifying effort, the 23-time NHRA winner used a tune-up from crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark
Oswald to power the bright blue Matco Tools dragster to a lap of 3.856 seconds at 315.49 mph. It
also was the fastest run of the round and earned the MAR Matco Tools team three bonus points. On
Friday's second attempt, Brown blasted down the right lane at the Richmond-area track in 3.861 at
312.57 to finish in the provisional No. 4 qualifying position.
"It was a good day for our MAR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "The car repeated and made two really
consistent and quick runs. We're happy with that. We got three bonus points and finished in the top
half of the field. This is our weekend to get it all going in the right direction here at Richmond
and finish up strong in this Countdown (to 1)."
Professional nitro qualifying is scheduled for 12:30 and 3 p.m. (ET) on Saturday afternoon at
Virginia Motorsports Park. Top Fuel will run first followed by Funny Car. Last year, Brown
qualified the Matco Tools car eighth at the Richmond race at 3.823-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 Systems, 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.
