Antron Brown, winner of the 800th NHRA Top Fuel race in 2015, went into the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway looking to become the 1,000th Top Fuel race winner. Though the driver of the Matco Tools Toyota dragster came up one win light short of the historic milestone on Sunday, Brown did notch his 13th final-quad appearance in four-wide events, the most of any professional driver. It was Brown’s second consecutive four-wide final-quad appearance after the Las Vegas event, helping him maintain his No. 3 spot in the Top Fuel points standings.
Brown went to the provisional No. 1 spot in Friday’s first qualifying session when he laid down a 3.703 E.T. at 328.62 mph. He lost traction early in the run in the second session, ending Friday in the No 5 spot. Brown went into race mode on Saturday as he competed in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Top Fuel Challenge, which he qualified for by reaching the semifinals at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals. He left first in his quad against Josh Hart, Shawn Reed, and Clay Millican and won with a 3.791 E.T. at 324.90 mph. Brown then finished second in the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge final quad, coasting to a 5.411 E.T. at 168.39 mph.
Qualified fifth, Brown started Sunday eliminations in a quad with Doug Foley, Reed, and Millican. Brown finished second behind Foley, sending him to the second round with Foley, recent first-time NHRA winner Tony Stewart, and four-time world champion Steve Torrence. Brown moved first and raced to a 3.751 E.T. at 335.24 mph to advance to his 13th final-quad appearance between the Las Vegas and Charlotte four-wide events.
Brown launched hard in the final quad, but his Matco Tools dragster lost traction shortly after leaving the starting line. He finished fourth behind winner Shawn Langdon, runner-up Justin Ashley, and Stewart with a 5.441 E.T. at 136.39 mph in what will go down as a semifinal finish.
“We got to another final quad, so the main thing of it is we got some good points at this race,” Brown said. “We’ve just got to keep pushing and doing what we do right now. Hats off to my team. They did a great job this weekend. We ran low E.T. of the second round and that track just got really good out there (in the final). We were getting after it. We’ll regroup, get better, and get ready for the next race, but the positive note is we went to another semifinal round. We’ve just got to keep on doing this all year long with the competition the way it is. If we keep on doing this, we’re going to be really, really good.”
After a few weeks off, Brown and the AB Motorsports Top Fuel team will return to the site of Brown’s milestone 75th career win last year, the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, May 16-18, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
This story was originally published on April 28, 2025. 
