Antron Brown joined a very short list of four-time NHRA Top Fuel champions, sealing the title, his first since 2016 and his first as a team owner, with a solid run through a gauntlet of tough competitors at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, the final event of the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
After qualifying just 12th, Brown, third in points, had to face points leader Justin Ashley in round one and came away with the win, 3.69 to 3.70. That win pushed him into another nail-biting race with second-place Shawn Langdon. Both drivers lost traction but while Brown quickly gathered up his Matco Tools dragster, Langdon’s mount backfired the supercharger.
Facing two-time world champ in the semifinals with the title on the line, Brown’s Brian Corradi- and Mark Oswald-tuned dragster steamed to a 3.68 win after Force shook the tires.
“I tell you what, this team has been resilient,” he said. “We never quit, we never stopped, and we lined up this weekend, and we saw our matchup, and it was like Doomsday, Justin Ashley in the first round. Then you go to Shawn Langdon. We’ll go for trying throw at I but it didn’t go down and that last round against Britt we know we gotta go down the track. We gotta hit the Tree and go down the track and if they run at .64 or .65, so be it, but we gotta at least give ourselves a fighting chance. And that .68 came right on time and got down through here to get this win.
“This is incredible, and truly a blessing. I love all my family at home, my kids, everybody. Thanks to Matco Tools, Lucas, Hangstefer, FVP, Summit Racing, Toyota, they make this possible for us and keep us going each and every day.”
Brown won three times during the regular season, scoring in Chicago, Norwalk, and Sonoma, and entered the Countdown to the Championship in second place behind Ashley.
Brown and team won the first two events of the six-race playoffs to take the points lead, but then won just two rounds over the next three races to drop to second, then fell to third entering eliminations at the season finale after a subpar qualifying effort in Pomona, then began his long uphill raceday climb to the title.
Brown, who previously won championships in 2012, 2015, and 2016, joins only Tony Schumacher, Joe Amato, and Steve Torrence with four or more Top Fuel championships.
