Defending NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown said he received a wakeup call on Sept. 5 when he lost to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher in the famed U.S. Nationals.

“All my guys took a look in the mirror at each other after that,” Brown said. “We know the Countdown was coming and that we had six races in a row.
We asked each other how they wanted to finish the season. We knew that we had to put extra effort in and go to work.”

Brown has completed step one in the six-race NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship.

With a run of 3.763-seconds at 319.29 mph late Sunday afternoon, Brown defended his Carolina Nationals title at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.
It was the fifth win of the season and 42nd of the career in Top Fuel for Brown.

Top qualifier Doug Kalitta finished as the runner-up with a pass of 3.811 at 320.28.

After battling extreme heat all weekend, the track temperature dropped 10 degrees to 115 just before the final round thanks to cloud cover.
Brown and his crew chief combo of Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi were armed with the right info and ready to pounce.

“Qualifying didn’t go the way we wanted it, but we just kept digging. That was the key, to keep digging,” Brown said. “The track was the hottest that we have had all year long. We knew it was going to be tricky. We navigated down it and we did what we had to do.”

Brown defeated Clay Millican, Brittany Force, and Pat Dakin en route to the finals.

Kalitta earned six bonus points for his earning his fourth No. 1 qualifier award of the season, but he had no answer for the consistent Brown.  

“We definitely wanted to get around Antron there in the final, but that was not in the cards,” Kalitta said. “We’re confident in what we learned this weekend.”

Brown continues to lead the Top Fuel points race, with Kalitta in second.

“The competition level is at an all-time high, so we just wanted to race the track and not make mistakes,” Brown said. “I’m dreaming right now, someone needs to come and pinch me. This is the way you want to start the Countdown off.”

According to Brown, his Matco Tools DSR team is drawing off its experience – in Charlotte and beyond.
 
“Our team has learned over the years that you can’t come in here thanking it’s the Countdown,” Brown said. “We’ve screwed ourselves up numerous times and had mishaps that way, so we learned from it and changed our formula.”

Brown said one of the highlights of his weekend was visiting with zMAX Dragway  owner and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. boss Bruton Smith in the suites.

“It was pretty cool to see Bruton,” Brown said. “He said the football game at Bristol was unbelievable, and then I asked him if I was the first person to see him today. When I asked him if he had seen John Force, Bruton said no. So I told him that I guess it was time to change the name on these grandstands.”