Antron Brown Builds Momentum with Final-Quad Finish at Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals
Three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown backed up his No. 2 qualifying position by racing to a final-round finish at the Four-Wide Nationals Sunday afternoon at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte. The driver of the Matco Tools 45th Anniversary Toyota dragster has now visited the final quad at five of the last eight Four-Wide events going back to 2021, when he reached the final round at both the Las Vegas and Charlotte races. Brown leaves Charlotte sixth in the points standings.
In qualifying, Brown made a clean 3.761-second pass to start the weekend as the No. 6 qualifier. That gave co-crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald the data they needed to send Brown on a 3.698-second, 332.18 MPH pass in the second session to move up to the No. 2 spot, collecting two bonus points in the process. Brown, who won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals, used a 3.768-second pass in the third session to win the first round of the Charlotte Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. He was second off the line in the final round, which also counted as the final qualifying session, but drove into tire smoke and shut it off. He maintained the No. 2 spot for Sunday eliminations.
Race day for Brown started with NHRA’s Top Fuel Marquee Matchup, which also featured Toyota teammates Shawn Langdon and Steve Torrence, as well as Brittany Force, for a total of 10 NHRA world championships among the four. Brown left the starting line first and laid down low E.T. of the round, a 3.718 E.T. at 334.48 MPH, to finish ahead of Langdon and Torrence. In the second round, Brown met Force again, joining Justin Ashley and Tony Stewart. Brown made it to the finish line second with a 3.728 E.T. at 333.66 MPH, beating Force and Stewart to the stripe for a spot in the final quad.
The final round saw Brown and Ashley leave the line first with nearly identical reaction times, and while Brown’s Matco Tools hot rod was quick to the 60-foot mark, he started to smoke the tires and had to coast to a 4.78 E.T. at 163.31 MPH.
“It was absolutely a good race weekend and I just want to build off this momentum going into Joliet,” said Brown, a six-time winner at zMAX Dragway. “We’re making headway. We’re always moving forward. I just love it. Just love the way the team’s coming together and the momentum that we’re building. We constantly just keep getting better and better and better. We know that race win is just around the corner. We’re just going to keep pressing, keep doing what we do, and looking forward to getting to Chicago.”
The next stop for Brown and the AB Motorsports team will come in three weeks at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, May 16-19, at Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago.
This story was originally published on April 29, 2024.
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