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Matco’s Brown gets another pole at hometown track in New Jersey, Capps leads DSR Funny Cars with NAPA Dodge Charger R/T

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – It was warm on Friday with temperatures in the low 80s for opening day of the 48th annual NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J.

Then it got warmer on Saturday for the last day of qualifying with the thermometer reaching 85.

On Sunday for championship eliminations scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. (EDT) … it will be hot. The forecast high of 93, by any definition, is hot.

The rising temps make crew chiefs sweat even in the air-conditioned climes of their offices in Don Schumacher Racing technical trailers.

But DSR crew chiefs aren’t deterred by weather changes and accept challenges like Matco Tools’ crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald did Friday night when the three-time and reigning world champions with driver Antron Brown moved to the provisional pole with a track-record time of 3.713 seconds at the facility about 30 miles from his hometown of Chesterfield, N.J., and 45 miles south of New York City.

And it held up Saturday for Brown’s first No. 1 qualifying position of the season and the 48th of his career. It’s the fifth and second straight at his home track. He also won the Top Fuel pole in 2008 and twice in Pro Stock Motorcycle (2001, 2005).

“The track was better yesterday than everybody thought it was going to be,” said Brown, who has won the Summernationals three times but only once in Top Fuel (2015). “We were shooting to be top-five in qualifying, which we ended up accomplishing – we went No. 1, which is crucial for race day.

“It will be good to have that No. 1 spot tomorrow because that’s the thing we always shoot for so we pick of our lane and when we want to run. It sets us up for a good race day.”

Corradi agrees with his driver.

“The conditions were as close to the hottest we’ve seen all year and (Sunday) it should be 10 degrees hotter,” he said. “Sunday should be like today in the first round but after that when it heats up you’ll probably see some tire smoke, but hopefully not from us.”

Brown opens Sunday racing against Top Fuel rookie Blake Alexander and the winner will get a bye into the semifinals due to a short, 14-car field.

Brown, who won the New England Nationals title on Sunday, started this weekend trailing teammate and points leader Leah Pritchett (Dodge Demon/Pennzoil) by 34 points but has cut the gap to 24 heading into Sunday after outscoring her 5-1 in qualifying bonus points and winning the pole while she qualified No. 9 and will race Tony Schumacher, another teammate, in the opening round.

In Funny Car, reigning world champion and points leader Ron Capps with crew chief Rahn Tobler with the NAPA AUTO PARTS 2017 Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil were the quickest in the first and last sessions while earning bonus points in the other two sessions to outscore teammate Matt Hagan (Mopar Express Lane) by an 8-2 margin and qualified five positions higher to extend the points lead to 89.

“It was a great way to finish,” said Capps, who has four wins this year. “It was hot in Q3 and that’s what we’ll see at races coming this summer. Tobler is getting our Dodge ready for that.

“On Q4, he wanted to turn it up a notch and to be the quickest in the session is outstanding.  But Sunday is going to be hot and tricky. We won here a year ago in the same conditions and hopefully we’ll have a good time at the end of the day.”
Capps was the most consistent Funny Car at the legendary track with runs of 3.895 and 3.883 on Friday followed by: 3.963 and 3.951 on Saturday.

The NAPA team was the only Funny Car with both runs in the 3.8-second range on Friday.

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