Antron Brown, a five-time Top Fuel winner this season, had another surprising early-round exit behind the wheel of his Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools dragster Sunday at zMax Dragway at Concord. The Matco Tools flagship driver now ranks second in the Countdown to 1 standings trailing Cory McClenathan by 10 points.

A day after racing the bright blue Matco Tools dragster to the No. 2 qualifying position for the second time this season (Las Vegas 1) with a run of 3.847 seconds at 317.87 mph, Brown was paired up against No. 15 qualifier Terry McMillen. The drivers used nearly identical reaction times as the Matco Tools/Toyota car uncharacteristically smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle. That allowed McMillen to pedal his way to the win with a pass of 5.223 at 167.51. Brown couldn't get the Matco-backed rail to regain traction and slowed to a lap of 6.849 at 115.05. It was the second straight opening-round loss for the Matco Tools/Lucas Oil dragster. Brown now has a record of 42-14 in 19 races this season with five wins in eight final-round appearances.

"This was a tough day for our Matco Tools team here at MAR," Brown said. "We had a mechanical malfunction with the throttle stop that messed up our burnout. We're positive moving forward and we're excited to get to Dallas next week.”

After his impressive No. 5 qualifying effort Doug Herbert drove the tiwi Top Fuel dragster through the first round of eliminations at his hometown track before falling to Doug Foley in the second.

“All in all we had a good weekend,” said Herbert, who was the only driver in the top half of the field that isn’t in the Countdown to 1 playoffs. “It’s disappointing to lose, but considering we haven’t run in five months and we made it to the second round, I think we did pretty well.”

The tiwi dragster took the win in Round 1 against No. 12 qualifier Pat Dakin. Herbert’s day ended during the second round when his blower belt broke and he fell to Foley.