The world champion flexed his muscles Sunday.
Four-time and reigning Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown and his AB Motorsports Matco Tools team wasted no time in showing their prowess, winning the season-opening AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
Brown clocked a 3.673-elapsed time at 333.99 mph to edge Shawn Langdon’s 3.684, 332.67 mph in the final round. It was Brown’s 81st national event win – 65 in Top Fuel and 16 in Pro Stock Motorcycle. It’s also Brown’s second career win at the Gatornationals to go with his 2013 trophy.
Brown, a six-time winner in 2024, made his NHRA debut aboard a Pro Stock Motorcycle in 1998 at the Gatornationals.
On Sunday, Brown ousted Krista Baldwin, Clay Millican, and Steve Torrence before getting the better of Langdon.
“You got to remember, when we get in the cars, we’re like gladiators,” Brown said. “We don’t know any better. We’re just the nuts behind the steering wheel, the loose nuts. So, when we go up there, I’m just looking at it through my past experience and going, ‘Alright, the track is weak.’ When I did my burnout, I saw all the bald spots in it. I saw bare concrete, rubber’s coming right off the racetrack. And I’m like, ‘Alright, well, should I leave with my hand on the brake?’ That’s what I’m telling myself. But I didn’t. I was like, ‘No, I better not do that because they might slow it down too much and do some different stuff.’
“Then I said, ‘Alright, I just got to be ready for it.’ So as soon as I hit the gas pedal, I was ready for any rattle that I felt. You didn’t even see smoke come off my tires. I felt a rattle before it spun. And as soon as I felt that rattle, this is one of those things in your mindset where you go, ‘Alright, what do you do?’ The track, you got to … that’s where the experience comes in, where I’m always not patient. I’m very anxious, where I’m always quick to catch it but I’m really quick to get back on the gas pedal because I want to recover quicker to get the deal.”
Brown, who was the No. 1 qualifier with a 3.685-second run Friday, knew nothing was going to come easy against Langdon.
“They’re a powerhouse team, brother. They drop low ET, and that’s what we’ve been preparing all off season for,” Brown said about Langdon’s team Kalitta Motorsports. “They always had the performance like Brittany (Force) has and Steve Torrence has. There’s lots of cars out here – Clay Millican, a lot of cars – that can drop mid to low-60s. And that’s one thing I know Brian (Corradi, Brown’s crew chief) was very adamant about. He goes, ‘We can race with anybody on race day, especially when it gets warm, hot, tricky. It gets good, we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we’re just methodical…’” he said. “They are very methodical at racing. That’s what Brian Corradi is. This offseason our main game plan was, we need to pick our package up where we can run and qualify No. 1 like we did this race and go out there and drop low ET in the final round like we just did.”
Brown also saw his performance as a statement to the rest of the field.
“We just want to let people know that we’re here to play. We’re very competitive and we want to have a shot. And when you’re making a run like that in the final and you have to be on time – Justin Ashley has picked the whole class up like that, where 30s and 40s (reaction time) are going to become the norm,” said Brown, who had a .036 reaction time in the finals. “And Langdon did his own work. Steve (Torrence) did his own work. Steve came out with a .044 light. And the thing about it is that all the teams went back this offseason, and they put the work in. They’re not talking about it, they’re being about it, and the fans are seeing it. We struggled through the first few rounds or so until the track came around because of all the rainy weather. But once that happened and once we got through the first-round eliminations and we came back, the track definitely made a turn for the better. And you can see, running those ETs that we did in that final round.”
In the first round, Brown acknowledged he had some anxious moments against Baldwin. Brown lost traction, but was still able to hold off for the win with a 4.664-second time at 253.18 mph. Baldwin suffered the same issue and crossed the finish line at 5.241 seconds.
“Once I heard Krista on the side of me where she started dealing, I heard it go, ‘Wap, wap, wap!’ And I heard the second one. I’m like, ‘I ain’t let off yet. We are good to go. Just don’t shut off, car. Don’t shut off. Don’t pop the chutes, don’t pop the blower.’ And it did it and we made it through. We’re like, ‘Alright, we got through that one.’ … Then we’re in the pit like, ‘Just got to get the track back. Got to get track ready.’ So that’s what’s going through my mind. And that’s the way we were able to handle that round. And Brian always told me, he says, ‘AB, patience. Sometimes being quick is your enemy.’”
When Brown’s dragster lost traction, he thought his team was destined for an early exit from the Gators.
“It’s the first race out. We’re in the show. And the main thing in this competition is you want to get past first round,” Brown said. “That’s the main thing in Top Fuel right now, is getting past first round so you can try to get in a groove, because every one of your first-round matchups is always a monster matchup. Krista was No. 16, but they weren’t even making full runs. We know they’re a car that’s capable of running a 72, 74. And if they get it all right, they can run 70 flat, because we saw it with Spencer (Massey) – 70 flat, 71. So you can’t take them lightly. We race them just like anybody else.
“Then when you go up there and you feel your car lose traction, you’re like, ‘Oh, Lord, they might just be going down the racetrack.’ They go down a racetrack, you’re gone. So that was nerve-wracking. Then, after that, when we came back, we saw the track come around. We just went back to business like normal.”
Some in Top Fuel circles might have thought Brown’s team would experience a drop off – at least early in the season – with the loss of longtime championship crew chief Mark Oswald. Brown wasn’t among those who bought into that mindset.
“Absolutely,” Brown said when asked if he thought his team could have a dominant performance to open the year. “The reason why is because when Mark was here for all these years, we knew Mark was leaving at the beginning (2024). But besides that, we were already planting the seed, and we were growing our young talent that was underneath him. Brad (Mason) has been underneath Mark for all the years. He knew exactly everything that Mark did. And Mark has trained him and taught him for years. We’ve been together with Oswald since 2009 ’til last year. And then Chris Watson came in as our car chief and he’s been understudying underneath Brad.
“Then Brian and Brad always had a great relationship. So, we had chemistry there. The thing that we miss the most about Mark is the eyeballs and the MacGyver-ness that he has. And we might be in a little trouble when we need to conjure something up in a trailer and whip out a widget or gadget to put in a car to fix a problem that we’re having.”
Up next for Brown is the Arizona Nationals on March 21-23 near Phoenix.
“Every team out there has the ability to win a race. Shawn Reed proved it; Josh Hart proved it at our shootout race. And then you come here. Look at the field, how I qualified from, what is it? No. 8 to No. 1 – all in the 69s, was it? Sixty-nine and 68. That just shows you how tough it is right now. With that being said, the probability problem is who can do it the most efficiently and who can do it the most? And I like the way my team’s rolling, and I like our odds. We just have to keep our heads down and keep pushing.”
