One day before Northwest Nationals trophies are handed out at Pacific Raceways, Antron Brown reminded everyone why championship-caliber teams treat Saturday as more than another qualifying session.
Brown, Daniel Wilkerson and Greg Stanfield claimed Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victories Saturday, turning bonus points into momentum heading into Sunday’s eliminations at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals.
For Brown, the victory represented more than a specialty race paycheck.
The four-time NHRA Top Fuel champion defeated Friday’s standout Jasmine Salinas with a 3.730-second pass at 332.59 mph in his Matco Tools dragster, collecting his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory of the season. It continued a steady climb that has seen Brown reach the Bristol winner’s circle, finish runner-up at Norwalk, and advance to the semifinals last weekend in Sonoma.
Brown believes the value of these Saturday races won’t be fully understood until the Countdown to the Championship begins.
“The Mission Challenge is going to pay dividends this year. I can already tell just how close the field’s going to be,” Brown said. “We know Dougie [Kalitta] and Shawn [Langdon] already have a lot of them, but for the rest of the field, it’ll help us out. It’ll help us when we get to those tight places. You think about, ‘Man, I wish I would have won that Mission race,’ or ‘That Mission race really panned out.’
“It pushes us to race [on Saturday] and get ready for race day. You’re getting warmed up for Sunday. I attacked the Tree these last two rounds, and I think it was .050 and a .046 [reaction times], so that’s definitely getting me ready for tomorrow. If I can repeat that tomorrow and given the way our car is running, it puts us in a good spot to be super competitive.”
Brown’s win also halted what had become one of the weekend’s biggest stories. Salinas entered Saturday after pacing Friday qualifying and building on last week’s breakthrough runner-up finish in Sonoma. However, on Saturday, her rivals stepped up their performance, and Salinas wound up as the No. 11 qualifier in a 15-car field.
In Funny Car, Wilkerson continues to build a résumé that suggests his first national-event victory is becoming a matter of when instead of if.
Wilkerson defeated Austin Prock with a 3.924-second run at 327.98 mph in his SCAG Racing Ford Mustang, becoming the eighth different Funny Car winner in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge this season. After reaching final rounds at Bristol and Sonoma, Saturday finally rewarded the progress his team has been making.
Wilkerson said those runner-up finishes never shook his confidence.
“At Bristol and at Sonoma both, I was positive they were wasting their time showing up in the finals because I was just so sure we were going to win those races. So, to be able to get a victory, even though it’s a little later than I wanted to, it’s really good,” Wilkerson said. “It does a ton for the team and it helps morale a ton. We just needed another run in the good conditions, so it’s exciting.
“These bonus points are going to mean a lot. I think we were four points out of fourth last year, so to snatch up three right here, it’s going to be pretty important. I think anyone who thinks we’re not going to be a super big threat in the Countdown to win the whole freaking thing is joking themselves, so we’re going to need all these little points we can take.”
The Pro Stock Challenge carried an Elite Motorsports guarantee before the first pair even rolled to the starting line.
With four Elite entries qualifying for the Challenge based on Sonoma results, the organization was assured of another Saturday victory. Greg Stanfield emerged on top, defeating teammate Erica Enders to continue a productive West Coast swing.
For Stanfield, the victory reflected the strength of the Elite Motorsports program as much as his own performance.
“It’s pretty cool for an all-Elite Mission race,” Stanfield said. “I hate it for Erica, but turning the win light on is great for our team and everybody that sponsors us. The momentum’s great and helping us to keep going. It’s because of all the hard work everybody at Elite Motorsports puts into these teams, so just for me to do my job for those guys, not let them down, that means a lot to me. I think if we can just pick up a little more, I think we can be dangerous.
“I think the Mission race is cool on Saturday. It gets the heart rate going because it’s not just qualifying, especially for the old guy. It helps me get going for Sunday.”
