Antron Brown Overpowers Track in Opening Round at Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Antron Brown went into race day at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals hoping to repeat his double-up victory at Brainerd International Raceway last season. An unexpected bout of tire smoke in the opening round of eliminations prevented Brown from moving on to add the overall event victory to his Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Top Fuel Challenge win from Saturday night. Still, the six-time Lucas Oil Nationals winner leaves Brainerd fifth in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series points standings with just one race left before the Countdown to the Championship begins.
Brown in his Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster returned to Brainerd as the defending event winner, who also earned his first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win at Brainerd last season. He posted a 3.768-second pass at 330.31 mph in the first qualifying session to sit fifth. Following the run, Brown got to add his name to the ‘Countdown Clinched’ board. Brown went up in smoke early in the second session, but he came back in the third session on Saturday and raced to a 3.814 E.T. to get past two-time world champion Brittany Force in the first round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. Brown’s 3.842 E.T. in the second round wasn’t quick enough to improve on the qualifying order, but it was enough to defeat four-time world champion Steve Torrence to claim Brown’s second Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the season and the third of his career.
Motivated to earn a second consecutive double-up at Brainerd, Brown started race day from the No. 11 position against reigning world champion Doug Kalitta in a monster matchup. Brown moved first in the all-Toyota pairing, but he started to drive into tire smoke by the time he reached the 330-foot mark. The three-time world champion had to lift off the throttle and coast across the finish line, while Kalitta made a clean pass to get the round win.
“Just listening to Brian (Corradi, co-crew chief), we think that maybe our engine was a little bit over center, just making more power than what we think it is,” said Brown, who’s won in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle at Brainerd. “It’s really snappy and we weren’t planning on smoking the tires out there. We’re just glad that’s happening here before we get to Indy and before the Countdown. Our car has been pretty much on point everywhere we go. We had a couple miscues; a couple of things going wrong. We just have to keep our heads down and keep working.”
Brown and the AB Motorsports team plan to test at Brainerd International Raceway on Monday to prepare for the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals, Aug. 28-Sept. 2, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Brown is a five-time winner of the NHRA’s marquee event, with two in Pro Stock Motorcycle and three in Top Fuel, including the past two years.
“I’m just getting excited because the Big Go is right around the corner and we always love racing at Indy,” said Brown, a three-time winner this season. “We’ve had some success in the last two years in a row. I just want to see if we can redo that again this year.”
This story was originally published on August 19, 2024.
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