betway NHRA Carolina Nationals
Event 16 of 20
Countdown Event 2 of 6
zMAX Dragway
Concord, N.C.
Sept. 20 – 22
ANTRON BROWN
Driver of the Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster
Countdown to the Championship Ranking: 2nd
NHRA Carolina Nationals Event Highlights:
- Four-time event champion (2011, 2015, 2016, 2022)
- 2008 runner-up
2023 NHRA Carolina Nationals Event Recap:
Qualified second; Quarterfinal finish (defeated Spencer Massey in E1; defeated by Leah Pruett in E2)
Last Event (Reading):
Qualified seventh; Event champion (defeated Jasmine Salinas in E1, Tony Schumacher in E2, Dan Mercier in E3, Shawn Langdon in E4)
2024 Statistics:
15 races; four national event wins, three specialty race wins
Career Statistics:
518 races; 78 wins, 50 No. 1 qualifiers
Noteworthy:
- Brown and the AB Motorsports team enter the second event of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship carrying the momentum from their win in Reading, Pa.
- The triumph was Brown’s fourth of the year and 78th overall
- It was also victory No. 10 for the AB Motorsports organization, which made its on track debut in 2022
- Brown’s two prior Reading wins were from 2015 and 2016, and he went on to win the Top Fuel championship both years. He also won the Charlotte 2 event in ’15 and ‘16 en route to the title
- By winning the first race of Countdown, Brown vaulted from fifth in the Top Fuel standings up to second place and within one point of No. 1 ranked Justin Ashley
- With six zMAX Dragway victories, Brown is tied with Steve Torrence for most Top Fuel wins at the Concord, N.C. facility
- Brown clocked his career best numbers during the 2023 Charlotte 2 event:
- Career best elapsed time: 3.655-seconds (Q3, Charlotte 2, 2023)
- Career best speed: 337.24-mph (E1, Charlotte 2, 2023)
- Became the 10th driver among both active and inactive Mission Foods Series competitors to enter 500 professional events during the 2023 Carolina Nationals
Fan Events:
- Saturday, 10:30 – 11:00 a.m., Autograph session with the Reading event champions, Mission Foods midway display
Quotable:
“The momentum going into Charlotte is high. That’s a track where we’ve run well at. We’ve won there before, and the weather can be really good when we visit this time of year. Looks like it should be a fast race track this weekend so looking forward to getting out there and picking back up where we left off in Reading. We’ve got a good combination, and the game plan is to just keep improving on that. We’re going to keep racing with what we’ve got and see where we end up. We’re pumped up. It’s FVP country and we’re looking forward to getting there.
“It’s a totally different mindset racing in Charlotte in September versus when we go down there for the four-wides. It’s really intense because we’re racing for a championship. In the regular season, you’ve got mulligans. If you have a bad race, you’ve got 13 others to make it up. Now, there’s no more mulligans. You’ve only got six races to shine. The points are tight. We just came off a marathon, and now it’s a sprint and we’re running a 400. Every curve makes a difference. We’ve got six curves, and we’ve got to make them count. We got off to a great start in this Countdown and now we’re on our second of six legs and we’re excited to see how we make out this weekend.”
ABM Communications PR
