Antron Brown came into the Mile-High Nationals leading the Top Fuel Dragster point standings.

And, he has lived up to his billing so far.

Brown won the pole in his Matco Tools entry with a track record time of 3.862 seconds during Saturday night's final qualifying session at the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals.

Cory McClenathan (3.882) and Tony Schumacher (3.895) were second and third in qualifying.

"I have to take my hat off to all the crew here at Bandimere Speedway," said Brown after winning his fifth pole of the season. "This is by far one of the best race tracks that I've ever driven on. Even though we're at the high-altitude, we were throwing the kitchen sink at it and our car is not spinning the tires. The only way you see a car shake the tires out there is because they're too weak for the race track, not because they're overpowering the track. When you go out there, it's kind of like Disneyland right now. I wish our race was (Sunday) night, but it's in the heat of the day and that will be another challenge."

Eliminations begin at noon Mountain Time today.

Brown said his team's approach to race weekends has been a key to its success.

"We're just out there having fun and when you have an all-star cast on our team like we have, everything just clicks and goes real easy," said Brown, who drives for Mike Ashley Racing. "The cool part about our (3.86) run was that the blower belt came off before the finish line, so the car actually slowed down. The car could've run a 3.85 and 320 mph. That could've been the first 320 mph speed that we've seen on the track and it would've been at the Mile High Nationals."
 

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