Fresh off his first win of the season in Chicago on May 21 in Chicago, Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown believes weather could be the great neutralizer this weekend in Epping, N.H.

The weather Friday through Sunday at NHRA’s New England Nationals calls for highs in the mid to upper 70s on Friday and Saturday with a high of 82 on Sunday. The humidity is supposed to be in the 40 to 60 percent range all three days. 

Brown thinks those numbers could benefit his Matco/Toyota team.

“The New England Nationals has always been a great racetrack for us,” said Brown, whose team runs under the AB Motorsports umbrella. “It is going to be the same thing. I think it is going to get a little warm and I think we are going to look at a lot more racetracks like this so hopefully if the weather is sunny out it could be high 70s, low 80s so with that being said we have to go out with the same game plan. We are going to start getting into the hotter part of the year now where the tracks are going to get like this. It is going to be a neutralizer for the field. You’re going to have to figure out how to go quick and fast on some tricky surfaces.”

“I like where we are at with our team because we have a lot of laps, and we know what to do and what not to do and where we need to be at. This (Chicago win) gives us some momentum to build off. I like our chances going in there.”

Brown, who won NHRA Top Fuel world championships in 2012, 2015 and 2016, checked off a milestone in his decorated career in Chicago, claiming his 75th career national event win – 59 in Top Fuel and 16 in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Brown won in Epping in 2016 – defeating Steve Torrence in the finals – and was runner-up there in 2017, and 2018.

Despite that, Brown, who enters Epping fifth in the points standings, knows there are no guarantees for this weekend.

“We have to qualify first and we need to go in there and try and get that job done and take it one round at a time and see what we can do,” Brown said.

A year ago, Brown qualified No. 1 in Epping with a 3.729-second elapsed time at 329.99 mph before losing to Torrence in the second round. Justin Ashley is the defending Top Fuel champion in Epping as he beat Tony Schumacher in the finals in 2023.