There is nothing quite like springtime in Las Vegas.

At least not for Antron Brown.

For the past two years, the three-time Top Fuel champion has jump-started his NHRA campaign with spring wins at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway leading to 11 wins and a championship over the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Sitting winless once again in 2018, Brown hopes that another strong outing this weekend will get the Matco Tools team up and running for another run at the Top Fuel title.

And Brown got his weekend off to yet another great start with a chart-topping 3.772-second pass at 324.83 mph to take the provisional top spot at the the 19th annual DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, NHRA’s first four-wide event on the West Coast.

“When we came out for Q1 our Matco Tool boys underestimated this track. We knew it was going to be a green track, but the NHRA Safety Safari and all of the people that worked on it made this track top notch,” Brown said. “When we came out first we were weak. I think all of the cars were weak because they didn’t think there was going to be much traction. When we came back up for the second round we got it back close to being a normal setup and that car went right down the racetrack smooth and easy.”

Brown edged Doug Kalitta in the Mac Tools dragster who posted a 3.786 at 320.51 mph. Brown’s teammate Leah Pritchett is qualified third with a 3.802 at 320.58 mph, while Tony Schumacher (3.817) and Billy Torrence (3.819) round out the top five.

If Brown’s time holds, it will be 50th career No. 1 qualifier.

“The track looks really, really good, but Saturday is going to be cooler. We are hoping we can stay in the top half of the field,” Brown said. “Our gameplan is to keep on pressing and trying to get better for Sunday. We haven’t been hitting our marks like we want to and Vegas has always been a good race for us to do that. Hopefully we can carry it forward like we have in previous years.”

But it won’t be easy.

Not only is Brown and the rest of the Don Schumacher Racing team looking to break into the win column for the first time in 2018, but they will have the added dimension of the unique four-wide format to deal with if they hope to repeat at Vegas for a third consecutive year.

“It would be awesome to get it done here,” Brown said. “We are second in points, but the funny part is we have been struggling. And if we are second in points now, imagine what we can do when we hit our stride. The first three races of the year, honestly, we could have won every single one of them. We just didn’t execute the way we are capable of. We are trying to get that nucleus to gel and hopefully this can be a breakout race for us.

“If we can get our stride and get to where we need to be, we can start picking off some round wins and, after that, race wins.”

So what has been the secret to Brown’s Vegas magic these past few years? Perfect timing.

“I think it is that fourth race of the season where everybody is starting to get everything dialed in and all of the cobwebs out,” Brown said. “This DSR team is starving for a win and we’ve got three great teams with Tony, Leah and myself. We will see what we can do.”