When you hear the thunder just know the lightning isn’t far behind and don't say they were not warned.

Antron Brown delivered a subtle hint in preseason testing at the National Time Trials at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az., when he laid down the quickest elapsed time.

Cue thunder clap number one.

He came back two weekends later and delivered a No. 1 qualifying effort and the quickest elapsed time in the history of 1,000-foot drag racing, a run that was later disallowed over faulty NHRA clocks.

When you hear the thunder just know the lightning isn’t far behind and don't say they were not warned.

Antron Brown delivered a subtle hint in preseason testing at the National Time Trials at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az., when he laid down the quickest elapsed time.

Cue thunder clap number one.

He came back two weekends later and delivered a No. 1 qualifying effort and the quickest elapsed time in the history of 1,000-foot drag racing, a run that was later disallowed over faulty NHRA clocks.

An unfazed Brown returned to reach the final round, losing to a destiny-driven Doug Kalitta.

Cue thunder clap number two.

This time Brown lit the scoreboard four times on Sunday at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals to record his third career Top Fuel national event victory and first for the Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools-sponsored team.

The lightning just struck in a direct hit.

The message should be crystal clear at this point considering the former Pro Stock Motorcycle standout now leads the NHRA Top Fuel point standings for the first team in his short dragster-driving career.

“I think this [win] just shows how strong our team is,” Brown said in the post-race press conference. “I looked to the man upstairs as if to ask why is all of this adversity coming down on us during the off-season. We had thought headed into this season we were going to be able to challenge for a title because the whole team had stayed intact, and then the whole team got switched around; I wondered what was going to happen.”

Brown lost the only crew chief he’d known in his short driving career. He was replaced by a duo of crew chiefs known for their prowess in tuning Funny Cars.

“I knew that Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were going to be good,” Brown admitted. “I just wondered how the team was going to gel together. Once we came to the test session … I knew we didn’t need any glue or adhesive, we were going to stick together.”

The sophomore driver believes his tuners have made positive moves and he’s more than obliging to take the ride.

“They’ve taken us to a new level, for sure,” Brown added.

“We were bummed after Pomona because we felt like we had the car to beat. We came into Phoenix with the objective just to race each round to the best of our ability. Then we saw [Larry] Dixon go that 3.80 after we had gone 3.88, we looked at our run and we had actually broken and coasted across the finish line. We were on a 3.82 pass, we knew we were right there – we just needed to go A to B.

“When we ran the 3.81 in the semis, we knew we had shown our potential. In the final round, we just wanted to go to the finish line and getting that win light gave us the confidence we need heading into Gainesville.”

Save for the first round of eliminations, Brown was the quicker reacting driver against his final three competitors.

That's how lightning reacts.