BROWN, TODD TAKE TOYOTA TO RICHMOND NHRA FINALS
RICHMOND, VA –Antron Brown advanced to the Top Fuel final, while J.R. Todd did the same in Funny Car as the 
top finishing Toyota drivers in the NHRA Virginia Nationals at the Virginia Motorsports Park, Sunday.
Despite qualifying only 11th, Brown had showed signs in Saturday’s qualifying that he would be a contender on Sunday after placing second and fourth in the final two qualifying sessions and that held true throughout the day. He opened the day with a win over Leah Pritchett with an impressive 3.872-second run. In the second round, Brown had a substantial advantage on the tree and went on to defeat Brittany Force by more than a quarter of a second.
As temperatures soared into the 90s with track temps hitting 140 degrees, Brown was on a good pass in the semifinals until the car threw the blower belt off, but he held on for the win as Mike Salinas overpowered the track early. That set up the final round match-up with Steve Torrence.
In the final, the two left together, but Brown pulled out a sizable advantage early and took a three-hundredths of a second lead to the 330’ mark shortly before suffering a hole out. Despite the loss in power, he maintained the lead until around the 800-foot mark when Torrence eventually chased him down for the win.
“We were really gaining ground on a hot, hot track today,” said the three-time world champion. “In the final, the car was running well, then we dropped a hole out there, but I didn’t do my job on the starting line. I was really crisp all day long. We had an .064, an .055 and an .067 in the first three rounds. And if I had just done the same job that would have brought this win home. We were three-hundredths out in front of him. We out 60-footed him, we out 330’d him and it dropped a hole just before then. We were still two-hundredths quicker than him at half-track with no mile-an-hour, so we were still out in front because we both basically cut the same light. We’re usually two of the quickest-leavers in the class and that tree caught both of us off-guard. I’m just kicking myself in the butt. You want something so bad and then you go and shoot yourself in the foot. We’ll just get back after them, but I really thought this was going to be our time to get the win. We had it right where we wanted and that’s just what it is. It’s going to be hard, but once we break through and get that first win, I think we’re going to be just fine.”
Todd proved to the dominant driver through much of the day, with his DHL Camry easily running the quickest times of both the second and third round. Starting from the fourth position, he defeated Bob Tasca in the opening round to set up a second-round showdown with teammate Shawn Langdon, who defeated Tim Wilkerson in his opening run. The Camry Funny Cars posted the two best times of round two, with Todd taking the win. In the semifinals, Todd had a healthy lead at the tree and went on to an easy win over Jonnie Lindberg as he ran .172-seconds quicker than any driver in the session.
Todd had lane choice in the finals against Ron Capps, but was up in smoke right at the hit and appeared to bang it as the chutes came out, giving Capps the win.
“We are not exactly sure what happened,” relayed the 2018 Funny Car world champion. “There is really no excuse because the guy next to us went down the track. It is definitely not the way we wanted to end the day. It was still a good weekend for us. We moved up in the points. I think we have a good hot track tune-up, which is encouraging. It is not going to be getting any cooler.”
Both Richie Crampton and Doug Kalitta were eliminated in their opening runs in Top Fuel. Crampton made a good clean pass, but fell to Austin Prock, 3.866-3.901.Kalitta had the starting line advantage on Scott Palmer in his run, but was up in smoke quickly and was eliminated.
The 2019 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is off next weekend before heading to Chicago and the Route 66 Raceway for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, May 31- June 2.
