Kevin Brannon grew up around drag racing, having watched his parents race down the track nearly every weekend.

The Spartanburg, SC-based, past NHRA Super Comp champion showcased his talents Friday at the Silverstate Million Dollar Friday at the K&N Spring Fling Million at The Strip in Las Vegas.

Brannon fought his way through six rounds of eliminations to end up in a quarter-final round which was nothing short of a murderer’s row of competition. Round seven pairings included Dylan Hough and Spencer Massey, Doug Foley Jr. and Andy Schmall, Dan Northrop and Kevin Brannon, and Chris Gulitti on the bye.

Schmall took .010 to be dead-on zero for the win against Foley, while Brannon laid down .008 total to the .013 package of Northrop. Hough bowed out against Massey, who was .006 with a .043 advantage on the tree to lock in a spot in the semifinals, while Gulitti took the green on his single.

There were no slouches in the semifinals as Massey was .008 taking .008 to be dead-on two in his small-tire ’71 Nova against the .018 package of Gulitti. Schmall’s .015 bulb was locked out by the .010 package of Brannon.

In the final round, Brannon was 005 and took .002 to be two thousandths under on a double breakout against Massey, who was .010 on the tree and just five thousandths under the dial. In the Hough family Race Tech dragster, he’d never sat in prior to Friday morning, Brannon had captured his second Million dollar event win.

“This is all for Kyle [Seipel] right here. The first one without him… I just want to dedicate this one to him and Bob [Unkefer],” said Brannon after cashing in on his $285,000 payday. The winner’s circle awaited him with Vegas showgirls and a limousine to escort him to a suite at the Cosmopolitan.