Four-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown\u2019s weekend at the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS came to an end in the opening round of eliminations Sunday at Maryland International Dragway.<\/p>\n
Brown and the Matco Tools team opened qualifying with a solid 3.950-second pass at 312.21 mph despite dropping a cylinder near the finish line. The run placed the Matco Tools Eagle Experience Top Fuel dragster in the provisional No. 9 position.<\/p>\n
The team improved during the Friday evening qualifying, posting a 3.823-second pass at 329.42 mph to move up to the No. 7 spot.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s first session also served as the opening round of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, where Brown faced Leah Pruett in a rematch of their Chicago matchup. Brown held the starting-line advantage with a .073 reaction time to Pruett\u2019s .085, but Pruett drove around him at the finish line with a 3.811-second run to Brown\u2019s 3.848.<\/p>\n
In the final qualifying session, Brown\u2019s dragster encountered tire smoke around half-track, preventing any improvement on the leaderboard. The NHRA Top 75 driver ultimately secured the No. 9 qualifying position and a first-round matchup against Justin Ashley.<\/p>\n
Prior to eliminations, Brown and Ashley were featured as the NHRA\u2019s marquee matchup. Both drivers are widely regarded as among the best on the starting line, and Brown jokingly noted during pre-race festivities that while Ashley\u2019s sponsor, Scag Power Equipment, is known for mowing grass, \u201cI\u2019m one tough weed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two standout leavers delivered another competitive race in the opening round. Ashley gained the starting-line advantage with a .036 reaction time to Brown\u2019s .057. Brown\u2019s Matco Tools machine began losing traction around half-track, forcing him to pedal the car, while Ashley encountered tire spin near the finish line. Despite Brown\u2019s efforts, Ashley reached the stripe first with a 3.995-second pass at 276.52 mph to Brown\u2019s 4.030 at 283.85 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe race track did a great job. It showed out. The fans came out, and I\u2019ll tell you what, this is a close thing for a hometown race, so this race is real special,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019m just really bummed that we went out first round, but we\u2019ll be back next year, and we\u2019ll get after it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved the feel of it, and can\u2019t wait to come back. We\u2019ve got Epping next week, and we will get back on that saddle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown and the Matco Tools team will now turn their attention to the NHRA New EnglandNationals presented by bproauto, June 5-7 at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.<\/p>\n
The post Antron Brown Makes Early Exit at Inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown\u2019s weekend at the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS came to an end in the opening round of eliminations Sunday at Maryland International Dragway. Brown and the Matco Tools team opened qualifying with a solid 3.950-second pass at 312.21 mph despite dropping a cylinder near the finish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}