When the track conditions are at their nastiest; when the thermometer begs for mercy; that is the time Top Fuel racer Antron Brown turns into one cool player on the NHRA Full Throttle Series.

On a Friday where the track temperature remained largely in the 140-degree range, Brown drove his Matco Tools-sponsored dragster to the top of the provisional qualifying list with a 3.856 elapsed time at 314.24 miles per hour.

If his run holds through Saturday qualifying it will mark his fourth No. 1 of the season and 25th of his career.

When the track conditions are at their nastiest; when the thermometer begs for mercy; that is the time Top Fuel racer Antron Brown turns into one cool player on the NHRA Full Throttle Series.

On a Friday where the track temperature remained largely in the 140-degree range, Brown drove his Matco Tools-sponsored dragster to the top of the provisional qualifying list with a 3.856 elapsed time at 314.24 miles per hour.

If his run holds through Saturday qualifying it will mark his fourth No. 1 of the season and 25th of his career.

“It's about that time again this year,” agreed Brown, who swept last season’s NHRA Western Swing in July. “I think a lot of other teams have stepped up to the plate when the track gets hot. Brandon (Bernstein) is doing well when the tracks hot. Dixon does well when the track is hot with Jason McCullough behind him.

“We like it when it gets hot. We go off some of our notes last year, doing what we did. We won a lot of races and went to a lot of final races when the tracks got hot and slimy. But, we also didn't always make it down the track every time when it was hot and slimy. This year we are looking forward to going A to B, that is our motto – like my initial. That is what it takes to go rounds out here. Every round is crucial.”

Brown was over .02 quicker than his nearest foe, teammate Cory McClenathan. Larry Dixon was third, followed by Bernstein.

“I think after this race we have five races left to the Countdown,” Brown said. “All these races are important. Our team goal is to get into that top three. There is still a lot of racing left and we're going to start here in Bristol.”

Will the run hold? Brown can’t help but wonder with two sessions remaining.

“You never know what is going to stand out there,” Brown admitted. “You have some phenomenal race cars out there. Tony Schumacher, our teammate was geared up to run in the mid 3.80's. Then you have Cory Mac behind us, Larry Dixon behind us and Shawn Langdon behind us, too. His car has been running phenomenal lately. We have a lot of great talented teams out here. My deal was, once I knew there was only two cars left I told my boys at least were in the top three. At least we can get a point or so from the qualifying points because that plays a big key.

“Our team is playing a little catch up right now. We just want to keep on doing well, like this, and we just want to carry it into race day. We got down that hot track with a nice easy run. The track changed and everyone made big changes to get down the track because it was considerably better tonight. We though there was about a mid-80 out there tonight and we nailed it right on. We went off a run we had before and she went right down there; tiptoed right on down through there and wasn't any trouble at all.”