Three-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown and his AB Motorsports operation left the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals with two trophies Sunday afternoon. Racing at Maple Grove Raceway, Brown drove his Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel dragster to his fourth national event win of the season, while AB Motorsports Accelerate athlete Angelle Sampey earned her first Top Alcohol Dragster victory. Brown, who started the NHRA Countdown to the Championship fifth in points, moved up to second with just one point separating him from point leader Justin Ashley.
Brown, a New Jersey native who counts Reading as a home race, started qualifying with a traction-troubled pass in the first session and a clean 3.784 E.T. at 326.87 mph in the second session on Friday. On Saturday, Brown earned three bonus points when he fired off the quickest pass of the third session, a 3.770-second run, to move up to No. 11. He then moved up to the top half of the field in seventh with his 3.755 E.T. in the final session, collecting two more bonus points for the second-quickest pass of the session.
Brown’s march to the winner’s circle began with a first-round victory over rookie Jasmine Salinas, with Brown moving first and setting low E.T. of the round with his 3.723 E.T. Brown met former teammate Tony Schumacher in the second round, where the two drivers left the starting line together. Schumacher drove into tire smoke, while Brown made it through the challenging round with a 3.881-second effort. Brown and semifinal opponent Dan Mercier struggled to navigate the tricky track surface, but Brown’s holeshot advantage and expert pedaling helped him reach the finish line first to advance to his fourth final round of the season and the 139th of his career.
The former Pro Stock Motorcycle standout was quick-reacting all day, but he stepped up in the final round against fellow past world champion and Toyota driver Shawn Langdon. Brown cut a .043-second reaction time and drove the Matco Tools dragster to a 3.798 E.T. at 327.27 mph to hold off Langdon and his 3.803-second pass.
“This was a huge boost and we’re just making up the ground,” said Brown, who’s now one point out of the points lead after the first of six Countdown races. “You’ve got to start off strong. Our Matco boys never gave up. We struggled a couple rounds in the middle, but the good Lord gets all the glory. We never stopped and that’s what’s so potent about it. Thank you to Brian Corradi, Mark Oswald, Brad Mason, and everybody that supports us.”
Just moments before the Top Fuel final round, AB Motorsports Accelerate athlete Angelle Sampey raced to her first career Top Alcohol Dragster victory in a side-by-side final against Mike Coughlin. Driving the Hangsterfer’s Metalworking Lubricants A/Fuel dragster fielded by Michalek Brothers Racing, Sampey left the starting line just three thousandths of a second behind Coughlin and powered to a 5.304-second pass at 273.83 mph to drive around Coughlin and his 5.307 E.T. The margin of victory was just .0005 seconds. It was Sampey’s second consecutive final round after having to shut off on the starting line in the final round at the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals earlier this month. The three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion is just over one year into her Top Alcohol Dragster career after joining Brown’s driver development program in August 2023.
“This is unbelievable, probably because in 1996 at this very racetrack is where I won my very first race,” said Sampey, who went on to win 45 more times in Pro Stock Motorcycle. “I was really hoping for this. We’ve been having so many fluke things keeping us from winning like in the U.S. Nationals when the oil line happened and we were shut off on the starting line. But God has greater plans, and it was to get me back at the racetrack where I won for the very first time, and to get my very first dragster win right here in Reading, Pennsylvania. I couldn’t be happier right now. I’ve been waiting to do a double-up winner’s circle with my brother Antron Brown for many, many years.”
Brown, who’s now in his third year as a team owner, is in a prime position to chase his fourth Top Fuel title and the first for AB Motorsports. He also won the Reading event in 2015 and 2016, with world championships following in both seasons.
“That was something that we needed to do,” said Brown, who thanked the team’s partners like Matco Tools, Toyota, Lucas Oil, Hangsterfer’s, FVP, and Streamlight. “We started the Countdown in fifth and you’ve got to make those points up, you want to do it early, and it feels good to make them all up at the first race. We just want to keep this momentum going. Super proud of the whole team for what they do. They work so hard, never quit, and they’re always, always eager to push forward and that’s the thing that motivates me to keep getting better and better.”
Brown, now a 78-time national event winner, and the AB Motorsports team will attempt to gain more ground at the NHRA Carolina Nationals, Sept. 20-22, at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. Brown is a four-time winner of the Charlotte fall race, with his most recent victory coming in 2022.
This story was originally published on September 16, 2024. 
