While Antron Brown was watching the second round of nitro Funny Car qualifying Friday evening at New England Dragway, he expected to post a low elapsed time himself.

And, the world champion Top Fuel driver did.

Brown clocked a track record ET of 3.770 seconds at 323.58 mph to claim the provisional pole at the second annual New England Nationals.

“After the first session, the track definitely had some teeth in it,” said Brown, who pilots the Matco Tools dragster for Don Schumacher Racing. “The first session we went on a good run (3.790) and we came back and we just wanted to improve on it. We definitely wanted to run lower than a 77 but the track was so good, it had such great teeth, that it sucked some of the tune-up out of the race car on the starting line. We actually went slower in 60 foot into 330 than our first run, but it made it up everywhere else down the track because Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) gave it that 1-2 power punch and it definitely picked up the mph to half-track and out the back half and made up numbers there. That’s how were able to improve. We were definitely wanting to shoot for a lower ET than that, but it still feels good to sneak out of there with that No. 1.”

Following his performance, Brown made a point to praise the conditions at New England Dragway.

“It was incredible out there, it had some teeth,” Brown said. “Hopefully we will get another session like that (Saturday) so we can get another lick at it. We were shooting for a 74 out there. Brian and Mark, they put the car on a run like when we ran a 74 at Atlanta (earlier in the season). We just needed a little bit more early. It wore some clutch that lap and that’s a good indication telling how good the track is. It made the tires hook and something has to give and it gave in the clutch department and we won’t underestimate that again.”

Brown has 35 No. 1 qualifying positions in his Top Fuel career, including one this season in Las Vegas.

“It is very, very possible it (the track will maintain its bite) because we run earlier (Saturday),” Brown said.

Brown arrived to Epping second in the point standings, thanks to wins at the season-opening Winternationals and Houston.

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.