Matco’s Brown second best again, loses ground to points leader; Hagan roars to No. 4 spot in Mopar/Rocky Dodge Charger R/T

POMONA, CA – Antron Brown was the second quickest Top Fuel dragster for the second straight day of the NHRA Mello Yello Series finale at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

Despite a run in 3.775 seconds at 322.42 mph Friday afternoon for Don Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi, Brown actually lost one point in his longshot quest to defend his NHRA Top Fuel world championship.

For the second time in 24 hours, Brown was topped by points leader Shawn Langdon of Al-Anabi Racing with a run of 3.750 (327.03).

The quickest in each session earns three bonus points while the next quickest gets two. That drops Brown to 104 points out of first with two qualifying sessions left Saturday leading to Sunday’s championship eliminations.

“We’re trying to keep up but that little joker right there, he always just picks one out,” Brown said of Langdon, whose home in Avon, Ind., is only a few miles from Brown’s in Pittsboro. They regularly meet with others from the NHRA community for friendly basketball games.

“(Antron’s) kicked our butt enough on the basketball court, and now I finally have a chance to get him on the track,” Langdon joked of the rivalry with his friend.

Brown knew it would take a monumental weekend for his Matco team and a disastrous one by Langdon’s for him to repeat as series champion.

A perfect weekend by a driver at Pomona, including an NHRA elapsed-time record, would produce 150 points. Langdon needs 47 over the next two days to clinch his first Top Fuel championship.

“We were just trying to pick up all three (qualifying bonus) points,” Brown said. “He got one point on us right there Thursday and did it again today. “But we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. It is what it is.

“The focus of our Matco team now is to just finish up the year as strong as we possibly can and just let everything else settle itself.

“We’re just trying to gain as much ground as we can.”

In Funny Car, Matt Hagan in the Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodger Charger R/T led DSR’s four Funny Car teams Friday with a best run of 4.043 (319.42) that moved him to the No. 4 qualifying position with the event’s fastest speed.

Jack Beckman, who was No. 1 after Thursday, fell to No. 8 when his MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline Dodge lost traction in the second session.

The Funny Car world championship has been clinched by John Force, but Hagan is trying to hold off Beckman for the No. 2 final position in the standings. Hagan goes into Saturday leading Beckman by 16.

Ironically, both are running with their assistant crew chiefs leading their teams along with support from Todd Okuhara, DSR’s director of racing. Terry Snyder guided Beckman to yesterday’s low time and Michael Knudsen help Hagan produced Friday’s top speed and fourth best run.

Dickie Venables, Hagan’s regular crew chief, is in Indianapolis recovering from intestinal surgery Wednesday. Get well wishes can be sent to venablesr@shoeracing.com.