Toyota NHRA Maple Grove Preview

BROWN LOOKS FOR SEVENTH ’15 WIN AT READING – Antron Brown will be looking for his seventh win of the season and his third consecutive win in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs when the series arrives at Maple Grove Raceway this weekend. The 2012 world champion has opened the playoffs with back-to-back wins at Charlotte and St. Louis to open up a 77-point championship lead. The New Jersey native will be returning back to the east coast to run in front of family and friends with a series-high six victories under his belt this season. It marks the fifth time in the last seven seasons that Brown has won six races – a feat no other Top Fuel driver has accomplished more than once during that span. Dating back to 2009, Brown has won 35 races – 11 more than any other driver in the series.

WORSHAM SET FOR READING AFTER RECORD-BREAKING WEEKEND – Del Worsham heads to Reading after a record-breaking weekend in St. Louis, where he not only won his second consecutive race, but established a new Funny Car record for low ET (3.899) and became the first Funny Car driver to run four three-second passes in one day, as well as register seven sub four-second runs in a weekend. With back-to-back victories to open the season, Worsham holds a 90-point championship lead. If he can maintain his position at the top over the next four races, he would become just the third driver in NHRA history to win championships in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, joining Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi.

Del Worsham: “(St. Louis) was the most successful weekend, driving performance-wise, that I’ve had in 25 years of racing Funny Cars. I’ll worry about the championship when we get to the final round at Pomona. Right now, we have to focus on Reading. Maple Grove’s a crazy place. When the weather is good, it’s as fast as any track out there and you can see a world record every session. With the low sea levels, it’s like the Pomona of the East Coast.”