Once again, Top Fuel owner/driver Antron Brown proved he can never be counted out.
Brown, a three-time NHRA world champion (2012 and 2015-16,) celebrated his third win of the 2024 season when he took home the title at the Denso Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals on Sunday.
“Yeah, it was really good. We didn’t get to show all of our cards,” Brown said. “We were running with all the top three cars, and we knew that already. And then we ran that (3.685) on Q3. We just made it another decent lap. But what really gave us confidence. …
“And nobody was hardly getting down the track, because they were trying to run 68, 69, 70, we went out there and dropped that 71 out there and we got those three brownie points. It really helped us out a lot, and we just never stopped. We knew what position we were in. We know that, at any given moment, we could step up to the plate and race and run with all the cars out here.”
Brown, in his Mac Tools dragster, clocked a 3.746-second elapsed time at 329.67 mph to defeat NASCAR legend and first-time finalist Tony Stewart, who crossed the line in 3.774 seconds at 321.73 mph.
This was Brown’s 76th career NHRA national-event win (60 in Top Fuel and 16 in Pro Stock Motorcycle). Brown transitioned from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel to start the 2008 season.
On Sunday, Brown defeated Shawn Reed, Steve Torrence, Brittany Force and Stewart.
“Man, the door was left wide open when we got to first round today,” Kalitta said. “You see Doug Kalitta go out first round, you’re like, ‘Whoa!’ And we know the track, we thought the track was still really, really good. It made us pump the brakes a little bit, and we saw Shawn Langdon have a little tire smoke issue there, too. But then we saw Billy Torrence, one of the first pairs out, drop a 66. We’re like, ‘All right, we got to shoot for it.’ Because we know we’re up against a car that knows everything that we got, Shawn Reed.”
That’s why Brown said his team made an effort to ensure his dragster could adapt to the conditions.
“We peeled her back a little bit. We hurt a piston in that first lap. We hurt a piston, and by certain that piston, it made us only go 72, but we should’ve run 70 flat. That’s what Brian said we should’ve run,” Brown said. “And we knew where we’re at. And then after that, we knew the sun was going to come out, the track’s going to heat up a little bit, and we knew that once we went to those next rounds, that we just had to do what we knew how to do, and that’s race to racetrack.
“The tree was a little loose here. We didn’t see any 50s and 40s out here, and I had to get comfortable with that and just get onto my A-game and cutting the 66 light there, second round, against Steve Torrence. That’s what helped us get the job done.”
The victory was Brown’s third of the season following those in Chicago and Norwalk, Ohio.
“To get three wins this season is a true testament, because this class is the toughest it’s ever, ever, ever been, and it’s getting us up there in the points.” Brown said. “And our main focus right now, we want to go in the top three in the Countdown to the Championship (the final six races of the season), and we have two races left to get it done. So that’s our goal. And this race here definitely got us in the step in the right direction.”
Brown’s win in Sonoma should come as no surprise, as it was added to those from 2009, 2011-12 and 2015. He is now tied with Doug Kalitta for most Top Fuel wins at Sonoma Raceway.
“This racetrack has special meaning to me here, and every time I come here, ever since they actually broke ground and changed it from Sears Point, and they actually created this track the way it looks right now, and you come out here … I remember the first time I came here on a Pro Stock Motorcycle, came up here, I’m like, ‘Man, if you ever want to go somewhere to a race and you want to know what a piece of heaven feels like, come the Sonoma Raceway,’ because that’s what it does to me,” Brown said. “The marine layer comes over, it gets cool, it could be hot in the daytime and at night-time, the track gets crispy cool where you could run really, really good. You are at sea level, and this used to be the racetrack that we came to after Denver, Colorado, where you couldn’t breathe, and you were hot, and you were at altitude. And you come here, where you got all the oxygen you can breathe, and you come here, and it just makes you feel good.”
Plus, with only two races to go before the Countdown to the Championship – Brainerd, Minn. (Aug. 15-18) and Indianapolis (Aug. 28-Sept. 2) – Brown knew it was important for his team to make a move.
“It’s just one of those deals where you want to do well. … This is the time of year where you have to get on and start peaking,” he said. “Because if you don’t start getting together by this time, that Countdown to a Championship’s going to be really, really rough. And that’s what we came here to do. We’re here to start polishing our package and make it right on point. And that’s what this racetrack brings out of us. It makes me feel calm, relaxed, at ease, and it just puts me in that zone to come out here and compete.
“My crew chiefs and our team are gelling, and it’s probably one of the best Top Fuel teams I’ve ever been on. Everybody’s just doing their job, doing what it takes, and they’re holding me up right now. I’m usually cutting the tree down. And right now, the car is cutting the competition down. That’s a good feeling to have a car that runs that good where they’re carrying the load right now.”
If Brown’s raceday wasn’t memorable enough it ended with him racing Stewart, a NASCAR Hall of Famer and IndyCar superstar.
“Tony and I have a great relationship. A lot of people don’t realize, when we started ABM (Antron Brown Motorsports), Tony was starting TSR (Tony Stewart Racing) out here and drag racing at the same time,” Brown said. “So, we had a lot of nights, actually, in the offices talking about how to do it, what to do, going over budgets, spreadsheets, performance on what it takes to run one of these teams. And we were doing it together at the same time. So, I always had a great deal of respect for Tony Stewart. He’s one of my heroes in NASCAR, IndyCar, and one of my … People don’t realize this, I had a guy named Bernie who used to work with me in Pro Stock Motorcycle, and he was actually a guy who worked with us, me and Mark Peyser back at the time, that built our chassis, and he’s with Tony Stewart all the way through the (USAC) midget series.
“And Bernie used to talk about Tony Stewart like his second child. And he worked with Tony for so many years and told me how great of a driver he was. Because he is a student to anything that he drives. He learns it. He doesn’t drive by the seat of his pants. He understands the science behind it and manipulates it and makes it better.”
In that same line of thinking, Brown knows it is not ‘if’ but ‘when’ Stewart will be in the Top Fuel winner’s circle.
“When he came to drag racing, I knew what he was going to do. And once his car gets better and it gets better and better, he’s going to be in the winner’s circle, trust me,” Brown said. “He’s not going to do it one time, he’s going to do it multiple times. But I always told Tony, I joke with him, I said, ‘Son, when you come out here,’ he’s older than me and I call him son, I’m just joking with him.
“And I said, ‘When you come over here, there’s a lot of sharks in the water.’ And I said, ‘Brother, come on, join the party. It’s going to be fun.’ And he’s standing up to the tests. He leaves with Justin Ashley. When you leave with Justin, you’re a heck of a driver already. And he drives the car straight as an arrow and as to the skillset. And the only thing us drivers can do is mess up the car — that’s all we do. People think that we, we can’t make the car run better than what the crew chiefs tune it. Only thing we could do is take away from it. So, the thing about when he drives, you can see it go down the racetrack. He flickers above, he gets every ounce of juice out the car that he has, and he’s learned, he’s learned that. And that’s the same mindset that I do.”
In the highly competitive Top Fuel class, Brown knows he can’t worry about who is in the other lane.
“I’m going to be honest with you no matter who you race right now, if you looked at our field, our field is pound for pound the toughest class in this sport. Tougher than Pro Stock Bike. Pro Stock car used to be that class. Tougher than Pro Stock car, tougher than Funny Car,” Brown said.
“I mean, we go to races when we have more than 16 cars. And if you ask anybody in this room, and you say you run 80 with a three and you won’t make a Top Fuel field, they say, ‘Oh, no, you’ll make it.’ We just had one where two people ran 80 with a two, 80 with a three, and did not make the field. And we had 19 cars, people who qualify every race. …
“If you want to win a race, you got to have the full pie. And what I mean the full pie, you have to have car — it’s got to be consistent — and the driver’s got to show up and be on time, and they got to get all the E.T. out of it. You have to have everything all together. And when you line up against Tony Stewart, you know you’re going to get an A+ driver every time he shows up to the deal. He’s not going to miss the tree. He ran around against Ron August. Ronald August ran quicker than him, but Tony left on him by a country mile. You know what I mean? Because he showed up.”
