Antron Brown would like to be the National Hot Rod Association's first professional repeat winner this season. And the Gatornationals winner took the first step toward that Friday night, taking the early Top Fuel lead at the Summit Racing.com Nationals.

Driving the Matco Tools Dragster, Brown covered the 1,000-foot course at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 3.780 seconds at 320.43 miles an hour, topping his own Don Schumacher Racing mate Tony Schumacher and the Al-Anabi duo of Shawn Langdon and Khalid al Balooshi.

Antron Brown would like to be the National Hot Rod Association's first professional repeat winner this season. And the Gatornationals winner took the first step toward that Friday night, taking the early Top Fuel lead at the Summit Racing.com Nationals.

Driving the Matco Tools Dragster, Brown covered the 1,000-foot course at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 3.780 seconds at 320.43 miles an hour, topping his own Don Schumacher Racing mate Tony Schumacher and the Al-Anabi duo of Shawn Langdon and Khalid al Balooshi.

The reigning Top Fuel champion credited his team. In his words, they "stuck it to the coals" and gave him the day's quickest hot rod at one of drag racing's finest facilities.

At the past two races, Brown thought he had the No. 1 spot, only to see Doug Kalitta take away the honor at the last second. Kalitta lurks in sixth place, behind No. 5 Clay Millican. But Brown hasn't forgotten and wants to make sure he hold onto the top spot through two more Saturday qualifying sessions.

Brown said he's hoping what he calls "the sun gods" will give his team some help Saturday.

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