BROWN, LANGDON LEAD TOYOTA AT MAPLE GROVE NHRA QUALIFYING

MOHNTON, PA – Antron Brown placed sixth in Top Fuel, while Shawn Langdon did the same in Funny Car to lead Toyota heading into Sunday’s NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the first round of the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Brown earned bonus points for qualifying in the top three in two of the weekend’s four sessions with a best run of 3.767 seconds at 328.22 mph.  He will race Brittany Force in tomorrow’s opening round of eliminations.

“We made three good runs in qualifying this weekend and we’re in a good spot heading into tomorrow,” said Brown, a three-time Top Fuel world champion. “We were able to get bonus points in two sessions. It’s going to be a fun day and we’re ready for it.”

Doug Kalitta and Richie Crampton qualified eighth and ninth and the teammates will square off in an all-Kalitta Motorsports Toyota first-round match-up.

Langdon continued his strong late-season run in qualifying sixth in his Global Electronic Technology Toyota Camry with a 3.944-second pass at 327.90 mph. The 2013 Top Fuel world champion, who made the move to Funny Cars prior to this season, has now qualified in the top half of the field in eight consecutive races and in the top six in three of the last four events as he pursues his first Funny Car win.  He will take on defending serious champion Robert Hight on Sunday.

Just .003 seconds and two positions behind Langdon in eighth is his teammate J.R. Todd, who is coming off his second consecutive win at the U.S. Nationals. He ran the quickest pass in Saturday’s first session to earn three bonus points. Todd will open Sunday’s competition against Bob Tasca.

Cruz Pedregon rounded out the Camry contingent in 13th and will match-up with Jack Beckman in eliminations.

FS1 will kick off its Sunday NHRA coverage with a one-hour recap of qualifying from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., with the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations show beginning on the network at 7:30 p.m. (all times EDT).