Toyota NHRA Seattle Advance

BROWN HOLDS RARE DISTINCTION IN SEATTLE – Antron Brown will arrive in Seattle this week as the defending champion in a race he actually won 1,560 miles away in Brainerd, Minn., after rain in Seattle postponed the final round in 2016. The three-time world champ defeated T.J. Zizzo, Clay Millican and Morgan Lucas before the rains set in and pushed the finals to the following race in Brainerd. Two weeks later, Brown picked up right where he left off, defeating Steve Torrence with a 3.737-second pass for his fourth win of the 2016 season on the way to the Top Fuel title.

Brown will be looking for his third Seattle victory this weekend and his second in this year’s Western Swing after previously winning at Denver. He also registered a runner-up finish last weekend in Sonoma. The three-time world champion has advanced to the finals in six of the last eight Top Fuel events. For the season, Brown has three wins, eight final round appearances and has progressed to the semi-finals or beyond 10 times.

AFTER HISTORIC WIN, TODD LOOKS TO CONTINUE SUCCESS IN SEATTLE – J.R. Todd arrives in Seattle after registering an historic victory in Sonoma this past Sunday.  Todd earned his first career Funny Car win and in the process, he became just the 16th driver in NHRA history to win in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, as well as the first African-American driver in history to win in Funny Car. The DHL Toyota driver also became just the second driver in NHRA history to win at the same track in a different Nitro class in consecutive years after winning at Sonoma in Top Fuel in 2016.  This weekend, Todd will look to become just the third driver in history to win at Pacific Raceways in both Top Fuel, where he was victorious in 2015, and Funny Car, joining Del Worsham and Gary Scelzi.

SEATTLE TALK:

Antron Brown: “It was great to win the race last year, but I wish we could have finished up in Seattle for all the fans that came out.  Our Matco Tools/Toyota dragster was really there and in the final, we had a great race versus Steve Torrence – who we have matched up with a lot this year. Seattle’s always been good to us.  I can’t wait to get up there again and try to end the Western Swing on a good note. There are only two races left in the regular season after next week, so, hopefully, we can start to build some momentum in Seattle this weekend to try to get that number one seed heading into the Countdown.”

J.R. Todd: “We knew it was only a matter of time before the team started to get a handle on things and it would start going in the right direction. I think this DHL Toyota Camry has finally turned the corner. Now we need to continue to build off this in Seattle. We still have a lot of work to do to make these things consistently competitive – especially in qualifying. Hopefully, by the time the Countdown rolls around we will be ready to get after it.”

Alexis DeJoria: “Seattle has so many great memories for us. I got my first Alcohol Funny Car win there (second woman in history to win a national Top Alcohol Funny Car event) and we’ve done very well there in the past in our Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car. It’s one of the west coast races and it’s always great to be back there. We’re going to need to start making up some points. It’s going to go down to the wire and I’m up against some really tough competition for that final playoff spot, including a couple of our other Toyota drivers. So, things are going to be really exciting this weekend.”