BROWN PACES TOYOTA IN BRAINERD NHRA QUALIFYING
TORRANCE, CA – Antron Brown stormed to his third number one qualifier of the season in Top Fuel to lead Toyota’s qualifying 
efforts for Sunday’s NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn.
Brown registered the fastest pass of both Saturday sessions including a thrilling 3.810-second pass to take the top spot on his last qualifying run of the weekend. He gained four points in qualifying this weekend on Doug Kalitta to close the gap between first and second to 72 points with two races remaining before the Countdown to the Championship playoffs begin.
“On the first run of the day, the track was still hot so we knew we couldn’t go for the number one spot,” said Brown. “The cloud cover came in and we were pushing to run better. My Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota boys did an incredible job. We’ll take that number one and all the bonus points we can get.”
Not far behind Brown were fellow Toyota drivers Shawn Langdon in third and Richie Crampton in fourth. Langdon ran the second-quickest pass of the day on Friday and Crampton turned the same feat on Saturday. Khalid alBalooshi placed 10th, while Morgan Lucas, making just his third start of the season, was 12th.
In Funny Car, Alexis DeJoria jumped from 13th to sixth in her final run of the weekend to lead the Camry entries. Cruz Pedregon was second after the first day of qualifying, but cooling track conditions after a Saturday rain saw him drop to seventh. Tony Pedregon also felt the affects of the last-round weather change as he fell from fourth to eighth where he will match-up with fellow Camry driver Del Worsham in tomorrow’s first round. Chad Head qualified 14th.
ESPN2’s qualifications show can be seen tonight at 11 p.m., while Sunday’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series eliminations will be televised on the network beginning at 9:00 p.m. (all times ET).
