Antron Brown entered the conversation regarding the NHRA Top Fuel championship with his third victory of the season on during Sunday’s Sonoma Nationals at California’s Sonoma Raceway.
Brown, who’d endured three first-round exits in the six races entering the Sonoma weekend, was in need of consistent runs.
He got just that as the three-time Top Fuel champion knocked out Shawn Reed, Steve Torrence and Brittany Force en route to a date with three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart in the finals.
Brown held his Matco Tools dragster steady for a smooth, winning run of 3.746 seconds at 329.67 mph in the final round of the day in wine country.
It was his 77th career victory in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series and the fifth at Sonoma.
Now with two races remaining before the six-race Countdown to the Championship, Brown and his team may be hitting their stride at the right time.
Following Sunday’s results, Brown, who is fifth in the standings, has narrowed the gap to points leader and defending champion Doug Kalitta to 159 markers. With three victories and a virtual guarantee to make the playoffs, Brown is eyeing the big picture.
“Our main focus right now is to get ourselves in the top three to start the Countdown to the Championship, and we’ve got two races left to get it done,” Brown said. “That’s our goal and this race here definitely was a step in the right direction.”
Brown is one point behind Justin Ashley for fourth place and nine behind third-place runner Steve Torrence.
“This is the time of year when you have to get on and start peaking because if you don’t have it together by this point in the season, that Countdown is going to be really, really rough,” Brown explained.
“And that’s what we came here to do. No more testing, no more tuning; we’re here to start polishing our race package and make sure it’s on point.”