BROWN, KALITTA LEAD TOYOTA IN NHRA TEXAS QUALIFYING 

ENNIS, TX – Antron Brown qualified third in Top Fuel and Doug Kalitta was fourth to lead Toyota into Sunday’s AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.
Brown, the two-time defending world champion, registered a 3.696-second pass at 329.91 mph to secure the third spot, with Kalitta just behind him with a 3.704 at 330.07 mph. After two consecutive days of temperatures in the low 90s, Sunday’s forecast calls for much cooler temperatures expected to be in the 60s for the first round of tomorrow’s eliminations.

“We ran right where we wanted to, even though we dropped a hole and I shut off a little early,” said Brown, who will be looking to repeat his 2016 FallNationals title on Sunday. “Besides that, we ran right where we wanted to, but we lost that one (bonus) point. I could’ve legged it out and actually outrun our teammate and get two points instead of one. It is what it is. Tomorrow’s where all the big points are made, so we have to be poised and get after it. We’ve got our work cut out for us the way these other cars are running, but I feel confident in our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota team to go out there and do what we do. We’re in the middle of a fight and we’ve got to fight hard. It’s going to be big differences out there (with Sunday’s weather) where the cars are going to run hard, run fast, run quick, and we’ve got to be ready for that change. The first round is going to be crucial for everybody to run hard and run good.”

Each of the other two Toyota Top Fuel drivers also qualified in the quick half of the field as Shawn Langdon placed seventh and Richie Crampton was eighth.  Langdon, the 2013 Top Fuel world champion, made headlines on Friday when it was announced he would make the switch to Funny Cars for Kalitta Motorsports in 2018.  He will replace Alexis DeJoria who announced her retirement earlier in the week.

DeJoria was the top qualifying Camry driver in Funny Car in ninth. Cruz Pedregon was 12th, J.R. Todd placed 14th and Del Worsham will start 15th.

Saturday’s final qualifying can be seen on FS1 Sunday at 1:00 p.m., while NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised live on FS1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. (EDT).