NHRA Four-Wide Nationals defending Top Fuel event champion Antron Brown raced his Matco Tools dragster to victory on Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, picking up his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Series season.
Brown qualified for the Las Vegas running of the Mission Foods-backed ‘race within a race’ when he advanced to the quarterfinals a week prior at the NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix where he came up short against Toyota teammate Shawn Langdon. Brown didn’t have to wait long for redemption as he lined up against Langdon as well as Shawn Reed and Steve Torrence in the first #2Fast2Tasty elimination quad a few days later during day two of qualifying for the Las Vegas four-wide event. Against his first three opponents, Brown clocked a 3.816 E.T., the quickest run of the group, to advance. Langdon recorded the second-quickest pass to advance alongside Brown, pitting the two world champions against each other once again in the final elimination quad. Joining Brown and Langdon in the winner-take-all round were reigning world champ Doug Kalitta and NHRA Top Fuel rookie Tony Stewart. Brown kept his Matco Tools dragster hooked up and hitting on all eight cylinders to cross the finish line stripe in 3.792 seconds at 330.72 MPH and win his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty trophy of the year, and second overall.
“We thought we needed to run a 3.75 time there (in the finals), but we just didn’t want to kick ourselves in the foot so, we stepped it up just a little bit,” Brown explained of the final round showdown. “Expected like a 3.78 time there. Felt Shawn right on the side of us. Something happened to him right around the end of the track, inching and inching, and just drove a little bit around him at the end. It’s so incredible how tight this class is and the way the Kalitta Motorsports cars are running. But yeah, when you have Doug Kalitta, the champion, Shawn Langdon, a previous champion, and then you have Tony Stewart, ‘Smoke,’ make it to the final round. I mean, the top eight cars in this Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, they’re all cars that can win on any given day.”
Brown, who was awarded three championship bonus points and a $10,000 prize for his efforts, will be looking to score his second trophy of the weekend on Sunday in Las Vegas as he attempts to pick up his second consecutive NHRA Four-Wide Nationals win and seventh overall at The Strip.
“Going into tomorrow, this win gives our Matco Tools team a little more confidence,” Brown added. “For sure, a lot of momentum. I think we’re going in the right direction, just need to keep building and get quicker and quicker. It’s going to be triple-A throw-down tomorrow with the cooler conditions. The track is going to get better, and when it does that, someone is going to run a 3.68 to 3.70 flat and that’s the range you’re going to have to be in to go out there, be competitive, and get the job done.”
Brown will start race day from the No. 6 seed on the strength of his #2Fast2Tasty final round pass. In his quad are No. 3 qualifier Clay Millican, No. 11 qualifier Tony Stewart, and No. 14 seed Krista Baldwin. Brown’s AB Motorsports team will be second to pick their lane among the quad. Eliminations kick off at noon local time.
This story was originally published on April 13, 2024. 
