Three-time NHRA world champion Antron Brown is so close to securing his fourth title, he can taste it. But the driver of the Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster has his work cut out for him as he sits in second place, only 44 points (approximately two rounds) behind the lead, held by Justin Ashley. Fellow former world champ Shawn Langdon is breathing down Brown’s neck with only one point separating the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, while the fourth and fifth place positions are held by another pair of Top Fuel titans, Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence who are tied at 2,390 points (-85 behind Ashley). Competition in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel category will come down to the wire at this weekend’s In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, as these drivers battle it out at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Statisticians and super fans have been crunching the numbers since the conclusion of competition in Las Vegas less than two weeks ago, and as with anything in drag racing, there are a myriad of potential scenarios that could happen. All drivers will earn points-and-a-half at the NHRA Finals, with each round win worth 30 points this weekend. Qualifying and bonus points will also hold more weight, and an exemplary qualifying outing could provide the necessary boost for Brown to finish his weekend at the top of the leaderboard. As it stands now, Brown will need to go two rounds further than Ashley on race day.
“Winning the championship would be huge for our entire organization,” Brown said during a press conference featuring NHRA’s Top Fuel championship contenders on Monday. “We’ve been putting the work in. We fell short our first year of AB Motorsports in 2022, fell short to Brittany (Force). We came on strong during the Countdown then, and we did that again this year. We have all the pieces together. We’re not thinking about the end result. We’re going into this weekend with Justin Ashley in the points lead and the way he drives and the way that team tunes, it’s an uphill battle. This might be one of those years where we look back at Dallas, for example. I raced Justin first round at Dallas this year and if we had won that round, it could be a totally different scenario going into this weekend. That’s how close and tough this sport is. But we’re going to keep our heads down and come there fighting. We’re going to fight ‘til the end and give it all we’ve got.”
Brown made history when he earned his first of three NHRA Top Fuel world championships in 2012 by becoming the first Black driver to win a major U.S. auto racing championship. The fan-favorite driver went on to score back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016. Those championships all came during Brown’s time at Don Schumacher Racing.
When Brown, who serves as both the owner and driver of the 11,000 horsepower Matco Tools Top Fueler, stages his machine at this weekend’s season finale, he’ll not only be competing for his first championship crown in eight years, but the first for his third-year AB Motorsports team, which made its on-track NHRA debut in 2022.
The pursuit of the world title has been intense this season with a slew of talented drivers claiming victories throughout the year, but no one has visited the Top Fuel winner’s circle more than Brown. The 79-time national event winner (16 wins in Pro Stock Motorcycle) leads the class with five national event victories in 2024. Two of those wins occurred during the Countdown to the Championship, with Brown and his Brian Corradi/Mark Oswald-led team powering to victory in Reading, Pa. followed by a victory in Charlotte where Brown scored his 63rd Top Fuel triumph to surpass Larry Dixon’s 62 wins in the category. It was also win No. 11 for AB Motorsports.
Brown’s first win of the year occurred in Joliet, Ill. where he won a milestone 75th Wally trophy. He also took his Matco Tools Toyota to the winner’s circle in Norwalk, Ohio, and Sonoma, Calif. over the summer.
Brown and Langdon have faced each other six times in competition this year, and have a tied 3-3 record, including Brown’s two wins over Langdon in the Joliet and Reading final rounds. Brown and Ashley have only faced each other four times this season and are tied with a 2-2 round-win record.
“This trio of Brian, Mark, and Brad (Mason, car chief), we know how to win championships together,” added Brown, who ranks sixth on the NHRA’s all-time win list and second in the Top Fuel class. “We’ve done it before and we’re working hard to do it again. I believe we’ve been back in competition form for the last three years, since we formed AB Motorsports. That was the primary goal of me going out on my own – to make a competitive team that could compete with anybody, and the last three years have shown that. We won three races each year in 2022 and ’23. If you count all of the specialty races and whatnot, we’ve actually won eight races this year – five national events and then the Pep Boys All-Star Call Out and two Mission Foods challenges. Our team is competitive, and we can run with anybody right now.
“We want to make some more history this weekend but it’s going to be a tough road. We just needed a couple of other races in this Countdown to make it even closer and we just missed out on some of those opportunities. We’ve got this one last shot in Pomona where it’s points-and-a-half per round, and it starts in qualifying. We’re going to go in there aggressive, we have to. It’s going to be a nail-biting situation because you’ve got to race well, which we know how to do on race day, but you’ve got to go out there and attack it, and we’re going to attack it like these are the last rounds of drag racing that will ever be raced.”
Brown returns to In-Out-Burger Pomona Dragway as a three-time winner at the facility. Qualifying for the NHRA Finals kicks off on Friday, Nov. 15 at 2:00 p.m. PT.
NHRA Finals Event Highlights:
- Three-time event champion
- Top Fuel (2009, 2010)
- Pro Stock Motorcycle (1999)
- Four-time runner-up
- Top Fuel (2015, 2021, 2022)
- Pro Stock Motorcycle (2004)
- 2015 No. 1 qualifier
In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip Overall Highlights:
- Three-time champion
- Seven-time runner-up
- Three-time No. 1 qualifier
2023 NHRA Finals Event Recap:
Qualified third; Quarterfinal finish (defeated Clay Millican in E1; defeated by Leah Pruett in E2)
Last Event (Las Vegas 2):
Qualified 11th; Quarterfinal finish (defeated Tony Stewart in E1; defeated by Doug Kalitta in E2)
2024 Statistics:
19 races; five national event wins; three specialty race wins
Career Statistics:
523 races; 79 wins, 50 No. 1 qualifiers
Fan Events:
- Saturday, 10:00 – 10:30 a.m., Team Toyota autograph session at the Toyota Racing Experience midway display
ABM Communications PR
