BROWN TAKES TOYOTA TO NHRA TOP FUEL FINAL AT GAINESVILLE

TORRANCE, CA – Antron Brown advanced to the Top Fuel final to lead Toyota at today’s Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at the Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville in Gainesville, Fla., the third round of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

Brown defeated Sidnei Frigo, Tony Schumacher and fellow Toyota driver Morgan Lucas in the first three rounds before hazing the tires in the final against Doug Kalitta. The final round loss ended a seven-round win streak for Brown, who won the most recent race at Phoenix.

“It was a good day. We felt like we were right there,” said Brown. “It just bit us a little bit. We were going for it and stepping it up because we knew we had to. We just hazed (the tires) there and it bit us a little bit. We’ll build from it and go to Vegas with our chins up and get after it there. It was a great outing for the Matco car at Gainesville. We’re one-and-one this year in final rounds and we’re looking forward to the next race.”

Lucas may have lost to Brown in the semi-finals, but it had to be considered a strong return to the seat for him in his first race of the season. He stepped out of the seat full-time at the end of last season and will run a partial season in 2014. Ironically, his first round of the year came against his replacement Richie Crampton. The rookie red-lighted and Lucas moved on to the second round where he defeated Spencer Massey.

Number one qualifier Shawn Langdon was upset in the opening round, with his Al-Anabi Racing teammate Khalid alBalooshi also falling in his first run.

In Funny Cars, Del Worsham was the only Toyota driver to advance past the first round with a win over Tommy Johnson, before losing in the second round to John Force. Cruz Pedregon earned the number one qualifier on Saturday, only to be rewarded with a match-up against Force in the first round, which he dropped in a tight battle. Chad Head, Tony Pedregon and Alexis DeJoria each lost in their opening runs as well.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Las Vegas next for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, March 28-30