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Pep Boys NHRA Nationals
Event 16 of 21
Countdown Event 1 of 6
Maple Grove Raceway
Reading, Pa.
Sept. 15 - 17, 2023
Antron Brown Not Slowing Down Championship Chase Despite Quarterfinal Exit at Maple Grove
Qualified: No. 5 (3.716 E.T. at 329.50 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.758 E.T. at 322.96 MPH defeated Doug Foley 3.771 E.T. at 323.50 MPH
E2: 3.728 E.T. at 333.00 MPH defeated by Steve Torrence 3.690 E.T. at 334.48 MPH
Note: On-track activities at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals were suspended after the second round of eliminations due to persistent rain. Eliminations will resume at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 18 at Maple Grove Raceway.
MOHNTON, Pa. (September 17, 2023) – Antron Brown was looking for a third consecutive event win to start the NHRA Countdown to the Championship at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, but a close second-round match with fellow multi-time world champion Steve Torrence didn’t go Brown’s way. The quarterfinal performance showed the potential in Brown’s Matco Tools ‘Test Drive’ Top Fuel dragster, so he’s confident his AB Motorsports team is ready to continue the Countdown portion of the NHRA Camping World Series season.Qualified: No. 5 (3.716 E.T. at 329.50 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.758 E.T. at 322.96 MPH defeated Doug Foley 3.771 E.T. at 323.50 MPH
E2: 3.728 E.T. at 333.00 MPH defeated by Steve Torrence 3.690 E.T. at 334.48 MPH
Note: On-track activities at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals were suspended after the second round of eliminations due to persistent rain. Eliminations will resume at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 18 at Maple Grove Raceway.
Brown, who went into the weekend ranked third in points, opened Friday qualifying with the second-quickest pass of the session to pick up two bonus points. He was the fifth-quickest in the second session with a 3.716-second pass at 321.50 MPH, which held up for the No. 5 qualifying position on the final qualifying order after two more sessions on Saturday. Brown suffered a supercharger backfire on the third session and wounded an engine on the final attempt, though his Matco Tools ‘Test Drive’ team led by Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald worked hard to get the car right for race day.
Sunday eliminations began with a first-round match against Doug Foley in the final pair of the round. Brown left the starting line first, and even though he dropped a cylinder and lost momentum with a flash of flames at the finish line, he held on to win with a 3.758-second pass over Foley’s 3.771 E.T. In the second round, Brown grabbed a starting line advantage with his .031 reaction time over fellow Toyota driver Steve Torrence, but Torrence started to pull ahead and won with a 3.69-second effort ahead of Brown’s 3.728 E.T. at 333.00 MPH.
“The good part at the end of the day is we had some things plaguing us and we worked through it,” said Brown, a two-time winner at Maple Grove. “We worked through some issues. We hurt some parts and pieces. The guys stayed resilient and kept working through it. We got a good lap there against Steve-O, just lost a really close drag race. We just needed a little bit more. We put ourselves behind the eight-ball the way we were hurting things, but the good part is we got it fixed. Everything is back to where it needs to be and running good.”
Brown won’t let a second-round exit at the first Countdown race slow down the momentum he built going into the playoffs. He’s a 15-time winner of Countdown races, the most of any driver in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes. The second-year team owner is pursuing a fourth series title and the first for AB Motorsports.
“We're very much looking forward to getting to Charlotte,” Brown said. “Our main focus is to go in there and qualify well and take it one round at a time and give it everything we've got to make it happen.”
Brown and the No. 5 ranked Matco Tools ‘Test Drive’/Hangsterfer’s/Sirius XM Top Fuel team will get back on track Sept. 22-24 at the betway NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.
About AB Motorsports
Established in 2019, AB Motorsports is a single-car NHRA Top Fuel team owned and operated by three-time world champion Antron Brown. The team competes on the 21-race NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series circuit thanks to the support of Matco Tools, Lucas Oil, Toyota, SiriusXM, Factory Motor Parts and its FVP brand, Hangsterfer’s Metal Working Lubricants, and Summit Racing Equipment.Headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., AB Motorsports made its on-track debut in 2022, racing to three wins in four final rounds to finish second in the standings in its rookie season.
Brown, who serves as both the driver and owner of the AB Motorsports Top Fuel dragster, is the only competitor in NHRA history to have won races in both the Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle categories. Brown is a 74-time NHRA national event winner and became the first Black driver to win a major U.S. auto racing championship when he captured the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel series title.
For more information, visit www.antronbrown.com or @antronbrown on Twitter, and @antronbrowntf on Instagram and Facebook.
